Major Gift Fundraising: 3 Vital Storytelling Tips

Marketers use stories to draw the attention of a wider audience and to generate interest in your organization. In fundraising, including major gift fundraising, stories motivate donors to provide financial support.

Here are three tips for using stories to boost your organization’s bottom line through major gifts:

1. Facts are important, but emotions motivate. Any marketer – or experienced fundraiser – will tell you that most people make decisions with our hearts and, after we’ve decided, we use our minds to think about the reasons for our choice. As you gather information about the good work your organization is doing, keep in mind those all-important personal angles and highlight them.

2. Our stories aren’t just for an audience of donors and prospects. You can also use them to motivate your board. In fact, when I facilitate board retreats I always strongly recommend that the retreat include a "mission moment" consisting of anything from a client presenting their personal story of how they’ve been helped by your organization to "Thank You" letters or even a video of those wetlands or testimonials. The success of any major gift program depends largely on developing a board of directors who are willing and able to both "give and get" those gifts, and nothing makes it easier for board members to overcome their discomfort with asking for money like a moving story.

3. Ask your prospects and donors to tell you their stories. From the start of the cultivation process, ask your donors about themselves. Why do they care about your organization? What specific area of your work excites them? Do they have a personal connection with you – a relative who benefited from your work, for example? Donors, and major gift donors in particular, will be happy to share these things with you. And while doing so they’ll remind themselves why they want to make that major gift!

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Amy Eisenstein, ACFRE is the author of the recently published book, Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops.

Special offer: The first 100 people to purchase Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops between 6 am – Midnight on Tuesday, March 18 will get free access to Amy’s webinar, The Art of the Ask (a $129 value). http://www.tripointfundraising.com/increase-your-annual-fund-with-major-gifts/.

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Sparks partners with Checkprint and Barclays on QR code donations system

Checkprint, a provider of secure paper and payment solutions, has created and applied uniquely personalised two dimensional QR codes for children’s medical research charity Sparks.

The new system will allow Sparks to incorporate QR codes into its welcome letters for the 2014 Bake for Bumps campaign, which will enable fundraisers the option to pay their funds using the Barclays Pingit smartphone app, which has a built-in QR code scanner.

Laura White, Head of Regional Fundraising at Sparks, said: “We have worked with Checkprint for a number of years and its solutions have helped us raise a vast amount of money for medical research. By generating QR codes for our latest Bake for Bumps campaign Checkprint will save us, and our supporters, even more valuable time and money which we can put to good use in other areas of Sparks’ work.”

Milon Veasey, Head of Mobile Solutions Specialists at Barclays, added: “People today are looking for quick, easy and convenient payment option which is driving the demand for mobile payment solutions and charities like Sparks are fully recognising this. Barclays Pingit provides an easy and secure way for people to make those all-important charity donations, at anytime and anywhere.”

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11 Nonprofit Professionals Share Social Media and Technology Advice for Nonprofits via Instagram Video

Thanks to a partnership with the Public Interest Registry, Heather Mansfield of Nonprofit Tech for Good was able to report live from the Nonprofit Technology Conference (#14NTC) last week in Washington, DC. Empowered with a tablet and smartphone, one of Heather’s first priorities was to reveal the faces and expertise behind some our favorite nonprofit brands. The results are below and what you’ll hear are the responses to the question: “What is your number one piece of nonprofit technology advice for nonprofits?” You can view all videos at instagram.com/nonprofitorgs.

1. Alexandra Bezdikian, Interactive Events and Video Producer
TechSoup

2. Liz Ragland, Content Writer & Non-Profit Marketing
Network for Good

3. Jessica Sotelo, Deputy Director of Online Marketing
World Wildlife Fund

4. Megan Soffer, Marketing Coordinator
Public Interest Registry

5. Susan Tenby, Director of Online Community
Caravan Studios

6. Joleen Ong, Director of Marketing and Publications  Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)

7. Dan Michel, Digital Marketing Director
Feeding America

8. Debbir Walyus, Web Communications Manager
The Salvation Army

9. Debra Askanase, Director of Outreach
National Brain Tumor Society

10. Ivan Booth, Director
RootWork

11. Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Co-Founder
Social Media for Nonprofits

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Macmillan’s new social media service encourages donating through dating

Macmillan Cancer Support has launched a new social media fundraising initiative that helps people find their perfect match while donating money to the charity.

My Mate Your Date is a free service that lets people ask friends to match-make them via Facebook. Over a 30 day period, a carefully selected group of friends are asked to suggest suitable dates for the single person, who names an amount they will donate per date suggested. He or she then reviews the suggestions (no online profiles or photos are shared to protect privacy) and requests introductions to those that appeal. All money collected at the end of the 30 days goes to Macmillan.

Macmillan have simultaneously revealed the results of a survey a survey it commissioned by which showed  that while nine out of ten Brits think online dating has become more acceptable in the past three years, 84% don’t believe it’s the best way to meet a long term partner. Single people also admitted that they are three times more likely to trust a Facebook profile (40%) than an online dating profile (14%).

Dating expert Elizabeth Sullivan commented:  “Whilst online dating is a great way to meet fellow singles, people often feel nervous about meeting a stranger. And with our ever increasing schedules, people are often too busy to play cupid or too embarrassed to ask friends to set them up. That’s why My Mate Your Date is a brilliant concept: it uses a very modern social media tool but goes back to the traditional method of introducing friends…with an added feel good factor of giving to charity at the same time!”

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Yes, Fundraising is Hard Work!

I stopped in my tracks and chuckled as I was getting ready for work this morning. I was listening to an interview with Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars creator. He was talking about TV show and its leap to the big screen. The TV show's ratings were never great, but Veronica Mars had and it turns out still has a dedicated and loyal fan base.

Thomas created a Kickstarter page to raise money for a Veronica Mars movie. He started with a $2million goal and ended up raising $6million from 91,000 dedicated fans. But, here's the part I loved, here's what made me pause and chuckle:

"It’s been the most work,” said Thomas “I just finished signing 5,500 posters this week that are all going out to Kickstarter backers.”

Yes, thank you! Fundraising is hard work; sometimes hand cramping work. Maybe fundraising isn't for everyone. The story also featured Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post pop culture blogger.

“It’s a way of picking the lock on the Hollywood gate and getting around the gatekeepers,” said Rosenberg. “But that doesn’t mean there [aren't] enormous advantages in working with mainstream studios.”

While crowd funding is in vogue; I often refer to crowd fundraising as peer to peer event fundraising's cousin – it's important to recognize that it's hard work. If stewarding donors was easy wouldn't everyone be raising more money?

I hope this makes you chuckle today as well. It's not often that you hear someone in Hollywood be able to relate to the nonprofit world. Be great to your donors, embrace the hard work and know that it does make a difference.

Curious to see how your organization measures up with the rest of the crowd? Visit the Blackbaud Index and compare your fundraising prowess with the rest of the landscape.

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Free Daffodil Day app for Android, Apple and Microsoft launched

Dell and the Irish Cancer Society have announced the availability of a free Daffodil Day smartphone app, which will empower users to discover nearby Daffodil merchandise in their area.

The app works on all platforms and has a range of exciting features including a location mapping functions that will help users find merchandise.

The new app is also a powerful charitable giving tool which makes it easier than ever to donate to the Irish Cancer Society on Daffodil Day, which will be held on March 28th this year. The team at Dell Ireland is behind the innovative mobile application, which the Irish Cancer Society hopes will be instrumental in attracting a new generation of supporters to the Daffodil Day campaign.

Shane Breslin, Web Services Manager from the Irish Cancer Society, thinks that the app will generate awareness of and support for Daffodil Day among young people.

“The tech experts at Dell have come up with a range of brilliant features including a dynamic map that lets you track down locations where campaign merchandise is available.

“You can also use the app to make a donation, to volunteer your time on March 28th, or simply to keep up to date with all the latest news and social media posts from the Irish Cancer Society. We’re encouraging everyone to download the free app today,” said Breslin.

The Daffodil Day app is available to download free from Google Play, Windows Phone and the iOS App Store today.

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Users of Cancer Research UK’s smartphone game analyse DNA data faster than scientists

In one month ‘citizen scientists’ have analysed DNA data that would have taken a scientist six months to analyse by eye by playing Cancer Research UK’s new smartphone game Play to Cure: Genes in Space.

If this amount of DNA – tightly-coiled strings of genetic information – was unravelled it would stretch across 40 miles, or (65 km). Incredibly, this is a distance equivalent to the length of more than 540 football fields, or about 80 times the height of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

These figures follow the February launch of the charity’s unique game which global gamers of all ages can play on their smartphones and simultaneously analyse gene data.

Cancer Research UK’s scientists must decode vast amounts of data to discover cancer-causing genetic faults in order to develop new targeted treatments for patients. But the human eye is needed to spot patterns in the data – computers aren’t precise enough. And it would take scientists years to do this manually – diverting their time from other essential research.

But the collective clout of the sheer numbers of gamers across the world have sped this up, and will boost accuracy with many pairs of eyes examining each stretch of DNA.

In just one month, there have been 1.5 million classifications through the game from players in almost every country in world.

And citizen scientists have collectively dedicated more than 53,000 hours – six and a half years – playing the game and analysed around half the data from the first research project.

Hannah Keartland, Cancer Research UK’s citizen science lead, said: “We’re astounded by this fantastic support from citizen scientists across the world which goes to show – you don’t need to wear a lab coat to be a hero.

“It’s crucial we don’t stop here because the more people who play in their spare moments, the quicker we’ll make a difference. There never again needs to be such a thing as a boring queue!

“It’s still early days but we believe the collective force of global gamers could have a massive impact and speed up our life-saving research.”

The game is available to download now for free for anyone with an Android or Apple Smartphone.

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