by Jill Paul and Julia Riseman

In today’s tough economy for fundraising, individual Board members can no longer sit on the sidelines assuming someone else on the Board or staff is working on raising funds for their camp.  Every Board member can make a real impact on the camps’ ability to raise meaningful, significant gifts to camp, even if they never directly ask for a gift themselves.  This article provides the top ten ways that every Board member can actively support fundraising (and only one of them is “asking”). 

10. Thank: Help write thank you notes to donors.  Send thank you emails. Make thank you calls.  You’ll be surprised by how much a personal, heartfelt “thank you” from a Board member means to a donor, since you’re not paid to say “Thank you.” Nothing is more important to future giving than thoughtful, timely recognition and real gratitude. 

9.  Show-up: Become an ambassador by attending camp events and reunions, and represent the camp as a Board member. Talk with people you don’t know.  Better yet, be willing to take a special list of two or three names of people to connect with at events.  Keep in mind three things the camp is doing this summer and share it with the people you meet.

8. Listen: Really listen to everyone who has a connection to camp, and find out why Jewish camping is important to them. Ask questions that help them see what is so valuable about camp in their lives today, listen to what people are passionate about, and learn what inspires them about camp. People remember what they said more than what they hear, so the better you are at listening and encouraging others to talk about camp, the better the results for fundraising.

7. Learn: …about fundraising. The lingo can be confusing… “Prospects”, “Cultivate”, “Steward”, “Campaign”, “LYBUNTS”, “Gift Pyramid”, “Annual Fund” ….what does it all mean?  The more you learn about fundraising and Jewish Philanthropy in general, the more comfortable you will be with your role in raising funds for camp.  Join eJewishPhilanthropy’s email newsletter if you haven’t already done so. Make sure you read the Grinspoon Institute’s monthly eNewsletter as well.
 
6. Tell your story: Tell the story of what makes camp so special – don’t take it for granted that everyone knows or remembers. Share your story of how camp touched your life or your children’s lives, and why you now support camp. Telling your story will inspire others. Write your story down for a newsletter.  Invite friends over for coffee and dessert to talk about the benefits of Jewish camp, and let them tell their camp stories, too. 

5. Lead: As a Board member, you hold the highest leadership role in the organization.  You provide camp with a clear future direction by ensuring that a strategic plan is in place.  Use the strategic plan as a governing tool to work on and resolve difficult problems that might be of concern to donors.  When a Board consistently focuses on the camp’s mission, actively works on resolving problems, plans for the future, and communicates a shared vision, it truly inspires the confidence of donors.

4. Give:  Make your own meaningful, significant gift to camp and consider a Legacy pledge.  Share your story of your giving with the rest of the Board, and explain the need for 100% participation of the Board in giving. Seek different opportunities to give in-kind resources or services (computer equipment, office supplies, transportation, furniture, professional services, etc.).  Give generously of your time on the Board, on committees, attending camp events, and volunteering.  Try this: in addition to your annual gift, ask the camp professional staff what is most wanted but currently unfunded, and fulfill an unmet need at camp.  Seeing the impact of all your gifts (time, talent, and treasure) is a wonderful, rewarding, and deeply satisfying experience.

3. Volunteer: Support the camp staff in the “behind the scenes” work of fundraising by volunteering to help organize events, solicit auction items, write notes on donor solicitation letters, serve on the fundraising committee, help host donor visits to camp, provide tech help for the Facebook Page, track down long-lost Alumni, edit newsletters, and so on.  Find out where you are needed and where you can make the biggest difference in support of fundraising…then get involved.

2. Share: In a confidential setting, review a list of donors and/or potential donors, and share what you know about them and their interest in supporting camps now or in the future.  Make sure the information is incorporated in the camp’s donor database. If you know someone well, offer to set up a meeting to talk about camp.  You are an important bridge between an impersonal database and a human connection and relationship to a donor. You can help identify with whom camp should plan on reaching out to and re-connect.

1. Ask: INVITE someone to JOIN you in supporting camp.  As you (and your fellow Board members) are actively participating in numbers 10 through 2 above, the last step, “asking,” is really transformed into a personal invitation, as in: “Would you consider joining me in making a meaningful and lasting gift to Camp ABC at this time?”   With careful planning, asking isn’t as hard as you might think.

Every Board member has an important role to play in supporting fundraising, and Jewish camp is depending on your special leadership to make fundraising strong and successful. Please let us know if you agree with this TOP TEN list, or if you have other ideas to add. Tell us what you are inspired to try after reading this list.  We would love to hear your ideas and learn from personal experience as a Board member.

When we speak to organizations about social media, we’re often asked, “How can we raise money using these tools?” or “How can we get all of our Fans/Followers to donate?” Unfortunately, Facebook and other social media platforms have not proven to be the panacea for raising money that some had hoped. Articles have even been written in major newspapers calling fundraising via Facebook and other social media platforms a dismal failure.

Although it is true that social media remains a relatively untapped resource for direct fundraising, we believe this misses the point: social media is an amazing tool for cultivating prospects and building community. A recent post on the NTEN Blog by Peter Deitz (Social Actions) is a great read for those trying to figure out how Facebook specifically can be used as part of an overall development strategy.

Deitz points out that these tools are great for raising “meaning” more than money currently. Where else can you send out a quick message (or photo or video…) that is immediately viewable to hundreds or thousands of your supporters? Deitz writes:

As a strategy, your goal in using Facebook is to create as many meaningful opportunities as possible for people to learn about, contribute to, and most importantly, spread the word about your shared interest in a particular mission.

Facebook is potentially an incredibly effective cultivation tool. Organizations can engage directly with their constituents on topics of interest. More importantly, Facebook allows these constituents to communicate with each other and build a strong, vibrant online community, all tied together around your organization’s mission.

Photo from URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp Facebook Page

Building community is exactly what the nonprofit Jewish overnight camps we work with at the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy do best! Bringing that mindset to social media can result in an engaged constituency ready to take action when asked, whether it’s to attend an event, volunteer, or (eventually) make a donation. But – like in traditional fundraising – it’s important to cultivate these relationships beforeexpecting them to give. Facebook and similar tools now make it easier than ever to build strong relationships that will pay off down the road.

An obvious conclusion to this line of thinking is that the amount of money raised on Facebook must not be the only metric to measure how effective these tools are in the overall development process. Deitz mentions that other metrics might include the

number of supporters or Fans recruited, number of comments on status updates, number of “likes” for status updates, number of visitors referred to the organization’s website from Facebook, and number of Causes or Birthday Wishes created that benefit the nonprofit.

Once you’ve engaged your community online and built strong relationships, you are ready to move to the next step in the fundraising process: the ask. If you’ve been able to build your mailing lists from your Facebook Fans, you might make the ask offline via traditional methods like direct mail, or in a Newsletter (or eNewsletter). You might make the ask in person at an event or on a simple status update on your Facebook Page.  We’ve written previously about using Facebook Applications like Causes to raise money online, too. And, if you have built a strong community online, you may even convince your supporters to make the ask for you. As Deitz writes:

When the time comes to raise money, the most basic approach is to ask supporters and fans to share a status update that links to a donation opportunity and to explain in their words why the donation opportunity matters.

As an example, Celia Baczkowski, Director of Development & Alumni Relations at Surprise Lake Camp, often uses her personal status updates for promoting ongoing fundraising appeals:

Think about how powerful it would be for a supporter of the organization to do the same, their personal plea for donations showing up in all of their Friends’ News Feeds! When an organization unlocks that potential, the money will follow. But – just like offline fundraising – it takes time and effort to raise “meaning” and cultivate donors before this can happen. Facebook simply makes this engagement and community-building process easier.

How have you used Facebook or other social media platforms to engage your constituents, build community, or raise “meaning” in your organization? Let us know in the comments!