When I began my first development job, way back in 2001, I didn’t know beans about nonprofit development. Oh sure, I had a strong inkling of what made for a good grant proposal. Seven years spent reviewing the the good, the (mostly) bad and the ugly for a grant-making foundation will do that to you.
But launching an annual appeal? Planning a community event? Putting together a web site? Establishing a presence in the community? Nada.
So I went to work studying the best marketing minds out there. The classics. Even Internet marketers. And was quite successful.
After a year or so I began attending “professional” workshops, conferences and seminars.
Whoa. Big disappointment.
It seemed that, for every five to 10 classes I attended, I’d come away with one “AHA!” moment. You know, those times when you absolutely can’t wait to get back to your office to implement what you’ve just learned?
In other words, I kissed a lot of toads.
Fast forward several years. I’ve now successfully implemented what I call Simple Development Systems for a number of small nonprofit organizations and am ready to teach it to others.
What, exactly, does SDS entail? Basically it’s a six month coaching program designed to provide the small nonprofit organization (you know, the organization where the Development Director is also the marketing director/individual giving manager/database administrator/pubic relations director/website designer and more) with the tools they need for sustainable fundraising. Every month focuses on a different aspect of development, from grants to social media to individual giving and more.
By the end of the six months every participant will have
- optimized their website – both for donations and for engagement
- developed and implemented their social media strategy
- launched a monthly giving program
- created a grant system focused on getting proposals out the door and building relationships with foundation funders
- developed a system of stewardship
- and more – much more
Simple Development Systems launched this month with a focus on stewardship and relationships. Sort of ‘backwards’ some might say.
But ponder this statistic:
Eight of 10 first-time donors do NOT make a second gift.
That statistic could be vastly improved if fundraisers simply understood the power of stewardship and donor-centricity. Because it’s been my overall experience that a lot of folks just don’t ‘get’ donor-centricity. Some even dismiss it as a buzzword. It’s not. And it would be safe for me to say that truly focusing on your donor is the only route to sustainable fundraising.
So in March participants were treated to a fantastic two-hour webinar led by the master of donor centric copy-writing, Tom Ahern. It resulted in a lot of “AHA!” moments for participants. One of our members who wasn’t able to attend Tom’s webinar and listened to it a week later wrote to say, “If you are bored (LOL!) look at the “you” improvements we made to our homepage based on just the first 30 minutes of that webinar!”
It was followed up by my own book, How to Create Your Stewardship System: Say “Thank you” like you mean it for lifetime donors!
Our April module is on Social Media for Nonprofits starting with a webinar led by Tim Bete, creator of one of the most talked about videos 19 ways nonprofits can use social media to connect with donors.
The participants of Simple Development Systems won’t be ‘kissing any toads’ on the road to long-term fundraising. Times are tough and they don’t have the time.
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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