Building a center of excellence for business analysis modernizes your advancement programs and expands your fundraising initiatives—from programs such as peer-to-peer, corporate foundations, as well as, grateful patient fundraising.

But first, you must consider where you’re starting from. This includes understanding your baseline with documented business processes and procedures. Specifically, who does what, when they do it, and how it gets done.

A keen understanding of your baseline enables you to identify opportunities. These opportunities improve your business analysis and advancement proficiency. And the outcomes—from an operational standpoint—support new initiatives or expand existing ones.

On the contrary, if you don’t establish your baseline, you will likely experience chaos from an operational perspective when you expand your center of excellence for business analysis and advancement. This is because no one knows what’s happening, and there is no clarity.

Here are some options—including challenges—as you consider building a center of excellence for business analysis and advancement.

Option 1: Outline Processes and Procedures

The tricky question remains: Who will be responsible for creating or maintaining the documents for business analysis and advancement? You can’t neglect maintenance; otherwise, you risk them becoming obsolete. The most common practice is for the manager to maintain documents, but not all managers have the proper skills and tools to be successful.

If managers are supposed to be responsible for building and maintaining the center for business analysis and advancement, then each manager must understand the differences between process diagrams, operating procedures, and user guides for the Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) platform.

But sometimes, those often have many similarities.

• Process flow diagram maps outline the end-to-end steps of the process. The purpose of the process flow diagram map is to provide a high-level view of the workflow, identify who’s involved and where the hand offs are, and help you clearly understand how you get from the beginning to the end. It is a complete overview of the inputs and outputs of the process.
• The standard operating procedure outlines the standard operating steps to execute. This may be one or many, but the goal of a standard operating procedure creates consistency for training staff—their involvement in the process yields consistent results.
• User guides explain how to use software systems like the CRM to support the process. This encourages system adoption and proficient usage and defines the ins and outs of the tool set you’ve been given.

It’s common for managers to have knowledge gaps regarding the processes and procedures—often, specifically with how things are done in their department. This is simply because they aren’t doing it themselves and not necessarily improper management. And it’s often assumed that every manager has good delegation skills and comprehensively elicits information from others. Again, that may not be the case.

Now that’s just gathering the information. In this model, it’s also assumed managers have the skill sets to know the difference between documentation and gathering information.

You risk creating chaos again if managers are tasked with creating their processes and procedures because everyone has different ways of doing things.

Using managers to build a center of excellence for business analysis and advancement requires training. The training should include elicitation techniques, process mapping workshops, and stakeholder interviews. Building a center of excellence for business analysis and advancement requires templates and tool sets to enable consistency and standardized documentation.

Option 2: Identify Business Analysts

The ideal state is to have dedicated business analysts. These experts are individuals with the proper skill set and training in methodologies for business analysis and can create and maintain rich documentation. General managers often lack this focused skill set and can’t capture processes or identify inefficiencies that might be a blind spot to management.

In this model, business analysts develop metrics and shape behavior toward objectives such as efficiency, collaboration, and transparency—all things you want within your department. The business analysts become the partner, acting as an external counsel to help you push toward the goal.

With the proper skill sets, your business analysts can also oversee some change management aspects. But of course, using business analysts do have a downside. An entire advancement division can’t just be supported by one person. You need multiple people to become a dedicated resource for advancement departments. But most institutions don’t have the budget to support dedicated business analysts.

Option 3: Establish a Consultative Model to Build a Center of Excellence for Business Analysis and Advancement

Establishing a consultative model to build a center of excellence for business analysis and advancement is more cost-effective because it provides oversight for consistency without long-term expense. This model is especially effective for small teams.

In this model, the department head still contributes in establishing the fundmental basis, but by partnering with a consultant, you now have someone to guide you through the process. And you’re still getting the back-and-forth communication while identifying potential blind spots and establishing direction with change management. The consultative model ensures the CRM implementation is not solely resting on the business analysts’ group—instead, the burden is shared and functionality is improved.

A lot of planning and energy happens during a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) implementation, and when you cross the Go-Live mark, you may think your work is done—that’s far from the truth.

After Go-Live, another level of focus and work needs to be done. This is because up to this point, everything you’ve discussed was in theory. But now that you’ve made it post Go-Live, the theory is realized and tested.

Post Go-Live sets the tone for ensuring long-term adoption and success. This stage of CRM implementation determines the impression of the system. For example, are users going to buy into the idea that the new CRM is better? And are they willing to step into a new era and master the system?

You have a 60-day window of opportunity post Go Live. Here’s how to maximize it.

Offer Continued Training After Go Live

Too often, organizations drop off with their training post Go-Live.  But this is a mistake. Even though you used “real” scenario examples to train, users learned the CRM system in theory without worrying about making mistakes and their job performance. Not that they’re using it in practice, their point of view is different and what happens within the CRM matters. 

Your 60-day post-Go-Live is a perfect opportunity to provide refresher training of what you covered pre-launch. Post-Go-Live refresher training increases engagement. Users can ask more meaningful questions and enhance comprehension because they have first-hand experience. 

Consider these ways to continue training post Go-Live.

• Lunch and Learns: Instead of engaging individuals on a one-to-one basis, when you see issues or challenges emerge, host Lunch and Learns to engage users and eliminate redundancies.
• Peer training: It can be difficult for a training team to meet all the needs of users. Work smarter and leverage power users to provide peer training. Peer training also offers a personal perspective since they understand the CRM, the company, and its challenges.

Provide Timely User Support

Within the first 60 days post Go-Live, people may panic when faced with adversity. This is because the now that the experience is “real”, users can’t escape not doing things in the system like they may have in the early days. Users can no longer hide, and they must learn how to do their job effectively. But if they have yet to grasp processes and procedures, they may panic. Curb feelings of panic by offering timely and responsive user support.

Review Processes and Adjust Workflows

The first 60 days post Go-Live is also the perfect time to review processes and adjust workflows. During the post-Go-Live period, people tend to break their silence and share feedback. And as actual usage occurs you’ve likely uncovered processes and workflows based on assumptions that are wrong—maybe there are a few glitches or missed steps.

Overcome these challenges by identifying the processes and workflows that need to be revised, streamlined, or optimized. This is also the perfect time to consider automating the highly manual processes you couldn’t get to during implementation.

Practice Good Communication

Project communication remains critical during your CRM 60-day post-Go-Live phase. Communication with all those involved—whether users on expectations or stakeholders about progress. 

For example, illustrate to stakeholders how far you’ve come, publicize wins, and discuss return on investment. There will likely be more qualitative than quantitative data to share during this stage.

In many cases, people will still be adjusting to change in the first 60 days post Go-Live, but will always appreciate hearing the wins—which often gets lost amid change.

Your Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) implementation is a big undertaking—one that takes many months of planning and work. As you head closer toward Go-Live, you might be anticipating an end of the to-dos. But reaching Go-Live is just the beginning and not the time to retreat. 

Regardless of your CRM platform, a Go-Live Command Center supports your CRM implementation and increases adoption success. An effective Go-Live Command Center creates a centralized operation that is critical to triaging issues, questions, and concerns.

Here are five things to consider as you establish your Go-Live Command Center. 

#1—Staffing

Your Go-Live Command Center is only as effective as the staff that supports it. When it comes to adequate staffing, it’s all about balance. Staff your Go-Live Command Center with personnel from various departments and skill sets to make your offerings robust. 

For instance, a technical person addresses issues troubleshooting, whereas a project manager or lead type coordinates efforts or connects other resources. Having both available in your Go-Live Command Center better supports users and increases the likeliness of long-term success.

#2—Analysis and Assessment

Once you’ve determined who will be a part of your Go-Live Command Center, next establish how you’ll analyze and assess requests. This proactive approach allows you to monitor performance and identify errors early on.

For example, if a component of your CRM system is down or an integration is not running that day, you can address and communicate the issue to eliminate request redundancies. Communicating errors early on eradicate the need to respond to numerous similar requests, but it also conveys confidence in your support team.

Here is a sample message to that communicates challenges. “Yes, the [insert CRM platform] is currently experiencing [insert challenge] and it is a work in progress, but we’re on top of it and will update you as soon as it’s resolved.” 

#3—Solutions

Once you’ve established your team and a process for analyzing requests you can decide how to deliver solutions. As you decide on delivery, you must also consider a timeline because now is not the time to rush the delivery. Rushing delivery increases the likeliness of introducing more problems. Comprehensive testing decreases risk and ensures you’re providing solutions with long-lasting effects. 

#4—Training 

We’ve mentioned including staff members from varying departments and skill sets in your Go-Live Command Center. For them to be effective, you must provide adequate training. Anyone who will be a part of the Go-Live Command Center should be appropriately trained and in sync with the information provided. 

Establish a training plan—prioritizing those supporting the user population and the persons who input information into the system. This streamlines your Go-Live Command Center experience and prevents errors.

#5—Escalation 

The final step toward establishing an effective Go-Live Command Center includes an escalation component. Your Go-Live Command Center is at the forefront of your CRM. The quicker you can identify catastrophic points or issues, the better you are at successfully getting on top of that issue and enacting a contingency plan. The more delay that occurs, the more harm to the system and decreased user confidence.

An escalation process helps everyone—from individuals to executive leaders—develop a deep understanding of the criteria and be able to classify high-risk issues. 

Staying adaptable and open to new fundraising ideas for your institution is essential—especially as the fundraising landscape evolves. To remain effective and thriving during this evolution, you must instill not only creativity but analysis of strategy performance, seek feedback from donors, and have a willingness to adjust your approach to meet their preferences.

Combining creativity, technology, and a solid commitment to your mission elevates your fundraising efforts, engages donors, and inspires giving. 

Consider these seven creative and effective fundraising strategies to get started. 

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a strategy in which individual supporters host personal campaigns to collect donations from their friends, family, and colleagues on behalf of an organization. This approach benefits you to organically expand your reach to a new, previously unexplored networks of supporters.

This approach also leverages your supporters’ trust and influence while reaching a broader audience. 

Empower your existing supporters to become advocates for your cause. Encourage them to create personal fundraising pages and share stories on their social networks. Provide tools and resources to help them succeed and acknowledge their efforts with recognition and rewards.

Virtual Fundraising Events

The digital age has brought new opportunities for engagement with minimal cost and increased accessibility. Virtual fundraising events like webinars, online auctions, or virtual galas eliminate geographical limitations, making participation more accessible for global donors. 

Increase engagement by including interactive elements like live chats and panel sessions to keep participants involved and excited about your cause.

Crowdfunding Campaigns

Crowdfunding is often used by startup companies or growing businesses to access alternative funds, but it can be a valuable tool for nonprofit organizations because it allows for a dynamic way to raise funds and engage donors. 

When using crowdfunding, create compelling and concise campaigns with clear goals and focus on impactful storytelling. Share your campaigns on social media and encourage donors to share with their networks. Offer rewards or recognition for different levels of support to incentivize contributions and create a sense of community.

Monthly Giving Programs

A monthly giving program is a recurring donation program where donors can automatically donate a specific amount to their favorite nonprofit organization at a consistent frequency—i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. These sustainable, recurring donations are a valuable source of income for your organization. 

Encourage donors to commit to monthly giving programs by highlighting consistent contributions’ convenience and long-term impact. Consider offering exclusive updates or access to supporters who join the program early on to create a sense of belonging.

Storytelling and Impactful Content

Statistics may shock and awe for a moment, but they will rarely get people to act. Storytelling engages donors emotionally. Stories help you express your mission—even to people who may know nothing about your organization—and inspire action. 

Personalize your messaging with storytelling concepts to connect with donors on a deeper level and emphasize how their support makes a difference. Share compelling narratives that showcase the real-world impact of your organization’s work. Use multimedia content—like videos and photos—to bring stories to life. 

Matching Gift Programs

Donation matching is a corporate giving initiative in which an employer matches their employee’s contribution to a specific cause, increasing the gift without the added effort. Companies often appreciate matching gift programs because they show they support employees and have a philanthropic effect. 

For example, if an employee donates $50 to a local organization, the matching gift would be their company’s additional donation of $50.

Encourage donors to ask their employers about matching gift programs. If your organization intends to offer matching gift programs, make it easy for donors to initiate the matching process by providing the necessary documentation and support.

Giving Challenges and Competitions

Competition is a crucial factor in any fundraising effort—it creates excitement and generates buzz around the event or cause. 

Create a sense of friendly competition among donors by organizing challenges or competitions. Set specific fundraising goals and deadlines and encourage donors to compete individually or as teams. Reward the top fundraisers with prizes or acknowledgment. 

Incorporating a mix of these creative and effective fundraising strategies empowers your organization to engage donors and increase giving. Successful fundraising is built on trust, transparency, and a genuine connection with your supporters. Regularly communicate the impact of their contributions and express your gratitude to maintain donor loyalty and inspire continued support.

In today’s competitive fundraising landscape, institutions must explore innovative ways to secure financial support for their initiatives. One effective strategy is to create and leverage partnerships with corporations and other organizations. 

These collaborations can open new avenues for fundraising, foster community engagement, and drive impactful change. 

Here are nine tips to make the most of these partnerships.

#1—Identify Shared Values and Objectives

The foundation of any successful partnership is a shared vision and goals. Before approaching potential partners, identify what your institution stands for and what you aim to achieve with the partnership. 

Seek corporations and organizations aligning with your mission and values. When your objectives are harmonious, the partnership becomes more meaningful and mutually beneficial.

#2—Research and Target Prospective Partners

Conduct thorough research to identify potential partners with a history of supporting causes like yours. Look beyond their financial capacity—consider their industry, reputation, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. 

Craft a tailored pitch that highlights how a partnership with your institution can align with their goals and values.

#3—Create Compelling Partnership Proposals

Develop compelling partnership proposals that outline the benefits of collaboration. Clearly articulate the impact their support can make on your institution’s initiatives and the broader community. 

Highlight the value of the partnership, including opportunities for brand exposure, employee engagement, and alignment with corporate values. Adapt your proposals to address each potential partner’s unique needs and interests.

#4—Cultivate Relationships

Building successful partnerships is not just about securing funds—it’s about nurturing relationships. Invest time getting to know potential partners, their key decision-makers, and corporate culture. 

Attend networking events, engage in conversations, and seek opportunities for face-to-face interactions. Solid and genuine relationships are the foundation of long-lasting partnerships.

#5—Offer Customized Engagement Opportunities

Recognize each partner is unique and may have varying levels of commitment and resources to offer. Flexibility in your approach can make it easier for potential partners to find a level of involvement that suits their capacity and interests.

Provide engagement opportunities, from one-time donations to multi-year partnerships, in-kind support, and employee volunteer programs. 

#6—Demonstrate Impact and Accountability

Showcase the tangible impact of past partnerships and demonstrate accountability for using funds. Regularly update your partners on the progress of initiatives they support, including success stories, key milestones, and measurable outcomes.

Transparency and accountability build trust and credibility, which are essential for retaining and attracting partners. 

#7—Employee Engagement Programs

Many corporations value opportunities for their employees to engage in meaningful volunteer work. Leverage this by developing volunteer programs that align with your institution’s mission. 

Partnering with organizations to offer employee volunteer opportunities enhances your institution’s visibility and fosters a sense of employee pride.

#8—Recognition and Visibility

Recognize your partners publicly and prominently. Acknowledge their support through various channels, such as your website, social media, annual reports, and events. 

Emphasize their commitment to your institution’s cause and share success stories that showcase the positive impact of their partnership.

#9—Long-Term Thinking

Consider partnerships as long-term relationships rather than one-time transactions. Nurture and sustain these connections by regularly communicating, assessing the partnership’s progress, and seeking opportunities for renewal and expansion.

Creating and leveraging partnerships with corporations and other organizations can be a powerful strategy for impactful fundraising at an institution. By aligning values, conducting thorough research, cultivating relationships, and demonstrating accountability, institutions can unlock opportunities for financial support, community engagement, and lasting impact. These partnerships benefit the institution and contribute to the broader goal of making a positive difference in society.

When identifying project sponsors for your Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) implementation, most organizations choose an executive leader with an outgoing personality who can garner excitement about the project. 

But it takes more than a vibrant personality to lead a successful advancement CRM implementation. And having successful leadership for your CRM implementation may be one of the most critical steps toward a successful adoption. 

We discuss how to evaluate your executive leadership team readiness during an advancement CRM implementation.

Situational Leadership Style 

Like each person is unique, so are their leadership styles. And depending on your organizational goals and team members, leadership styles may conflict. Consider the four quadrants of situational leadership and where your executive leaders may be placed. 

• Delegating: low directive and low supportive behavior 
• Supporting: low directive and high supportive behavior 
• Coaching: high directive and high supportive behavior 
• Directing: high directive and low supportive behavior 

When viewing the situational leadership style chart, one axis is cohesive, and the other axis is coachable. The best-case scenario is leaders in the upper quadrant because they are highly cohesive and coachable. 

As you land in other quadrants, you may begin to experience challenges. For example, someone who is highly coachable but has low cohesion may hinder training traction. If someone has high coachability but is unwilling to listen, they may get on the right track, but only if they keep their differences at bay. 

Someone with low coachability but high cohesion may be able to make decisions for the greater good. However, they may not be rated successful because this style will only work for some people. And someone who has low coachability and low cohesion will make things extremely challenging.

As you assess their situational leadership style and whether it will harmonize with your organization, consider the following questions. 

• Can this leader distinguish between a complex, adaptive challenge vs. a technical problem requiring more specific expertise?
• Is this person able to handle multiple interpretations of complex situations requiring leadership?
• Does this person regularly ask curious questions that make others pause and think differently?
• Can they manage discomfort and tolerate uncertainty?
• Will this person act experimentally to make progress toward big aspirations?
• Does this person seek coaching and support?

Leadership Characteristics 

Evaluating situational leadership styles is only part of the equation. You’ll also need to consider leadership characteristics and how they may benefit or impede your CRM project. 

The best leaders focus on transformational leadership and rallying employees to spark teamwork. They position a united commitment regarding effort, time, and energy. Strong leaders lead by example and exude coachability to increase momentum.

Another important leadership characteristics during your CRM is ability to actively listen. Active listening is particularly transformational, especially during a CRM where users may be hesitant to change—asking them to participate vs. telling them can go a long way. 

And when it comes to decisions, the best leaders identify decision-making processes instead of making decisions by committee or autocratically. Finally, effective leaders establish a method for accountability because they understand a lack of responsibility leads to an absence of ownership. 

You’re embarking on a new advancement in Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) implementation, and everyone is excited about the possibility of improvements.

Institutions assume that by implementing a CRM and overhauling their business processes, everything changes. 

Advancement CRM implementations can last anywhere from 12 to 24 months. Many of the behaviors that users have developed—whether good or bad—have been refined over more extended periods. In some cases, decades. You can’t unravel that knowledge and expect users to adapt to high productivity within that short timeframe. 

Additionally, users working with new technology will also work differently as they adapt to the new CRM.

The complexity of a CRM implementation makes it challenging to revise business processes. But you can make impactful improvements. Here are three things to consider.

Prioritization

As you consider what business processes to improve, you must focus on prioritization to make the most impact. The saying goes, “To focus on everything is to focus on nothing.” 

Don’t cast a wide net and hope to get results. Instead, decide with intention and where to put a concerted effort.

• Make a case for change: Business process improvement will change how your team operates—especially during an advanced CRM implementation. First, decide why the change is beneficial; specifically, what does your institution stand to gain as a result? And consider what do you need to make the change and who will be impacted. 
• Garner support: Improving business processes during an advancement CRM (potentially any time) can be expensive and time-consuming. This is why it’s important to get buy-in—from leadership and possibly project team leads. 
• Consider milestones: Your team is likely overwhelmed with the CRM implementation. Consider how you break the business process improvement into manageable milestones—start small and celebrate progress.

Planning

Planning and strategy are a significant part of any advancement in CRM implementation, and the same applies to your business process improvements. A well-thought-out plan establishes clear outcomes for progress and defines methods for measuring improvement.

As you plan for your business process improvements, consider the Six Sigma methodology—a quality-control methodology to significantly reduce mistakes and improve processes.

• Define the problem
• Measure the current performance of your projects
• Analyze the root cause of the problem
• Design potential solutions
• Control and track improvement
• Design an alternative solution
• Evaluate and adjust

Behavior Change

Technology organically facilitates an improvement in business processes, but it cannot adjust behavior. For business process improvements to succeed, you must consider how to correct behavior—otherwise, you risk repeating mistakes in your new technology.

Behavior changes effects change management initiatives in many ways. Better attitudes and behaviors result in greater cooperation and team synergy, and thus improving overall results. Promote behavior change during your business process improvements by focusing on how people interact and share information.

Specifically, to promote organizational behavior change, consider these principles.

• Guide—avoid mandates. Cultural and behavioral changes require a movement, not a mandate. Dig into your mission, philosophy, beliefs, and values of institutional culture and adjust to reflect the improvements.
• Lead—don’t dictate. True change is led by example. But it also earns trust and support from your team.
• Explain—why and what. Explaining the reasons for a business process change will drastically improve results. Helping your team understand the “why” of change and “what” will change increases the chance of successful adoption. 

Resources 

Six Sigma Methodology: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/six-sigma.asp 

Operational excellence is critical for any institution looking to stay on top of the latest trends and ensure long-term success. Achieving operational excellence requires thoughtful planning and dedication from everyone involved.

But like every industry, advancement has a triple constraint challenge when it comes to achieving operational excellence, including:

• Donor centric
• Operation excellence
• Resource availability

When your institution moves toward operational excellence, it impacts another area. So, the question remains regarding operational excellence in advancement: Can you have it all? 

Here’s what to consider.

Donor Centric

In advancement, being donor-centric is a focus for many fundraisers. Responding to your donors’ needs is essential to succeed at fundraising and engagement. In addition, being donor-centric means fundraisers must adhere to donor intentions and steward funds correctly.

Most times, the ability to be donor-centric relies on response times and your capabilities to move to the rhythm of your constituents. To combat this challenge, institutions often establish a board of advisors, including their constituency, to inform their fundraising strategy—providing feedback on what your institution should be doing and whether your programs resonate as intended.

And in the donor-centric realm, the ability to create opportunities that align with your donor’s philanthropic vision is essential. It can’t be an exchange or sale in fundraising—it must support donor desires. Donors may want to make improvements or leave a legacy. 

• How do I want to make my mark in the world?
• How can I make things better?

The key is to align donor desires with your institution’s mission. 

But focusing on being donor-centric impacts operational excellence and resource availability. This is especially true if your institution needs more resources to advocate for donor-centricity.

Operational Excellence

Most institutions—specifically advancement—want to achieve operational excellence. Operational excellence includes effective, repeatable processes and agility in responding to donors.

Focusing on operational excellence requires expertise and a variety of disciplines within your institution. For example, to achieve operational excellence in advancement, you’ll need expertise in finance, fundraising, developing and refining engagement programs, marketing, daily operations, and technology.

But the reality is that in the advancement industry, there are a lot of vacant positions and budget constraints, requiring you to make do with your resources. The resources needed to achieve operational excellence sometimes conflict with availability—that’s the challenge you must manage.

Resource Availability

Resource availability is critical in driving success. But resources are always limited by your budget, the talent you can attract, and the number of individuals.

Being donor centric requires enough people to give time and attention to donors that are personalized—including one-on-one conversations and time to build relationships. However, as you aim for operational excellence, you may encounter challenges related to constituent expectations, shorter attention spans, and a lack of available fundraisers.

• Constituent expectations: May be based on experiences with their bank—expecting easy, instant gratification.
• Shorter attention spans: There is an ever-increasing need to manage shorter attention spans, especially as you continue to reach a younger generation.
• Technology: While technology and data analytics tell you where to focus your efforts, talented fundraisers must act on those technology components.

Too often, institutions think they can be significant in all three areas. But that’s nearly impossible since focusing on one often conflicts with another. Achieving operational excellence requires assessing where you are on the spectrum in these three aspects and deciding how to balance them. 

Donors are a vital part of any nonprofit—their support aids the overall impact of your mission. But donor retention rates continue to diminish year after year. In fact, donors who gave in the first quarter of 2021 and again in the first quarter of 2022 fell by 6.2%, according to the Foundation for Philanthropy 2022 First Quarter Fundraising Report.

Donor retention vs. continual donor acquisition can be a more impactful strategy to support your development efforts. This is because acquiring donors is a costly endeavor—donor acquisition often represents a substantial portion of any nonprofit’s overall marketing budget. And the return on investment for donor acquisition may feel defeating—in some cases, the cost to acquire a donor can be 50–100% more than the donation itself.

Invest your time in donor retention vs. donor acquisition. Here are some strategies to consider.

Communication

Donors value being informed about how their contributions are making a difference and how the organization uses the funds. Communicate with your donors through regular updates, newsletters, and impact reports.

• Updates: Schedule a time on your calendar to send regular updates to donors. Choose a frequency you can realistically follow because consistent updates help build relationships. 
• Newsletter: Use your newsletter to inform your audience about recent donor successes. This also connects readers to the donor and highlights their support.
• Report: Allot a section in your annual report to highlight donations—whether quarterly, biannually, or annually. This gives donors a chance to see how their donation is helping your organization strive toward the goal. It’s also an opportunity to detail the effects of the problem they’re addressing.

Recognition

Show your appreciation for your donors by recognizing their contributions publicly, such as through social media or on your website, and privately, such as through personalized thank-you notes or phone calls.

• Social media: This is an excellent avenue to showcase donor contributions. Social media is all about storytelling, so create visually appealing and engaging content that tells your story. A bonus is when users opt to share your content (user-generated content). This type of content acts as a testimonial for your organization and helps broadcast your mission beyond your immediate audience.
• Thank-you notes: Saying thank you should be obvious, but sending a thank-you note is often forgotten. When possible, aim for a personalized, handwritten thank-you note to make supporters feel instantly connected. If that isn’t feasible, use segmentation to send different groups of donors customized thank-you emails.

Engagement

Engage your donors in meaningful ways that align with their interests and passions. This provides a unique opportunity for supporters to interact personally and immersively. Look for continuous opportunities for donors to volunteer, attend events, or participate in decision-making processes to boost engagement. 

• Events: Plan a special donor appreciation event—like a gala, dinner, or auction—to recognize and engage donors.  
• Volunteer: Invite donors to volunteer for special events or to be on committees. This helps deepen their involvement in your mission and offers a unique perspective.
• Decision-making: Ask donors for their feedback. One area to consider is your communication strategy—specifically, how does your communication messaging align with your mission? Receiving this type of feedback eliminates barriers in the donation process and facilitates easier giving.

Impact

Donors are more likely to keep giving when they know how their money is making a difference. Help them understand the impact their contributions are having on your mission and the people you serve by sharing stories and data that demonstrate the difference their support is making. 

• Email campaign: Create an email campaign that has an emotional appeal—whether the emotional appeal is heartwarming or humorous, donors are more inclined to respond to stories they can relate to. 
• Interactive video hangouts: Host a video hangout with donors and discuss exactly how their donation is making an impact. 
• Photo collages: Post photo collages to your social media channels to express your appreciation.

Transparency

Being transparent increases donor trust and loyalty by demonstrating your ability to be ethical and responsible with donations. Identify how your organization uses donations and how funds are allocated. This includes providing clear and concise financial information, such as annual reports and audited financial statements.

As you continue to plan your donor retention strategy, combine these tactics to help deepen your donor relationships and earn their loyalty.

Advancement services often support many departments by employing their expertise in managing, analyzing, and leveraging data to inform organizational strategy and conduct daily operations that engage and steward stakeholders, supporters, and members. From prospects to alumni and everyone in between, advancement services play a critical role in advancing the organization’s mission.

When your advancement services team supports many different departments, this valuable resource can often be spread too thin. Avoiding this common challenge begins by focusing on effective prioritization.

Here are four areas to consider as you prioritize your advancement resources.

Division Goals

As you begin to prioritize your advancement resources, consider how they align with your established division goals. Focus your prioritization efforts on being strategic. Identify specific projects that directly support the division’s goals. As you do this, ask yourself, “How are the different advancement projects aligned with those goals?”

This may require further analysis into the type of project and its impact. For example, if you have 100 projects, what will make the most impact toward your division’s goals and help propel the organization forward?

Overall Tenant

Another thing to consider as you prioritize your advancement resources is to focus on the overall tenant as a more operational team. Common tenants behind properly stewarding resources are the data that philanthropy or alumni relations use as an asset.

They can influence properly stewarding the resources that are essential to operations.

This is important because in many instances, properly stewarding resources improves the data quality that supports your data-driven decision-making. When it comes to data quality, your organization should always prioritize these types of projects and requests.

Business Practices

Standardizing business practices is always top of mind when it comes to your Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) project implementation. Advancement services are often at the forefront to drive operational efficiency and can impact efficiencies overall. If an advancement project can significantly standardize your business practices, consider prioritizing your advancement resources there.

Division Knowledge

Finally, when considering how to prioritize your advancement resources, consider the projects that offer opportunities to increase the broader knowledge of the division. This also includes increasing the ability to self-serve. Both types of projects should rise to the top because they will increase your return on investment and offer long-term dividends.

Precision Partners has worked with multiple Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) clients and vendors in our years of practice. Through our experience, we’ve seen many vendor relationships in action—some end well, whereas others do not.

Here’s our best advice for what to do when your advancement CRM vendor relationship goes sour.

Scenario No. 1—Reconciliation

When your advancement CRM relationship is starting to go wrong, reconciliation is the first and often the most viable option. This will likely require effort from both parties, including a factual discussion. Fact gathering helps to identify the root cause of the issue.

The most effective way to establish reconciliation is to create a two-part plan. First, all parties must be willing to work collaboratively to create a plan that rights the wrongs that created the issues.

Secondly, both parties must address safeguards that will prevent from getting back to the same situation.

The goal of reconciliation is to create something satisfactory for both parties.

Scenario No. 2—Future Collaboration

If both parties are unable to agree on satisfactory reconciliation, the second option is to sever the relationship with your vendor but allow the opportunity for future collaboration. This option is viable if both parties can’t come to terms now but want to leave it in a way to work together in the future. This option requires both parties to compromise to some degree.

The compromise must be done in a way that leaves each party whole or satisfied.

Scenario No. 3—End All Ties

The final and least favorable option for responding to a vendor relationship that has gone sour is to sever the relationship with no possibility of future collaboration. Organizations should only use this scenario if they’ve exhausted the first two options, and they have decided there is no way to come to any sort of agreement.

This scenario happens most frequently when there is an unwillingness to compromise on both parties. And too often, this decision is a result of the parties involved making the advancement CRM relationship personal instead of focusing on what’s best for the institution.

Deciding to sever the relationship with no possibility of future collaboration is always advised against. The advancement industry is small and dissolving a relationship may prohibit future initiatives. If possible, it is best to devise a satisfactory amendment where both parties can walk away from concluding that relationship. In any scenario, all parties should not feel taken advantage of.

Hiring an Advancement Services Executive is essential to your institution’s overall advancement goals. However, doing this requires you to go beyond the resume to understand a candidate’s expectations and what truly motivates them. When you go beyond the resume, you can more effectively align expectations of the role with their interests—subsequently increasing your ability for retention.

Here’s what to consider.

Organizational Culture

When it comes to hiring an advancement services executive, most institutions think deciding on organizational culture starts and stops with answering the question, “Is this person a good “fit” for our organization’s culture?”

But when organizations make assessments based on the personality perspective, it can often be opinion-based. This is especially true considering the industry standard of a series of panel interviews that include peers, reporting managers, and internal customers.

Organizational culture comes up a lot when it comes to personality fit. But it’s necessary to dig deeper and assess the path you’re developing with your organizational culture before you can decide if (and how well) the candidate fits.

To do this, consider the objective of the position and how that applies to your current organizational culture. Additionally, you must clearly understand your organization’s cultural status. For example, have you established an organizational culture that you want to maintain, or are you looking for a disruptor to be a change catalyst?

To understand where your organization’s culture is within the process, ask yourself these questions.

• Have you done a lot of work and established a vision for your organizational culture?
• Do you have a direction in your organization’s culture you want to maintain?

If the answer is “yes,” then the traditional personality assessment for organizational culture fit would work because you have guidelines established—you’ve developed the organizational culture to flourish—and you are looking to fulfill the position from a personality fit perspective. In this case, you would want to answer the question, “Does this person align with the direction we’re going in?”

But on the contrary, and something many organizations don’t often look at (or are unaware of) is they are actually looking for a new hire to be a change catalyst. When this is the case, you’re not looking for a culture fit, but you’re looking for a disruptor that goes beyond the resume evaluation process.

First, determine where you are with your organizational culture. Have you assessed whether you want to maintain that path, or are you ready for a change? Depending on your answer, your new hire evaluation should differ.

The assessment for hiring an advancement services executive should then consider their role in disrupting your organizational culture. But first:

• Are they aware and comfortable with being a disruptor?
• Are they prepared and have the strategic vision to be a disruptor?

Knowing where your organizational culture stands is an important part to hiring the best candidate for your advancement services executive position.

Strategic Advisor

Every institution “thinks” they need to hire for a lateral move. They want the person who’s done it before—one who’s been in a similar organization and succeeded with similar tasks. But you must be honest with yourself and assess, are you an institution that can attract top talent that has done it before?

If you’re not a sought-after institution, recruiting top talent can be challenging. It can even be more difficult to retain a person of this stature because when they’re done doing the task you hired them to do, they often move on.

Before you “think” you need to hire for a lateral move, clearly define the type of position you’re hoping to fill. Ask yourself:

• Is this a strategic advisor—a lateral move where you want this person to impact your institution the same way they did for another organization?
• Or is this a growth position where the candidate has the potential to grow with your institution and the capability to establish a vision as they evolve?

Hiring for a growth position is not wrong, and it’s not a “second-best” choice. But it does, however, create an opportunity for your organization that is often overlooked. With the growth position, you’re allowing the person you hire to evolve alongside your organization.

And in many cases, this develops loyalty and increases retention. This is because they’re growing in their career and with the institution.

Internal Service Model

As you consider hiring an advancement services executive, you’ll need to understand where you are in terms of advancement services. Specifically, what type of support advancement services provides to other departments within Development and how they operate as an internal services department.

What type of internal service model are you looking for?

The focus is either developing a service team to support other departments within Development OR are you looking to establish a strategic partner who can influence and consult other departments on how to get things done.

With the influence scenario, not only are they servicing other departments, but they are the experts that individuals can come to to get advice or help make things better. This creates a different dynamic within the internal services team and requires an openness to influence other departments effectively. Be aware that if you’re looking for the influence option, some team members may be reluctant to share their expertise because they think, “You’re not in our world, don’t bring in someone new.”

Leadership

Leadership is a vital skill and must be carefully evaluated during the hiring process for your advancement services executive position. But first, do you know exactly what type of management you need?

Too often, institutions “think” they need one type of leadership and hire accordingly, but quickly realize they needed another type of leadership.

• Are you looking for an individual whose primary focus is team development and management where their focus is managing and improving operations? OR
• Are you looking for a contributing manager who is not only managing the team but also must be hands-on to complete task-based work?

If you’re not clear about the type of leadership you need up front, there may be challenges with who you selected and your ability to retain them.

We’re amid a moment of dramatic change across American life as people in all industries are quitting their jobs at record numbers. As nationwide labor shortages continue to impact every aspect of everyday life, nonprofits are not exempt.

What may be even more concerning is many nonprofits can no longer compete with wages seen in the private sector. In a recent New York Times article, Carrie Miranda, executive director of Looking Upwards, a nonprofit in Middletown, R.I. said, “we’ve lost our ability to be competitive. We used to compete with hospitals and other health care entities, and now we’re competing with the convenience stores, the fast-food places, the coffee shops … I’ve heard more and more people say, ‘I’d love to stay in this job, I’m passionate about the work, but I need to feed my family, I have to pay my rent.’”

This period has been deemed the “Great Resignation” and arose from what many think was a result of the pandemic and social and political events. In fact, four million American workers quit their jobs in April 2021, 3.6 million joined them in May, and 3.9 million followed them out the door in June.

But the mass-exodus may be more in part to a workforce that feels burned out and disenfranchised, only exacerbated by the pandemic and social and political events. Modern employees are reassessing their values, more aggressively protecting their time, and opening themselves to possibilities that give them a greater sense of purpose. They are seeking a new normal that goes beyond remote work.

The turnover trend has a lasting impact, especially in advancement. In an industry built around relationships—particularly among frontline fundraisers—organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to create a sense of continuity with donors.

The Great Resignation offers one of the greatest advancement recruiting opportunities in recent history. Nonprofit leaders are afforded the chance to shift their recruiting and retention efforts toward motivated, purpose-driven candidates, in search of careers with a more meaningful path. Here’s where to start.

Mentoring

Mentorship is important in any industry, and the lack of mentorship can hinder a career path regardless of job title. Focus on providing your advancement team the mentorship and coaching they are looking for by helping them develop their skills and build their experience.

For more experienced advancement team members, ask the question, “How I can prepare you to take over for me?” They might not want to do your job, but this helps illuminate and frame future discussions and growth plans.

Transparency

It is incredibly important to set expectations from the beginning. If you’re interviewing an advancement candidate that wants to work remotely, but your organization operates on a hybrid model, it’s vital to make this clear.

Even beyond the interview, transparency should empower all conversations with your advancement team members. Workplace transparency is a philosophy of sharing information freely to benefit the organization and its people. For example, executives share company information with the whole team, or individual teammates sharing feedback with each other.

Transparency has become particularly important, especially as the workforce continues to mitigate several external challenges. Transparency must also coincide with understanding. Today’s modern workforce requires a level understanding that didn’t exist in the traditional workplace.

Connect

It’s important to ensure you set your advancement staff up for success by scheduling regular check-ins and managing expectations. Regularly connecting with employees helps you deter future challenges or address issues before they become a problematic.

For example, if your employee is frustrated because a lack of resources, you can brainstorm solutions to ease their frustrations. This may include getting them adequate resources or connecting them with team members for support. Either way, this level of communication helps employees feel supported and decreases the likeliness of resignation.

Professional Development

Most advancement team members want to grow and challenge themselves. In many cases, employees desire to find opportunities that expand their skillset. Growth-focused opportunities equip staff with the tools they need to progress in their career.

Traditional work culture thought of promotions in terms of three-year cycles: The first year you learn the job, the second year you do the job, and the third year you innovate. But it can be helpful to make the steps necessary to advance as clear as possible so employees understand what’s expected of them. Additionally, you may be able to promote an employee earlier than expected, which benefits both parties.

When job openings do arise, evaluate the position’s job description before you rehire. Ask questions that help your organization assess the value of the role.

• Does this position need to be filled?
• Does this position need to be rethought?
• Is there anything in the job’s description that someone else might want to try or add to their expertise?
• Do the job tasks fit better somewhere else?

Before you fill the role externally, look internally to see if your existing team might be interested. This helps your staff feel engaged in a meaningful way.

Shifting the way your organization recruits and retains your advancement workforce is important for the current moment. But these tactics help to build a healthier, happier, and more productive advancement team, which will be important long after the Great Resignation expires.

For many years, there has been a tradition of institutions sending their constituents a holiday greeting. Unfortunately, this is usually a long, drawn-out process.

Deciding on an appropriate message for your constituent holiday greeting is hard. Constituent holiday greetings require choosing the perfect message. But it can’t be an ordinary message—it must be carefully thought through and appeal to a broad audience without any political or religious affiliations.

Then, the constituent holiday greeting design adds another level of complication. Many institutions ponder how to create a design that is “on-brand” while simultaneously appealing to their many audiences. Again, without any political or religious affiliations.

Finally, there is the delivery method of your constituent holiday greeting. Traditionally, constituent holiday greetings are printed and sent through the mail. This method, of course, requires additional time to package the envelopes, prepare the addresses, and add postage—not to mention the cost of postage. Physical greeting cards may be standard among the older population, but younger folks may think it’s a less-acceptable concept and toss it. Plus, eco-conscious constituents may see this method as wasteful.

It’s time to reconsider the way you send holidays greetings to your constituents. Here are five tips to get creative this holiday season.

#1—Make a Holiday Video

Videos are always a great option to engage constituents without added effort. Your holiday greeting video can be produced—and distributed—quickly and professionally with the help of online services.

Platforms like ThankView build better relationships with personalized video. You can easily create and send personalized videos to raise awareness, promote events, update stakeholders, and thank those that matter most.

#2—Send Mobile Postcards

Using a smartphone or tablet, you can easily create a holiday postcard. Apps like JibJab and Smilebox provide a quick and fun way to send personalized greetings that won’t cause clutter.

#3—Deliver A Photo Slideshow

What better way to say “Happy Holidays” than to create a photo slideshow of how constituent donations impacted your institution? Use a design tool like Canva to make stunning slideshows in seconds.

#4—Say “Happy Holidays” in Real-Time

If you want to deliver a very personalized message, jump on a video conferencing platform like Zoom and say “Happy Holidays” in real-time. This may not be feasible for all your constituents, so reserve it for your new constituents or ones that meet a specific criterion.

#5—Create a Custom Card

If you insist on sending a physical greeting card this holiday season, opt to create a custom design. Look to your art department to create an illustration. If multiple artists want to participate, consider having a few variations to send to constituents.

Avoid putting any text on the front of the card. Then, have the cards printed in a standard photo size of 5 inches wide by 7 inches tall. Finally, write a note inside with instructions that encourage constituents to upcycle the card into a framed piece. This way, constituents who may not love getting a printed card due to waste can repurpose their holiday greeting and save the planet.

Holiday greetings are a great touchpoint during the holidays. Every institution should retain that touchpoint but also rethink the delivery. Happy holidays!

Resources:
ThankView: https://www.thankview.com
JibJab: https://www.jibjab.com
Smilebox: https://www.smilebox.com/
Canva Slideshows: https://www.canva.com/create/slideshows/

It’s that time of year again when the holiday season is quickly approaching. And if you’re in advancement or development, you’re probably thinking about what else this time of year means: the year-end giving rush. In development, the end of year is synonymous with increased giving.

In fact, 31 percent of all annual giving occurs in December, and 12 percent of that happens in the last three days of the year.

 

Additionally, 28 percent of nonprofits raise between 26–50 percent of their annual funds from their year-end ask.

Is your team prepared to manage the rush?

This time of year, is demanding for those on the front line of fundraising, but also those in operations. Your gift operations team may face the downstream effect of the increased number of gifts coming in a concentrated period.

Your Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) team can survive (and thrive) with a bit of upfront planning. Here’s how to get prepared.

Schedule a Planning Session

Schedule a planning session and invite your front line staff and operations team to join. Identify how they may be able to support each other during this busy time. Do you need to adjust any processes and procedures to make things work more seamlessly for both departments?

For example, there may be exceptions to cases that require the front line team to let the operations team know more information about a prospective donor. There may also be exceptions to your processes and procedures if there was a push for tribute donations or leveraging corporate matching.

Knowing all the information up front—for the front line and operations staff—will help everyone move through the year-end giving rush more efficiently. Plus, everyone will have access to the information and data they need to measure the success of their campaigns.

Review Messaging and Expectations

Review campaign messaging with your front line fundraisers and giving staff. You wouldn’t want to make a campaign push and have your front line staff be unaware of what is being put out there from a year-end perspective. Your front line staff need to know all messaging and expectations so they can act accordingly when donors and supporters start responding.

You should also review the statistics and identify how many appeals have been sent out. Do your best to project an average response rate so your team can begin to distinguish a number and estimate expectations.

Get prepared with these questions.

• Is there any unique data tracking that needs to happen with these gifts?
• Does the data need to be associated with a particular campaign or appeal?

Understanding this information increases the success rate of your front line fundraising teams.

Evaluate Staffing and Conduct Training

You’ve reviewed your messaging and informed your team. Now you need to look at your staff availability. Determine your staffing needs.

• Are you adequately staffed?
• Does your staff have the capacity to accommodate year-end giving?
• If you don’t have enough available staff, do you plan to staff up for the end-of-year demand?

Once you’ve determined the number of staff, now you can consider the tasks they’ll need to complete. Since accuracy and speed are essential, consider refresher training for your staff. Everyone must be proficient and able to get the information entered quickly and correctly. Additionally, all staff members on the gift operations team should be experts on managing what you consider “high volume.”

If necessary, establish specialists to handle low-volume, high complexity gifts—things that need to be dealt with “kid gloves,” such as a VIP donor.

Establish Clear Guidelines for Records Management

Since this is a busier time for your staff, the tendency to make mistakes may increase. Set clear guidelines for record management. You need correct information for receipting and acknowledgment reasons—the objective for year-end needs to be on what is required to get the gifts in correctly.

But be aware that mistakes will still happen. You can fix some mistakes, but it is unrealistic to correct all errors on a record due to the volume of gifts. Identity where to expend your time and effort from a records maintenance perspective. And establish a method of tracking records that will need attention once the rush is over.

Communicate Progress

It is essential to communicate your progress for year-end gift processing. Your front line fundraising colleagues are waiting and looking closely at the results of their year-end giving campaigns. This is why it is important to publish and communicate your progress.

Communicating your progress helps your fundraising team determine their success as it relates to their goals. In addition, keeping communication open during this time helps ease stress, allowing your team to focus and work more efficiently.

Undergoing a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) Implementation is a significant undertaking. It can become increasingly challenging to juggle all that needs to occur in operations while not derailing your CRM implementation project. 

Even during an 18-month CRM implementation project, your institution is trying to raise money and increase donor engagement. This is in addition to your everyday responsibilities—your team can’t hit the pause button to complete your CRM implementation. 

Because of this, you need to focus on the types of decisions being made. Here’s how to overcome the challenge of managing advancement operations during a CRM implementation. 

Avoid Unnecessary Changes 

Avoid making unnecessary changes to your existing donor management system during a new CRM implementation. When you undergo unnecessary changes, your risk to the CRM implementation increases exponentially. It can push your project to focus on the “current state”, while the project is trying to identify and facilitate a “future state.” It is problematic if the current state becomes the moving target. 

All aspects of the implementation—from data conversion to process engineering to business requirements—start to shift on the project team. The change management impact of moving that current state target is enormous. 

Additionally, fulfilling changes outside of your CRM implementation can disrupt your stakeholder’s transition period. For example, you go from steady-state to transition, then you come out on the other side. But you’ve thrown your stakeholders into a transition that has nothing to do with the actual CRM implementation. 

Throughout the project, your stakeholders have multiple streams of change and get confused. They may: 

• wonder what they were doing before;
• be confused as to how they can adapt and adjust to what they need to do in the future; and  
• be frustrated that they must adapt and change again.

One way to avoid this is by making your CRM transformation roadmap an integral part to your overall framework—step-by-step navigation to get your institution from the point of departure to the end of arrival. Your roadmap should include:

• taking a set of actions;
• implementing activities; and
• achieving outcomes in a planned sequential manner. 

The CRM transformation roadmap, as the name implies, is more than a “quick fix.” Instead, a practical roadmap needs to be based on strategic and operating model considerations. 

Make It Mission-Critical 

If changes must happen during a CRM implementation, they must be mission-critical. But before you make that kind of decision, there needs to be a complete risk management plan around the change in the current system. That risk management plan will then become a part of the CRM implementation and should be a well-thought-out process and not taken lightly. The absence of a risk management plan increases the risk of CRM implementation success. 

The risk is essential to user adoption of the CRM implementation and their ability to adjust to the new future state. They will remain in transition and stuck figuring out the changes made to the current system. 

Resist Launching Other Initiatives 

Launching other projects or initiatives during a CRM implementation can create a resource strain. You don’t want to “shut down,” but you also don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on your stakeholders. 

In and of itself, a CRM implementation is a considerable effort. However, adding ancillary projects or initiatives splits your stakeholder’s time. Taking on projects—including a CRM implementation—is usually in addition to your team’s workday. 

Continually fractionalizing your team’s time and input can jeopardize their well-being and quality of work. They parse out their time and attention, so their productivity, level of engagement, and overall contribution diminish—it becomes unilateral suffering.

Avoid spreading your team too thin by looking at your resource plans. Eliminate launching new projects and initiatives during a CRM implementation. It is such a heavy lift, there is not much else your team can manage during this time. If you must focus on additional projects that can’t be avoided, divide up the resources. Dedicate one group to working on the CRM implementation, and a different set of resources to work on the mission-critical project. 

Those in advancement services often face many obstacles when it comes to being pulled in different directions. The first obstacle is time management. They may be faced with managing operational activities on top of a slew of daily tasks. Your advancement team may struggle to allot time for emergencies—the “at the moment need” that advancement services are tasked with supporting.

On top of their already burdened workload, those in advancement services must work in standard training and development. If they’re able, they may also be tasked with working on internal team projects to innovate or do better in the future. 

If your advancement services team is struggling in the day-to-day, here are five tips to offset so they can provide the quality support your development officers need. 

Conduct A Staff Assessment

Your advancement staff is one of your most valuable assets as an organization. As such, you don’t want to overwork them. Instead, take time to complete a staff assessment to identify how much work each team member has and if it’s time to add to your team. 

First, meet with each employee to identify their primary duties and associated volume. Then, track activities for a set time—this could be a couple of weeks or a month. Incorporate seasonality and non-standard work. As you conduct your staff assessment, decide if you have adequate resources to address all the necessary factors. 

Ask yourself these questions. 

• Does the advancement team have adequate time to complete operational activities? 
• Is there enough time in the advancement teams’ schedule to support emergencies as they arise? 
• Is the advancement services team able to participate in standard training and development? 
• Does your advancement services team have the ability to participate in internal team projects?

If you’re falling short on any one of these factors, this could indicate that you are understaffed. Conversely, if you’re unable to fit all of these components into your staff’s workload or schedule, you might have too few people. 

Consider hiring to help support your existing advancement services team or offset the workload by hiring a consultant. 

Be Flexible with the Work Environment 

When it comes to daily operations, consider the working environment. Many times, the “heads-down” work that staff or team members need to complete may not be conducive to their working environment. Do they have uninterrupted time in their schedules that they can use to complete these types of tasks? Consider being flexible with staff in finding that optimal environment. This might mean offering a remote work option to complete the work. 

Or it could mean offering a spare office for them to go into and close the door. Being flexible with the environment provides optimal productivity for team members to complete their daily operational tasks. 

Revert Emergencies to Management 

Emergencies should always be directed toward management.  Any emergency request or needs from the development officers should be reviewed and prioritized by management. Management can help identify what can be removed or postponed from the advancement team’s workload to accommodate the emergency. Always avoid simply piling on more work.

Establish Dedicated Time for Training and Development

Allot time for your advancement services team to participate in training and development on a quarterly basis. 

If possible, ask your team to share insights and ideas on applying the training to their daily tasks. It’s one thing to absorb the information. But training and development should be about bridging the gap on how to incorporate it into everyday usage. 

Use Internal Projects for Team Growth and Future Development

Internal team projects are essential for growth. In many cases, projects that are completed often result in increased productivity and effectiveness. Based on department priorities, your team should allocate time for internal projects each quarter to be fit into their workload. 

Have you ever wondered how successful colleges and universities convince past students to give something back to their alma mater? Most often, it’s because they’ve established ongoing relationship and engagement strategies with their alumni.

An alumni engagement strategy requires careful consideration of things like nostalgia, trust, and emotion. More importantly, it means identifying marketing techniques to elicit those feelings.

Communicating with your alumni should be a part of that strategy. One of the easiest ways to communicate is through an online platform like PeopleGrove[1].

An online platform can:

• provide alumni with access to career opportunities;
• centralize directories, alumni job boards, and chapter management;
• advance your mission by driving higher engagement; and
• measure increases in giving.

It’s a no-brainer; your alumni serve many valuable roles for your institution—helping to build and grow your brand through word-of-mouth marketing, plus offer mentoring, internships, and career opportunities to fellow students.

There is a significant investment to implement an online alumni network platform. Often, the same investment falls flat because institutions think, “build it, and they will come.” In turn, the information technology (IT) department acts as the pseudo “community” for its alumni.

That approach is always ineffective. Think about it like this. You’re an alum of the University of California, Berkeley. UC Berkley reaches out to inform you of their new alumni community, offering you the opportunity to join fellow alums and network—suggesting you can catch up with classmates and gain access to powerful relationships.

But six months pass, and you realize you’re interacting with very few people, or worse, the same people, and no one is responding to your inquiries. Alumni quickly become discouraged and leave the platform.

These online engagement platforms are great for enabling meaningful connections throughout your community—whether that’s an alumni community or constituent community, but only if you have a strategy. Here’s how to make the most of your online platform by engaging and connecting with alumni.

Step 1: Market Your Program

Get rid of the idea that just because you build a platform, your alumni know about it and want to use it. Overcome this challenge by marketing your program so alumni are aware of its value and usability. Marketing can’t be a one-time thing. And it should be a thoughtful and continuous marketing plan.

Form a marketing committee. Use your network to find help by tapping into alumni who work in marketing. Then evaluate other alumni organizations. What are they doing to market their platforms? Don’t necessarily copy what they’re doing but take inventory of how they talk to their audience and solve their wants, needs, and desires.

Effective marketing includes understanding your value proposition and knowing what your alumni expect to receive. Think about how you can best reach them, and set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (SMART) goals. Finally, assess your goals often and evaluate your plan regularly.

Step 2: Educate About Useability

Another reason alumni may leave your networking platform is that they don’t understand how to use it. You can’t assume alumni know how to take advantage of this resource, even if it is a user-friendly platform.

Take into consideration that you probably have alumni spanning several generations. Be mindful of the nuances of each generation and their specific wants, needs, and desires—providing ideas about how (and why) they should use it.

Emphasize the ease of use—which can also be a part of your marketing tactic. Create marketing content that answers alumni questions. For example, “Have you tried the ABC feature? If not, here’s how to use it.”

This type of communication should be ongoing. Develop a communication plan that educates alumni frequently—this promotes sufficient engagement and increases your retention.

Step 3: Maintain Your Metrics and Measurements

Like anything, you need to measure and analyze your metrics regularly so you can adjust as necessary. Schedule weekly or monthly check-ins to see what’s working, what’s not, and determine a plan to course-correct.

[1] https://www.peoplegrove.com

The global pandemic forced rapid changes across every industry sector, including advancement. As we continue to move toward the new normal, we’re seeing some of those changes—especially regarding the emphasis on online interaction—stick around.

Organizations should continue to take advantage of online fundraising platforms and methods to supplement their advancement initiatives. Donors are continuing to engage online, and we anticipate this becoming even more prevalent in post-pandemic fundraising.

There are two areas to pay particular attention to: Do-it-yourself fundraising platforms and third-party fundraising. Here’s why.

DIY Fundraising Platforms

The shift to DIY fundraising where supporters can easily launch their own campaigns and raise money is growing quickly. Anyone with a desire to raise money for their favorite organization can do so online and begin fundraising quickly. This model is particularly successful for smaller organizations.

DIY fundraising operates like a traditional peer-to-peer[1] campaign—enabling individuals to create personal fundraising pages on your organization’s behalf. Most often, supporters choose to do a DIY fundraiser centered around a holiday, birthday, or special occasion.  They create a fundraising campaign under a parent campaign and ask for donations to fund it.

DIY fundraising is a multi-tier approach, allowing your organization to empower its donors. You can think of it as a tree. You have the main trunk (your organization’s campaign website). From there, personal fundraisers create their own branches from their personal fundraising website. Each branch represents a different campaign—some branches are larger, and some branches are smaller. But each branch is necessary.

Supporters can connect their own beliefs, values, and identity to your mission using their personal fundraising pages to inspire donors with a story, driving your mission forward on their own terms. This leads to high fundraising goals and a personal desire to see your campaign succeed. Plus, you’ll be able to reach a new pool of donors that might have been inaccessible otherwise.

The impact of DIY fundraising is often greater and provides increased fundraising potential because of high personal buy-in. DIY fundraising campaigns increase trust between your organization and new potential supporters, drawing on their network to increase donations.

People are more likely to donate to a cause that their friend or family feels strongly about. In fact, 46% of respondents in a Classy report[2], say they choose to donate to a cause if a family member or friend asks them to. In addition, 50% state that a friend or family member being personally affected by a cause would motivate them to give.

Make DIY fundraising easy and fun by providing support. Create a DIY fundraiser toolkit to assist supporters with setting up their website, procedures for structuring their story, adding images, and other specifics to match the same look and feel of your brand. Offer examples to illustrate what other supporters are doing. Once its live, be open to promoting their fundraiser on your organization’s email list, social media, and more.

Third-Party Events

A third-party fundraising event is when a business, organization, community group, school, or individual plans and hosts a program or an event that benefits an organization. These events are hosted by (or paid for by) the beneficiary, but all proceeds generated support the mission of the organization. Third-party initiatives can be an excellent fundraising tool with a high return on investment (ROI) because it doesn’t require many resources from your organization.

The pandemic taught us that third-party events can still be successful even in an online atmosphere. Virtual events cater to those with demanding schedules or those in distant locations. But they also serve to reach new audiences—specifically, Millennial and Generation Z donors.

Third-party fundraisers give organizations a tool to solidify relationships, inspire new ones, and create an avenue to gain donations. Online platforms let the donors organize and promote their event independently.

Third-party fundraisers can be even more successful if you identify your top fundraisers and then offer them support—whether it’s helping them promote their event or offering guiding principles and fundraising tips. Imagine how your top fundraisers could succeed with your expertise!

For example, help your best supporters build their fundraising website so it has a few extra bells and whistles. Discuss their fundraising strategy and goals and provide feedback for best practices. Help them build their campaign and strategize to engage their network of friends and families through tried-and-true methods.

Supporting third-party fundraisers with these additional resources creates an opportunity to increase the output of the online platforms and fundraising campaigns. Their campaigns will exceed expectations and your organization warrants the benefits.

[1] https://www.classy.org/blog/what-is-peer-to-peer-fundraising-2/

[2] https://learn.classy.org/why-america-gives-special-report?sfdc_cid=7012R0000016Wcg

I often find myself at the intersection of Advancement Operations and IT Support. I consider both groups my colleagues. From each area I hear the frustrations and challenges about working together. What makes it so difficult for Advancement Operations and IT Support to work together and how can you improve these interactions?

Acknowledge and understand that you will often feel like you are speaking different languages. Use the following structure as a guide for your communication:

For Advancement Operations:

Discuss the business challenge that you are facing – how does it impact your daily operations? Why is it important to address now? Why do you feel that a technology solution will make it better? Discuss what you have heard and where you have received your information.

For IT Support:

Reiterate your understanding of the business challenge that Advancement Operations is facing. Actively get confirmation that you understood it correctly? Do you agree that a technical solution will achieve the desired results? If not, be very clear and specific why this is the case. If a technical solution is suitable, have you successfully addressed this issue or a similar issue before? Do you perceive any challenges or barriers to success? Are you available to help? If not, provide alternatives to address the challenge.

For Advancement Operations:

Reiterate your understanding of the technical solution, solution approach, or next steps. Actively get confirmation from IT Support that you understood it correctly. Do you perceive any challenges or barriers to success with the solution or approach? If so, be honest and discuss your concerns.

For Everyone:

All discussions should be professional and respectful. Every person in the room is an expert, it requires patience and an open mind  to communicate with colleagues who have a different expertise.

• Be willing to explain the terms and acronyms that are second nature to you
• Be willing to share a day in your life to provide context to the conversation
• Be willing to stretch yourself and learn something new