Fund Development Peer Sharing

Facilitator: Sam Schafer

Collette, Operations Director, Sacramento (230 matches)

Olivia, Fund Development Director, Boise (230 matches)

Peggy Martin, Director, North Lake Tahoe (35 matches)

Amanda Gow, Director, Bend (170)

Marla Gowen, Fund Development,

Allie, Program Development, Great Falls (MT) (120 matches)

Sonja, Hellena MT, Events coordinator (250)

Michelle, Butte, MSS (147 matches)

Jason Sears,

Whittney Chandler, Fund Dev, Boise

Sam, Trademark Church, Facilitator

Topics for discussion: Events (BFKS), specifically corporate bowls, individual giving (vs. events), Monthly giving (evening out cash flow), Software, Stewardship, Trends & Marketing (millennials), Online marketing,

To cover tomorrow

Online Marketing & Trends

Facebook isn’t as powerful as it used to be. What’s growing: Instagram.

Ideas for posting online: infographics & statistics, ask mentors to submit photos, updates from the office, like other pages & posts, thank yous to donors, pictures of the community that people can connect with, designate someone to update daily. Photos of matches that are taken in local, recognizable places in the community are better than national photos. Digital materials are a requirement, paper fliers or hand outs are not wanted as much anymore, yet some people do like printed materials. Best to know which donors prefer digital vs. paper receipts, communications and asks.

Collette’s agency uses a media release to ensure all matches can have photos to be used. Some matches are not able to sign the release (i.e. witness protection), which makes it hard to ensure they are not in the photos. Peggy uses the media release, but also checks with matches for any big releases (i.e. featured in a newspaper article).

Collette’s agency sends a paper receipt for donations to everyone, but the newsletter is digital only. They call the thank you their “second touch”. Amanda hand writes thank you notes for all donors. Sonja’s office sends a form thank you letter with a hand-written note on it, but not using a donor database to manage it.

An interest in sharing out marketing materials & collateral. Amanda borrowed a “redefine possible” campaign from another agency that uses stock photos that are altered to show what is possible for kids in their future (photo of a girl with chalk outlines of good grades and a rocket ship). Michelle has a “be a big” campaign with photos of mentors of all kinds in order to break down misconceptions about what it means to be a mentor. Amanda’s agency has kids who have been added to the wait list write why they want a mentor on a white board, then take a photo with them and the white board.

Events

Matches at galas.

  • Olivia mentioned that matches at an event was a little awkward – the fine line between exploiting them and sharing stories. Amanda’s agency puts stories from matches on a print out that is placed at each table, plus a story on a video. They invite Bigs to come to events and identify them when they are present, but their gala is not appropriate for the kids to attend so they are not present.
  • Collette has matches as a part of the event who are being recognized or nominated for big of the year. Alumni are also invited to speak about their experience. Bigs of the year are selected from those who submit a letter by the staff. Peggy’s agency has the little, big and parent all write letters as a part of the submission.
  • Length of program: Collette’s gala program is about an hour and a half with a live auction, big of the year awards, preceeded by a wine & food tasting. She changed the format from a sit-down dinner to a sampling event to avoid the cost of a per-person dinner… but dessert is still served. Thus, there are no food costs.

Food at Events

  • Amanda does a dessert dash. Each bakery donates one thing (one cake, one dozen cookies, etc.). They are all different and displayed. Each table bids to determine how much the dessert is worth to them. The table that raises the most gets to pick their dessert first. Depending on how cool the displays are, it can raise a lot of money. One of the desserts is really amazing and one is a silly one made by the office that’s on the cheap as a fun way to give to the table that raised the least.
  • Marla does a Wine grab. A bunch of bags are displayed, each has a prize in it. Some have very expensive items (like a sapphire worth $700), gift certificates, fun items… each bag is $25 and comes with a bottle of wine. Most people get way more than their $25 worth from the items in the bags.

BFKS

  • Amanda made some big changes to BFKS to make it super fun.
  • Olivia heard about a balloon game. Balloons are raffled and contains a paper prize. They are popped at the same time. Amanda does the balloon game- each is $20 and everyone has a prize. Some balloons have really nice prizes in them. Collette also does this, and tries to stay close to a $20 prize value… along with random items that are given based on a solicitation sent to a number of businesses. They make $1,000 easily from the balloons at the event.
  • Amanda uses a silent auction at BFKS – uses a “purple line bid”, which is 20% more than the total value of the item… those who bid on the purple line atomically entered into a raffle, as well as win the item. If an item is $50 value, minimum = $25, $60 is the purple line. The actual amounts can be adjusted depending on the specific item – some items that aren’t too popular can be put at lower purple line values. The purple line gives you better predictions on how well your auction will do.
  • The first year took some time to inform guests how the purple line worked. The auctioneer explained how it worked during the event.
  • Done this two years so far.
  • Amanda’s agency recently reinvigourated their BFKS event
  • Make it super silly and funny
  • Big of the year are there, they give speeches… the Bigs of the year get their own lanes and they can invite their family and friends to bowl. The lanes are decorated in a crazy, kid-style decore. The kids do the decoration themselves… the businesses like being goofy and like that the kids are decorating.
  • They have alcohol at the event- the VIP tier for the event get bottle service.
  • No auction, but raffle. Red tickets are pulled constantly throughout the event. Blue tickets are for bigger packages – guests can pick what items their tickets are put in for. Red=$2, Blue=$3, with price breaks for bulk.
  • $50,000 total raised from the event, before expenses, which are less than $3,000 total. Staff time is minimal as committees are very helpful in organizing.
  • Sponsors are breweries (competition between local breweries), police vs. fire, banks vs. banks,
  • BFKS kick-off party at a special event…. Screening of the Big Labowsky, 600 people come to see it. People dress up and really get into it. White Russian bar. Costume awards. Big BFKS kickoff, but not everyone who attends does the event… but everyone hears about the program.
  • BFKS is in May all in one day, kick-off in February. Business sponsors are invited to participate, which is good because not all employees want/are able to attend BFKS event.
  • Michelle’s agency breaks up BFKS into three days. Sonja as well. It burns out staff pretty quickly.
  • Days of the week – Saturdays, weekday evenings.
  • Marla’s agency does themes. The last one was super heros which was very popular. Allie’s agency setup a photo booth for everyone.
  • T-shirts – some do and some don’t. Some agencies have matches wear matching shirts so they can be recognized.
  • A lot of discussion around tshirts taking up a lot of space and take so much time to coordinate with sizes.
  • Old shirts are not useful anymore – removing dates from products is a good idea.
  • Nicer tshirts with a fun design and colors are better
  • Goodie bags – Amanda’s agency asks sponsors to donate items. Some sponsors put marketing materials into the bag. The office also spends some money on items. The bags are pretty cool. No tshirts, but do branded bags instead – gets the logo out there. Different bag design each year.
  • Collette’s agency does the reusable bags as well, sponsored by Wells Fargo, who provide them. They do tshirts as well but are taking about stopping it.
  • Amanda’s agency buys them online for less than $1 each.
  • Bags can be used in a variety of other venues – bring them to community events, have at the table when you are setup to recruit…
  • Sponsor recognition focused on the items that go into the bags, then signage at the event, and online recognition.
  • Costume contest = very popular.
  • Some do them on a theme… tarzan, 50’s,
  • Team goals
  • Sonja asks each team to do $1,200, the amount needed to support one new match for a year.
  • Marla asks each team to do $200 per team.
  • $25 per person goal is set for the Tahoe agency because some people were attending but not giving at all.
  • Software
  • Several agencies are moving away from Kintera.
  • Giveeffect has a way to support BFKS. Marla went through a lot of other software options before selecting Giveffect. They are using it for their golf event in August – all the information is being collected and stored properly into their donor database.
  • Amanda uses a paypal system to collect donations and tracks the team totals on the back end.
  • For websites:
  • Web in a box is used by Amanda
  • Weebly is used by Olivia
  • Mobile devices can be used to collect funds through paypal at the event.
  • Registration done by giveeffect or Kintera through a web interface.
  • Collections
  • When pledges are made, it can take a lot of time to collect on them. One solution is to use the website, which can track pledges and encourages payment up front.
  • Amanda’s agency collects the balance of what was not collected at the event with a “balance due”.
  • Sonja – set expectations ahead of time. They phased out invoicing donors or pledging and placed the expectation for collection entirely on the teams themselves. They channel people to the website to make pledge payments.
  • It’s nice to have a coach on the team who coordinates the actual fundraising activities for the team, including collecting checks/money, getting people info about the website.
  • Amanda uses email templates to provide the teams so they know what to say. High schoolers are good at raising money.
  • Successful ideas
  • Raffle, $10 tickets, Sacramento dancers sell the tickets
  • Food room – no food at the lanes. A party room is used and guests can go anytime to get their food. All food is donated, and fast food chains are asked to provide food for a specific time slot.
  • Cookie decorating table – kids can walk through with their Bigs to decorate.
  • Activities throughout… hoola-hoop game, things that make the event feel more festive and fun.
  • Amanda has lots of kids at their event. Sponsors can sponsor one of the kids’ lanes. “Little Lanes” “Lanes for Littles”. No unmatched littles at the event.
  • Some want to get rid of BFKS entirely and replace it with a more popular event, like a basketball event. BFKS raises $50k, but more can be raised with a different event.
  • Some markets are more about adventure, xgames, excitement… bowling is not that exciting.
  • Spending energy on things that don’t return what you need is a waste of resources

Events Misc

  • How many events does each office hold?
  • Collette just reduced from 5 to 2. They used to do a lot of events as people approached them with ideas, and they still do them, but has volunteers organize them.
  • Olivia has three: a sports-themed gala, BFKS, and an “Ask Event”, plus a few other side missions.
  • Peggy does BFKS and an airport event that wasn’t run last year and not that successful. One board member does a 300-mile bike ride as a fundraiser and organizes the whole thing himself. Her community is so saturated by special events it’s hard to figure out what would be unique. (Marla said that Giveffect is capable of creating a page to allow others to fundraise for you, but all donors are added to your database)
  • Amanda does a comedy benefit and BFKS, plus some third party fundraisers. Board members join a committee, one of which is an events committee. The committee has been empowered to take on the third party events entirely themselves. She wants to be careful about what they take on because often staff time is needed for events. People tend to understand if you can’t participate, and will work with you to find other ways to integrate with the office to support the program – must like you steward donors, only with funders. Her office also does events around Mentoring Month: a special fancy dinner with wine pairings and a short 5 minute program.
  • Marla does a Gala and BFKS as well as a golf event in August. They have done smaller events in the past, but found them to be too time intensive.
  • Allie does a Gala and BFKS, plus a golf event coming up soon. They do smaller events as well, but trying to move away from them.
  • Sonja does two events – BFKS and a gala (wine crush). They do smaller events as well – a house vs. senate basketball game, a Guns & hoses softball game between police & fire. Moved BFKS from Feb to October. They created a special event to make up for the funds, but she feels it wasn’t worth the time. They also do smaller events (Panda express, local breweries). They are also doing a
  • Michelle does BFKS and a Gala (Gatsby was the theme last year, this year’s theme was “going green in March” that wasn’t as exciting as before). They took over a fun run from the Y. They did a durby event that wasn’t successful. They are doing an ask event in January. Board gets ideas for events, but ask the staff to do the work.

Software

Giveeffect is used by Marla’s agency. They have been reaching out to a lot of BBBS agencies.

Donor snap is used by Peggy.

Individual Giving

  • Olivia talked about the Benavon model. They do individual tours on a regular basis, people are invited to them based on connections in the community. Afterward they are not asked for money, just asked if they would like to be involved. They did an ask event last year, and it was pretty successful, but more will need to be done.
  • Amanda heard of Benavon & helped implement it in an organization. Benavon sets different touches for donors including monthly tours, not asking for money right away, but taking time to get to know them. There’s a treasure mapping process that leverages existing relationships with staff and board members. It’s a very targeted, process-oriented approach using specific touch points to engage and develop relationships with donors. It culminates in an one-hour ask event that is bare-bones, focused on an impactful ask. The event has a lot of structure, stories, emotional pull.
  • Another agency is using the Blackbaud prospecting tools to identify and cultivate donors at specific levels they are capable of giving at. The priority is cultivating the individual relationship because people give to other people, not just to organizations.
  • Benavon says it’s not about the money, it’s about the mission and the relationship. It’s about leveraging relationships to get them in the door and make it possible to develop new relationships that translate to donor.
  • There are good aspects to Benavon, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be done exactly as they lay it out. It’s good to focus on stewardship, and the treasure mapping process.
  • It also takes time to train board members on stewardship process, so they can feel comfortable getting close to an ask. Everyone can contribute to the campaign in some way. It’s about connecting with other people to understand what motivates them to give. It’s about giving people the opportunity to connect to a specific way to give back.
  • Another agency does a quarterly hosted party and invite people to that event, where mini-asks are conducted at the event. It’s mostly informal, a short program geared more toward side conversations. They get three or four people each meeting.
  • Peggy introduced a monthly giving option recently. They explained how it helps the agency to have a regular, predictable source of income and donors respond well to that.
  • Bigs are asked for money because they are so bought into the organization. Peggy led a “bucks for bigs” campaign that was a big flop – Big’s didn’t like being asked for money.

Stewardship touch points