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!

by Natasha Dresner

I have some good friends who have two boys – an 8-year old and a 12-year old. The 8-year old, Josh, is an old soul, and the 12-year old, David, is a typical pre-teen. One day this past June, my friends went up to the boys’ room to help them pack for camp, but stopped outside the door when they heard the following exchange:

“But what if it rains? Did you pack a raincoat?” Josh said. “And did you pack warm socks and clothes, in case it gets cold?”

David, in the meantime, was obeying orders like a good soldier running between different piles of things on the floor and bringing the right ones to his suitcase.

“Did you pack your special kipa?” Josh continued. “What for?” asked Jake, “They always have plenty of kipot for everyone at camp.”

“That may be,” Josh replied, “but if you want the girls to notice you, I’d bring your own.”

“Girls!!!” said David, “What do you know about girls?!”

“More than you!” Josh snapped back mischievously.

Now, Josh may or may not know more about girls than his older brother, but he certainly knows more about strategic thinking. Listening to the story, I couldn’t help but notice how applicable it is to our daily personal and professional lives and how much we can learn from this exchange. Not only because they are discussing going to a Jewish overnight camp(!), but because it’s about the power of thinking strategically. Whether it’s packing for camp, or “packing” for the short-term and long-term success of your nonprofit organization in these difficult economic times, thinking strategically has tremendous value. Our environment is constantly changing, so the best thing we can do for ourselves is to understand, accept, and respond to it by making strategic thinking a new “life style” of our organizations complemented by real-time, flexible strategic planning.

Strategic thinking is different from strategic planning, but they’re interrelated and complementary. Some people think that it’s a “chicken and egg” thing – in other words, that you can start with either and it’ll promote the other. I believe that strategic thinking comes first – you focus on what matters most (e.g. performance, revenue sources, outside perception of the organization) and, via a meaningful dialogue among everyone in your organization, you then produce a high-level, bird’s-eye view of your situation. This, in turn, logically leads you into the more nitty-gritty strategic planning process to figure out the details, sequences, measurable outcomes, etc. Good strategic thinking is guaranteed to provide valuable content, which a strategic plan alone might not. Practicing strategic thinking positions us well for being proactive: thinking (strategically) ahead to be ready to quickly respond to changes. Both concepts – strategic thinking and strategic planning – are critical for the success and competitiveness of your organization.

To me, strategic thinking is a tool and a skill to ask timely, thought-provoking, discussion-stimulating questions to help you be the best you can be and to be as prepared as you can for the unexpected. And, boy, have we had an “abundance” of the unexpected lately: Madoff, swine flu, recession, you name it! Based on what I heard from many of you at the recent Grinspoon conference, most of us have been extremely affected by the unexpected. Some did OK, and a few really well, but most not so well. We concluded that much of the success, or lack thereof, had to do with the presence or absence of strategic thinking.

So what can you do to learn and practice strategic thinking?

1) Think big and conceptually. Before asking a question, make sure it’s open enough – you don’t want to limit the discussion/thinking. By the same token, when answering/thinking through the question, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. This is where your strategic plan comes in – having it in front of you during these discussions helps you make an educated coherent decision (even if it means that something in your strategic plan needs to be changed as a result).

2) Ask strategic questions, and ask them strategically. In other words, phrase the questions carefully in a way that is inclusive (both in terms of people and subject matter) and that will promote a healthy discussion about the organization, not a negative, dead-end argument about an individual or personalities.

For example, if we ask “Where can we cut our expenses to make sure we have a balanced budget as our Executive Director doesn’t seem to care/know what he is doing,” the conversation is already focused on the E.D. only, on assigning blame, and on the expense side of the budget only. How well do you think that discussion will turn out? But, if instead we ask, “How can we maintain a balanced budget?” the discussion will be focused on both the expense and revenue sides of the budget, and invite everyone in the room to take responsibility for it instead of assigning blame and getting nowhere.

3) Incorporate strategic thinking into your agenda. Make it a stand-alone item on your Board agenda. Use a consent agenda to free up some time for these important strategic discussions. There are always strategic issues that need discussion. In turn, this will keep your Board from micromanaging, and help it to fulfill its fiduciary responsibility. Talk about the importance of strategic thinking in the Board room with your staff present, and then apply it.

4) Do it regularly, not once a year – it’s the only way to make strategic thinking a habit.

5) Be proactive and ask the “What-if…” questions. For example, did we know exactly when the recession would happen and how hard it would hit? No. On the other hand, could we have been more prepared if we asked: What is our alternative financial model if we lose some of our core funding sources in the next year or two? Probably. This is strategic thinking.

6) Use a professional facilitator. A facilitator will help you learn different techniques to promote strategic thinking and robust discussions within your group. Sharing personal and organizational stories is a really powerful tool; collecting participants’ thoughts in writing at the end of each meeting is great; establishing and agreeing on some ground rules also helps. There are many other tools and devices, but the key thing to remember is that in the beginning of each meeting you need to get your group to remember that they are on the same team in order to have a productive and meaningful discussion.

With all of this information “packed” in your suitcase, you are much more likely to be prepared for whatever comes your way. Just remember to unpack it and use it. The girls (and boys) will definitely notice!