While packing your bags to head off to camp this summer, don’t forget your video camera(s)! You’re already going to take lots of great photos. You’re probably already planning to get some basic video footage of kids at camp and the incredible sunset over the waterfront, too. If not, please read this recent blog post from Socialbrite that discusses steps for creating video stories for nonprofits. The 8 minute video and 6 easy steps will help you get some great video this summer. If you have already been making videos at camp, the blog post still has a lot of tips to help you make your efforts even more effective.

There are a few points from this blog post that especially resonate with camp:

1. Camp is an ideal time to interview campers, staff, alumni, board members, and donors about what makes camp so special to them. Personal stories are ideal for communicating the unique impact of camp. You can record short videos and longer written stories to be used in eNewsletters and blog posts. For example, Herzl Camp’s Alumni blog offers good examples of stories and insights from alumni themselves. All of these stories can be collected while at camp.

2. Do you have a virtual tour of camp on your website or Facebook Page? You can easily take a Flip Camera and a basic script to show online visitors what is special about camp. Ideally, the video tour would be broken up into short segments, focusing on story.

3. Be ready with your camera for special events at camp. Have any reunions planned? Visiting Day? Other special celebrations? These are fertile ground for collecting stories and images that can be shared all year long.

4. If you haven’t already done so, consider asking campers to thank donors on video. They can be edited and merged to create powerful stewardship messages.

What can we do with all these videos?

Once camp is over, you’ll have a treasure trove of pictures, videos, stories, etc. that you can use all year long to help engage your constituency. Want to post a video montage of campers thanking donors for their gifts? You’ve got it. Hoping to share a story of alumni and what they are doing today? You’ve got it.

Of course, all that content can actually seem a bit overwhelming. Don’t worry – there is a simple way to help you spread out all of this great content over both time and various communications channels: the Content Calendar.

Content Calendar

A Content Calendar simply allows a team to plan what content to distribute when and via what channels. It can be as simple as a shared Outlook or Google Calendar. It could also include additional details about what content can be shared over multiple channels. Do whatever makes your work most effective.

Things to consider:

1. What is the best use of the content? Is it great for recruitment? Stewardship of donors? Solicitation? Or multiple uses?
2. How should it be communicated? Is it a simple photo that can be posted on Facebook or via Twitter? Is it a long-form story that should be blogged and sent via an eNewsletter? Can it be repurposed over various channels?
3. When will this have the most impact? Would it be great to use the story or photo to kick off the Annual Campaign? Could it help garner interest for next year’s Alumni reunion? Would it be an incredible touchpoint in stewarding legacy donors?

The important thing to consider today is: how do we capture this content? If you don’t capture the content this summer, you won’t even have the option of engaging your constituencies in this way. So get your cameras out and get those videos and stories!

During today’s Webinar on Annual Gift Campaigns, we received the following question:

We do not require board members any minimum fundraising goals – giving or raising. Should we implement minimum fundraising requirements? What is the norm for nonprofits?

GIJP Mentor Dan Kirsch provides an answer:

There really is no “norm” and our Camps’ policies on board giving vary.  Most camps, however, do not require specific dollar amounts to give and/or “get” for the board.  The trend among nonprofits in the small to medium size range (as opposed to large universities, hospitals, and national or global scale orgs) is to clearly convey the expectation that board members will make the camp one of their top philanthropic priorities during their tenure on the board.  Some say “make an annual gift that is significant for me” or “make a gift that reflects my commitment to camp and my personal means.”

Similarly, when it comes to “getting”, most camps do not set actual dollar amounts expected.  Instead they expressly set the expectation that all board members will participate in fundraising activities for the camp in the ways best suited to their abilities and the camp’s needs.

Does your nonprofit set fundraising minimums for your board members? Please let us know in the comments below!

In the meantime, check out our Annual Giving Campaigns Webinar recording (and other resources).

By GIJP Mentors Dan Kirsch and Julia Riseman

Architecturally speaking, pipelines and pyramids may not be the flashiest of structures compared with, say, the Taj Mahal, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, or your newest camper cabin.

Strong, enduring, utilitarian – the pipeline and the pyramid are just the right images to highlight the importance of building your camp’s annual giving program.  Along with major gifts, capital campaigns, and Legacy programs (a.k.a. planned giving), annual giving is a key component of a comprehensive development program that is built for long-term growth and success.

An effective annual giving campaign is not an afterthought or a “when we have time” proposition.  It’s not about dashing off an appeal letter to capture the end-of-year flurry of charitable giving.  Annual giving programs that last are carefully planned, deliberately implemented, and results-focused. 

“Channeling” a Culture of Philanthropy

Annual giving typically generates large numbers of gifts of all sizes that directly support current needs – precious, flexible operating dollars that empower your camp to respond to immediate needs and emerging opportunities.  Those annual gifts are usually generated through a variety of methods – the popular term is “channels” – including face to face solicitation by volunteers and staff, direct mail appeals, phonathons, e-mail campaigns, and special events.

Annual giving also helps to develop a camp’s culture of philanthropy.  Such a culture honors the role that philanthropy has played in your camp’s success.  It is not built on only the few mega gifts that name your camp’s newest buildings.  Rather it is grown and nurtured over many years through many types of gifts in all amounts.  Annual giving allows camp fans of all financial means to express their appreciation for the way their camp experience has enriched their lives.  That is the pyramid – built on a broad foundation of more modest annual gifts and rising to sustain higher and higher levels of support.

Creating Value for a Lifetime…and Beyond

Beyond the immediate benefits of each year’s total dollars raised, annual giving programs also build long-term value based on the loyalty, consistency, and dependability of your donor base.  Your camp may have calculated the long-term value of each additional camper you enroll.  Have you considered the lifetime value of each camp donor?

Think about this:

If your annual giving program raises $50,000 from your camp’s fans, that annual income is roughly the equivalent of the return on a $1 million endowment.  Your camp may not have such endowed assets (especially for operating funds), but you certainly have a tremendously valuable asset in the thousands of people who love your camp.  Your annual giving program is the vehicle that generates the return on all of that goodwill and gratitude.

And one other thing to keep in mind.  Research has shown that loyal, consistent, annual support throughout a donor’s lifetime (not necessarily at a top gift level) is the single best predictor of a person’s leaving a charitable bequest (Legacy gift).

Mind Your Data

So as you work to inform, engage, solicit, and steward your constituents for their annual support, you are not only generating more precious operating dollars to respond to your camp’s current needs, but you are also grooming your camp’s next generation of major donors, campaign chairs, Legacy participants, board members, etc.  That’s the pipeline that annual giving can build for you.

Building the kind of loyalty that creates a strong donor pipeline requires a commitment to learning from each year’s results and refining future activities accordingly.  That’s why it is so important to have reliable constituent data and protocols for collecting, tracking, and analyzing the data most relevant to annual giving. (Click here to read more about how to track and segment your constituent data for annual giving.).  The more you can learn about the communications preferences of your audience and the appeals that are most compelling to your various constituents the better you will become at personalizing and targeting your annual giving activities to maximize the return on your work.

In the long run, your commitment to planning, executing, tracking and analyzing your annual giving performance will help to create the Taj Mahal of development programs and the enduring and impactful culture of philanthropy that your camp deserves.