The secrets to Obama’s fundraising efforts: from the horse’s mouth..

As I spoke about earlier in the week, I’m currently at the DMA Nonprofit conference in Washington DC.

As you can imagine there was a lot of excitement about the presence of Meaghan Burdick, Director of Marketing, Obama for America who was delivering the first morning’s keynote presentation. I had to say I was a little skeptical prior as to how much detail would be shared about the campaign that raised $600m (USD). Yes, you read that right, $600m (USD).

Well, I have to say 'fair play' to Meaghan, she gave us the real lowdown.

In summary Meaghan credited the success of their amazing fundraising accomplishments to the following ingredients:

Investment and risk
Messaging and branding
Timing
Creativity
Passion

Let’s face it, these were probably the things, broadly speaking, that we expected to hear. Yet hearing it articulated, from the horses mouth, so to speak - really brought it home for me.

In particular what I loved is the first one: investment and risk. Bingo!

Meaghan was quick to point out that their success didn’t happen overnight, donors and donations didn’t grow on trees. They invested, seriously. In technology, in good people, in office space, in testing. They took some gambles. Some which worked, others which didn’t. But of course more did than didn’t.

The point being that the Obama campaign realized that the 90,000 emails and 30,000 donors they started with at the beginning of 2007 wasn’t going to topple the democratic machine of the Clinton party, which already had significant capital to throw around.

Fast forward less than two years, more than 5,000 staff, a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a multitude of fundraising efforts (including mailing constituents every 2 weeks!) and they had managed to build a list of 13 million email addresses, 3.9m donors, and an extraordinary $600m.

Oh, and their candidate become the President of the United States...

Meaghan talked in detail about messaging and brand and the imperative to keep it consistent, which I blogged about last year. She insisted that it wasn’t about the man himself: it was about the movement and the necessity for change. The key here was to be incredibly disciplined and on message at every touch point with the American people. Be it on the telephone, through the mail, at public addresses and rallies, through to their online efforts.

I think it’s fair to say they did a bloody good job on this one!

We discovered more about the intricacies of what the Obama team did and the thinking behind their coordinated efforts. But for me the first two resonated really strongly in terms of lessons to be applied for nonprofits.

Growth doesn’t (there is always the odd exception) happen without a serious commitment to invest and take informed risks.

Clear and coherent (and usually successful) charities require a certain commitment to ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’ and present a consistent message at all times. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell different stories, but always with an overarching theme about what it is that we are there to do.

A great session, thanks Meaghan. I’m looking forward to your next session at the conference..

Jonathon

Training shouldnt slow down when the economy does...

I've been thinking quite a lot about training and personal development lately.

In fact I'm attending the DMA nonprofit conference in Washington DC this week, so obviously its top of mind.

What worries me is this. What's the first thing that charities are slashing right now? Training and development budgets.

To me it seems nonsensical.

Is the need for training, education and advancement lessening? No.

Can we do our jobs better if we aren't continually developing, absorbing loads of information and reaching out and meeting brilliant people? Probably not.

Then why are these budgets the first ones cut? The same reason that donor care, stewardship or retention budgets are often slashed. They aren't easily quantifiable.

At the same time I do appreciate that tough times call for tough decisions, and I don't profess to make all the right decisions. Far from it.

But I do hope this isn't an ongoing trend for 2009, drop off in attendances to conferences and workshops. Our brains need to be constantly stimulated and whilst it is time to knuckle down and get on with things, that shouldn't come at the expense of our own and our organizations development.

Anyway I'm consciously ramping up the FREE workshops that I'll be running at Pareto Fundraising. Click on this link to check out the upcoming sessions we'll be running. There is also information on this page about the nonprofit economic summit that I'm partnering with the Canadian Fundraiser gang on.

We'll also be doing more in March (at least one in Vancouver and Toronto) and monthly after that. So keep an eye on the events page on Pareto Fundraising's website.

What should you take away from the 30 seconds you spent reading this posting?

Don't allow short-termism to get in between your own and your organization's development. Training is as, if not more important than ever before.

Jonathon

US retail giants learning from the charity sector?

Maybe not, but that’s the spin that I briefly took from a recent Economist article about retailers such as K-mart and Sears moving towards - or back to - offering layaway (or lay-by) payment schemes.

For those not familiar with how a layaway or lay-by scheme works, it’s simple. When you purchase something, instead of paying cash or credit, you make regular (maybe monthly) contributions towards the goods until you pay it off. Then when you have paid it off, the goods are yours, but not beforehand. Sound familiar? It’s kind of like monthly/regular giving but there is a fixed period (assuming you make all of the payments).

So what the hell has this got to do with my fundraising program I can hear you saying?

Well it got me thinking of the parallels behind what we’ve been witnessing with our clients at Pareto Fundraising and the shift that some retailers are making right now.

The benchmarking work that we’ve been doing in recent times has very clearly shown, not surprisingly, that organizational income has dropped over the last year but individual giving continues to grow. In particular, monthly/regular giving is going from strength to strength.

Regular donors are a resilient bunch, we know that. Especially if we treat them well, update them, continue to ask etc.

In fact not only are we seeing growth in the value derived from existing monthly/regular donors, but we’re also seeing clients experiencing incredible success recruiting new donors straight onto a monthly/regular gift, for some better than ever before. For tips on this visit my earlier post about becoming smarter in our acquisition efforts.

The point of this rant?

To remind us that monthlyy/regular giving can still be a good investment, even now.

To let you know that income from monthly/regular givers for many organizations around the world is growing.

To share with you that it is still possible to recruit monthly/regular givers successfully.

And to let you in on a little secret that even retailers are cottoning on that an old fashioned practice such as periodic payments isn’t so old after all.

Jonathon

Surviving and thriving in challenging times . . .

My self imposed recession ban has been lifted which means I can give a plug to the upcoming event I am proud to be involved in with my good friends at Canadian Fundraiser.

The event Surviving and Thriving in Challenging times, sponsored by Pareto Fundraising to be held in Toronto on the 17th of February will bring together people from all parts of the sector to discuss what is happening out there in the trenches, and how we can best manage these turbulent times.

This is a Canadian first, with nothing else of this magnitude been run here to date.

It's an interesting bunch of talented people presenting on the panel and presenting. Oh, and I managed to score a gig as well.

We've got representatives from large and small charities, we've got researchers, consultants, leading Canadian philanthropists and social entrepreneurs.

The day promises to be full of meaty and useful information, lots of interesting discussion, some data to show what's really happening as well as some practical advice on what to do moving forward from some of the best in the industry.

Check it out.

Jonathon