I attended a online seminar with hosted by Simone Joyaux on the Basic Principles of Fund Development a couple of weeks ago.
It was pretty good and chocked full of advice. One of the topics was talking about a donor-centered organization. It is how the organization with the right attitude is focused on the donor or prospective donor; When you have that focus - you are not trying to sell someone on your passion and mission. How we communitcate with our members is to tell them what their contribution/membership accomplished.
Sit back and think about the last time when you felt appreciated. How did you feel? Now look at your communications with your members. How many times was the word "you" used vs. "I or we"? Did the group thank them and how many times? Simone pointed out that turning the statement around to "... because of you.... we yada yada..." and "... your gift did this and that...". These statements have been said by most fund raisers. I welcomed again. It is good to be reminded about what it takes to keep your members
Each of our Friends groups need to look at our members and the way we communicate how their donation has made a difference. We need to remember that giving is an emotional act.
Over the next week or so, I'll be putting up additional thoughts from the seminar. If you would like more information, visit Simone's site under the resources tab. It is full of great information, articles, a download library, links, and quotes.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
FOCL CONFERENCE
The FOCL Conference is set. Saturday, November 6th at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT!
Join us now - to read more about it click here . You'll find the registration form on that page!
Don't Miss Out - Deadline to register is October 22, 2010!
Join us now - to read more about it click here . You'll find the registration form on that page!
Don't Miss Out - Deadline to register is October 22, 2010!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
FOCL Membership
Many of you have received your membership renewal packet already. Please get them back into FOCL as soon as possible.
Included in your packet is a survey. You can fill it out on-line or do it on paper. Most important - get it back in the mail as soon as possible! The survey is about Membership. This is the topic for the FOCL Conference to be held Saturday, November 6th at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. On that day you'll get the results on the survey. You will have the opportunity to hear three great speakers on this very topic.
Mail yours by October 15, 2010 for inclusion in the 2011 Directory, to: FOCL, Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457
Included in your packet is a survey. You can fill it out on-line or do it on paper. Most important - get it back in the mail as soon as possible! The survey is about Membership. This is the topic for the FOCL Conference to be held Saturday, November 6th at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. On that day you'll get the results on the survey. You will have the opportunity to hear three great speakers on this very topic.
Mail yours by October 15, 2010 for inclusion in the 2011 Directory, to: FOCL, Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Communication Plan
Interesting concept? Essential concept. An organization needs to have a communiation plan. You can tell whether the origanization has a plan by how each of the organizational leaders, the board, and committee chairs/members view themselves in their appointed responsibilities about getting the word out. Friends groups are member organizations. Information and communications should be focused toward the members.
It is becoming extremely important for organizations to not only embrace their mission, but understand who their members and public are. "Build it and they will come" may be great for baseball yet it may be seen as a self centered approach. We need to communicate in a member centered approach.
So what do you do? Take an inventory of your recent communications to your members. Ask yourself not only the number of communications, but what are the topics discussed. Now ask yourself, what information was given to the member. Was it about what WE did or was it to let them know how important they are or how their contribution made a difference?
Real Life Example: A Friend's group produced a flyer for upcoming programs they were sponsoring. I asked them how was it going to be distributed. Their answer was to put it in the library and hand it out at the booth they take at a street fair. I thought to myself, "a street fair, that's an interesting venue". I had them explain what other methods they were using to get the word out about these events. I heard their plan, though I heard a missing link. When I asked them how their members would hear of it, I received an honest answer, opps we didn't think of them. Good for them, I just love an honest answer.
We continued the disucssion with some zeal and began to rough out a communication plan. Handing out these flyers at the street fair is similar to, what the for profit world labels, making cold calls. Except there isn't any way to followup with people that took a flyer. While some of the group's members may stop by their booth, most of their members will not be there for this event. We talked about having a sign up to get email addresses from folks that stoped by. That way they could follow up; there could be a new member just waiting to be asked to join.
Since this flyer covered several events over an extended time frame, continued use of this flyer at future events wasn't so clear. There wasn't enough flyers to send to members. That was corrected quickly. We ran through the balance of the events and came up with a few more suggestions. With formulating this plan, we found some information still needs to be clarified and those questions will go back to their committee.
Let me say, it was a great process. This group will now be able to reach out to their members and not just the public at large.
Conclusion:
A communication plan is an essential element to an organization's success. I will ask the organizational leaders, the board, and committee chairs/members how is your work being communicated to the members of your organization? Are you covering the various ways to communicate? The avenues are so numerous today: think about print, your own web page/site, other organizations' web pages/sites, newspapers, radio, email, social networking sites are only a few.
Do you have a written plan and time line? This is a great tool. The plan is about what avenues to use. Your time line will contain the constraints of using each of the avenues. Example, our friendly printer will do the flyers for cost provided we get the finished flyer to them three weeks before we need to distribute it. Without a plan, the organization may miss an opportunity to communicate, burn out individuals as it is a 'last minute' job, or possibly have copy with errors in it. A time line is simple, but is someone minding the process for the organization?
When do you do write the time line? My suggestion is that the group look at it once every six months. The time line should be at least a year out, though I recommend two to three years. Search on-line - you'll find great examples to use. Ring in with your ideas and comments!
It is becoming extremely important for organizations to not only embrace their mission, but understand who their members and public are. "Build it and they will come" may be great for baseball yet it may be seen as a self centered approach. We need to communicate in a member centered approach.
So what do you do? Take an inventory of your recent communications to your members. Ask yourself not only the number of communications, but what are the topics discussed. Now ask yourself, what information was given to the member. Was it about what WE did or was it to let them know how important they are or how their contribution made a difference?
Real Life Example: A Friend's group produced a flyer for upcoming programs they were sponsoring. I asked them how was it going to be distributed. Their answer was to put it in the library and hand it out at the booth they take at a street fair. I thought to myself, "a street fair, that's an interesting venue". I had them explain what other methods they were using to get the word out about these events. I heard their plan, though I heard a missing link. When I asked them how their members would hear of it, I received an honest answer, opps we didn't think of them. Good for them, I just love an honest answer.
We continued the disucssion with some zeal and began to rough out a communication plan. Handing out these flyers at the street fair is similar to, what the for profit world labels, making cold calls. Except there isn't any way to followup with people that took a flyer. While some of the group's members may stop by their booth, most of their members will not be there for this event. We talked about having a sign up to get email addresses from folks that stoped by. That way they could follow up; there could be a new member just waiting to be asked to join.
Since this flyer covered several events over an extended time frame, continued use of this flyer at future events wasn't so clear. There wasn't enough flyers to send to members. That was corrected quickly. We ran through the balance of the events and came up with a few more suggestions. With formulating this plan, we found some information still needs to be clarified and those questions will go back to their committee.
Let me say, it was a great process. This group will now be able to reach out to their members and not just the public at large.
Conclusion:
A communication plan is an essential element to an organization's success. I will ask the organizational leaders, the board, and committee chairs/members how is your work being communicated to the members of your organization? Are you covering the various ways to communicate? The avenues are so numerous today: think about print, your own web page/site, other organizations' web pages/sites, newspapers, radio, email, social networking sites are only a few.
Do you have a written plan and time line? This is a great tool. The plan is about what avenues to use. Your time line will contain the constraints of using each of the avenues. Example, our friendly printer will do the flyers for cost provided we get the finished flyer to them three weeks before we need to distribute it. Without a plan, the organization may miss an opportunity to communicate, burn out individuals as it is a 'last minute' job, or possibly have copy with errors in it. A time line is simple, but is someone minding the process for the organization?
When do you do write the time line? My suggestion is that the group look at it once every six months. The time line should be at least a year out, though I recommend two to three years. Search on-line - you'll find great examples to use. Ring in with your ideas and comments!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Communications - Email a good choice?
How do you communicate with the members/donors to your Friends group? What type of communication do they receive. Sit down with your Board and look at the number of times the Board has communicated with each member during the last year. You may be quite surprised at the level of your communication.
What would be a type of communication? From a Friends newsletter, to a request for renewal of their membership, a year end thank you note, a phone call to say thank you, or an invite to a special event. Each of these counts as to a communication.
Today there is email. Wow,it is quick;and informal too. While it may be quick, once you hit the send button it's pretty much over. I've received interboard communications with lots of typos, run on sentances and all those items we learned not to do. You can't explain yourself out of it. Remember this communication is a representation of the your Friends group. Your member may feel slighted that the communication wasn't professional. Make sure someone that isn't close to the topic reads the email out loud before you send it.
We can blast out a news item. It's cheap, it's easy. Let's make sure that you have the member's permission. You say permission - why yes. The member receiving the email may enjoy this particular topic, another member may toss it out. Using an appropriate email service that allows the member to select the topics that you send is getting their permission. This allows you to send a last minute word about a program that could be interesting to a particular group of members. Example - member indicates he/she would likeinformation on children's and teen programs. Another member is interested in advocacy only. A great book on on this topic is, Seth Godin's Permission Marketing
it is a great read. Check it out.
When your group is determining whether or not to use email to communicate with members, you need to get a privacy policy and adhere to it. There are plenty places on the web where you can find examples. This is an important policy that the Board should have. Once you have it, post it on your web pages or web site. In the same vein, your email should be addressed to only one person. Listing lots of email addresses in the "TO" box isn't keeping their email private.
Ending and email should be addressed from a person since we are speaking to our members. Leave information like, phone number to call, website address, link to the privacy policy and what I call a tag line. A tag line could be "Celebrating 50 years of service to our Library", another one could change with the time of year -"Book Sale is on Saturday, December 12, at 9am - see you there". At the bottom of the email, there should be a place to "opt out" of the email.
If you decide that your organization wishes to use email to communicate with members, remember it is only one method. An email will not substitue for a hand written thank you card. Good use of email can assist the Board in creating and serving your membership, thereby creating a closer community.
What would be a type of communication? From a Friends newsletter, to a request for renewal of their membership, a year end thank you note, a phone call to say thank you, or an invite to a special event. Each of these counts as to a communication.
Today there is email. Wow,it is quick;and informal too. While it may be quick, once you hit the send button it's pretty much over. I've received interboard communications with lots of typos, run on sentances and all those items we learned not to do. You can't explain yourself out of it. Remember this communication is a representation of the your Friends group. Your member may feel slighted that the communication wasn't professional. Make sure someone that isn't close to the topic reads the email out loud before you send it.
it is a great read. Check it out.When your group is determining whether or not to use email to communicate with members, you need to get a privacy policy and adhere to it. There are plenty places on the web where you can find examples. This is an important policy that the Board should have. Once you have it, post it on your web pages or web site. In the same vein, your email should be addressed to only one person. Listing lots of email addresses in the "TO" box isn't keeping their email private.
Ending and email should be addressed from a person since we are speaking to our members. Leave information like, phone number to call, website address, link to the privacy policy and what I call a tag line. A tag line could be "Celebrating 50 years of service to our Library", another one could change with the time of year -"Book Sale is on Saturday, December 12, at 9am - see you there". At the bottom of the email, there should be a place to "opt out" of the email.
If you decide that your organization wishes to use email to communicate with members, remember it is only one method. An email will not substitue for a hand written thank you card. Good use of email can assist the Board in creating and serving your membership, thereby creating a closer community.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Minutes of the Board Meeting
The minutes of your Board meeting are for the future. Your minutes are to summarize the decisions of the Board and not to read like a newsletter.
You can read a great article from non-profit-governance and see a sample. Here's another example at Management Help.
In my talk last fall "Things your Treasurer Should Know", one of my points under the Duties of the Treasurer, was to review the minutes. I pointed out that the Treasurer should be reviewing the minutes that go back a year to be sure that current year items are not missing.
Here's a real life example: Friends group had adopted a financial policy to determine how to allocate the amount of money on hand at the end of the year. It's a great policy and tells the members how the amounts were calculated at the end of the year, what the amounts were and why. As I was reading the minutes for a task I was completing for them, it became obvious that this information I needed was missing in the minutes. In fact it had been missing for a couple of years. I assisted them in the reconstruction of the information and the group is to read it into their minutes at their next meeting.
Financial information is often difficult for the secretary to summarize for the minutes. I suggest that the Treasurer write out the informaton that should be included in minutes and have the Secretary copy it into the minutes. This way, a consistent format can be reported throughout the year and it also assists the Secretary with the financial jargon.
Here's a list of Treasurer / Finance Committee information that could be reported in the minutes. I would suggest that the Treasurer / Finance Committee calendar such information to be sure it is reported at the appropriate board meeting.
You can read a great article from non-profit-governance and see a sample. Here's another example at Management Help.
In my talk last fall "Things your Treasurer Should Know", one of my points under the Duties of the Treasurer, was to review the minutes. I pointed out that the Treasurer should be reviewing the minutes that go back a year to be sure that current year items are not missing.
Here's a real life example: Friends group had adopted a financial policy to determine how to allocate the amount of money on hand at the end of the year. It's a great policy and tells the members how the amounts were calculated at the end of the year, what the amounts were and why. As I was reading the minutes for a task I was completing for them, it became obvious that this information I needed was missing in the minutes. In fact it had been missing for a couple of years. I assisted them in the reconstruction of the information and the group is to read it into their minutes at their next meeting.
Financial information is often difficult for the secretary to summarize for the minutes. I suggest that the Treasurer write out the informaton that should be included in minutes and have the Secretary copy it into the minutes. This way, a consistent format can be reported throughout the year and it also assists the Secretary with the financial jargon.
Here's a list of Treasurer / Finance Committee information that could be reported in the minutes. I would suggest that the Treasurer / Finance Committee calendar such information to be sure it is reported at the appropriate board meeting.
- Update on the bank accounts open / closed in the name of the Friends
- Signatures authorized on those accounts - especially if members have changed
- Renewal of insurance policies, like directors & officers, liability
- Highlight the proceeds from a fundraising event and/or coordinate with the committee chair on the reporting responsibility - make sure the numbers are given in the same format as they would be found in the report.
- Passing of a budget - since this is a driving force of how the organization will operate. It may be well worth to use a template for this type of information, to include the final amount and possibly how it was determined
- Tax returns - the organization may have several tax forms that need filing
- Contracts - state their status, updates or changes due to renegotiation, finalized and/or finished contracts
- Update the groups website for financial reports,
- Report the year end financial report in more detail than you may have reported during the year
- Receipt of temporarily and permanently restricted donations
- Awards of grants
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)