Who gives a toss about charity salaries?

Well, lots of people do.

Why?

Because they think that they should and that's what they've been told, taught or led to believe.

But frankly, who cares?

If someone hypothetically earns $300k a year, they should be judged on the value they bring to that organization? It is irrelevant if the entity is 'for' or 'non' profit.

I'd argue someone who turns a $10m organization into a $100m one can sleep pretty tightly earning a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Pretty simple logic.

I've mentioned in previous postings the brilliant work of Dan Pallotta and his ground breaking book Uncharitable.

If you haven't yet read it, do it. And get a copy for every one of your board members

In the meantime check out Dan talking about the book and why the hell we need to challenge the paradigm in the way we operate, including turning the attention away from costs, looking at the value someone or something delivers. Click here to view an interview with Dan.

Jonathon

Help me help Terry Fox...

Some of you will have read my post a couple weeks back about being inspired by the great Canadian, Terry Fox.

I mentioned that I would be participating in the Terry Fox Run in September. So this is a shameless request for any readers to consider digging into your pocket and helping me help Terry's wonderful Foundation support cancer research.

To sponsor me please visit my sponsoship page. My goal is to raise $2,000.

Thanks in advance.

Jonathon

Ten copy tips for your next appeal

Here are ten simple tips that will be useful when developing copy for your Christmas/Seasonal appeal.

1 Adopt the adage: tell em what you're going to tell em, tell em, and tell em what you just told em.

2 Get an ask in early. At least once in the first three paragraph's.

3 Make the ask specific, based on their previous giving levels. At Christmas ask for a little more than they've given historically and explain why. You need the money.

4 Repeat the ask several times, at least once per page. Make sure there is an ask at the end, and in the P.S.

5 Tell it as it is. But a word of warning. An interesting learning we had of late, if the subject is controversial and graphic in nature, test it. You run the risk of 'turning off' certain donors. Test the way you talk about a topic that is particularly sensitive. One version where you tell it like it is, the other version softened a little.

6 Refer to past support wherever possible. If you are talking about the work in Sudan, reference that Mrs. Smith has told you that's the area she's most passionate in or that she has supported before.

7 Make it warm and personal. Don't 'we' all over your copy. It ain't about the organization, it's about individuals.

8 Tell a really good story. Does it make you feel really uncomfortable, even cry? It should.

9 Make sure it easy to understand what you want the donor to do, by when and how.

10 Break sentences so they spill over the next page. It entices the donor to read on.

Use these as a checklist. The more you tick, the more money you'll generate.

Jonathon

You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure.

This is a pretty old adage that most of us will be familiar with. Unfortunately this rings true when it comes to measuring the performance of supporter or donor care functions.

You may have read a post I wrote last year about the large mystery shopping exercise Pareto Fundraising ran here in Canada in 2008.

The findings were shocking to most. Not for me however, as I’ve been doing this in different parts of the world for many years now and see the same stuff over and over again. I've become somewhat numb to it.

Lack of response, poor or no follow up, communications all about the organization, rather than individuals and beneficiaries.

I could go on.

Anyway I’m often asked why charities are so damn bad (generally) at looking after donors, or members of the public.

I respond with a raft of reasons, invariably citing lack of importance placed on this area, difficulty obtaining evidence to show it makes a difference, distraction etc.

One of the other key reasons, I believe, is that very few charities around the globe actually measure service levels.

Do you think large commercial organization’s with inbound call centre’s don’t bother capturing data on how long it takes to answer a call or the number of people they convert to a sale? Of course they don’t.

So why should charities be exempt from setting themselves parameters like this?

They shouldn’t.

The message for today is start actually monitoring, measuring and then managing the performance of your supporter care or donor services team.

Consider looking at things like:

• Turnaround times on mail, telephone and email. I.e. “All mail enquiries must be responded to within 5 business days”.
• The proportion of ‘win-backs’ or ‘downgrades’ achieved I.e. “50% of all attempted cancellations should be downgraded rather than stopped”.
• The level of data capture obtained from supporters. I.e. “80% of all donor calls should result in the confirming or capturing of an email address/contact telephone number”.

These are just a few to begin with.

They key thing is measure them, and make sure you reward those who consistently achieve.

Once you’ve set some measures, or what I call SLA’s (service level agreements) then you’re on your way to being able to understand the impact that getting this right makes on the value of your file.

Jonathon