Do’s and Don’ts for a Better Phonathon by Naomi Marshall

With this post, I'm happy to announce a new FLiP partnership! In the next few months you will start to see a series of posts from Academic Impressions. The organization, based in Denver, CO, works to create a dialogue about emerging trends in higher education. They promote conferences and events across the country, as well as produce all types of thought-leading articles and posts.

Almost every higher education institution has a phonathon, but not every one is operating as effectively and efficiently as they could. Making small improvements in your calling technique and watching out for hidden habits in phonathon management can yield substantial dividends in donor participation and dollars raised.

Most people, when thinking about the fundraising call, overlook the communication and negotiation skills needed to get the gift.  To help turn a good call into a great one:

• Communicate value. Your potential donor must believe in the cause if they’re going to give to your institution.  When on the phone, talk about your institution’s mission, what goals you’re working toward, and don’t forget to let them know why they should care and what’s in it for them.

• Be passionate. Even if your case is compelling on its own, your potential donor will pick up on a caller’s lack of passion for an issue.  Put heart into your call, and make your listener believe that it really matters to you.

• Say thank you first. If the person you’re calling has given before or volunteered for your cause, know that before you call them. Start off the call by saying thank you, and know what you’re thanking them for.  Retaining donors is as important as finding new ones, so take time to appreciate all they’ve done already.

Tip:  Why not turn your phonathon into a thankathon for an evening, and only call past donors to say thank with no new solicitation.  You’ll be surprised at the response and the gifts you’ll receive without asking!

• Don’t stop at no. There are a variety of reasons why a donor says no.  Be sure to find out why they turned you down.  Perhaps you didn’t ask for the right amount, or perhaps they’re interested in donating to another cause at your organization.  Listening to why will help you understand if there is still a possibility of a yes and can also serve to build rapport with the potential donor by showing that you care.

Many phonathon managers inherit what seems to be a successful program, and time pressure can keep them from looking closely at that success. It’s often easy to slide into habits that don’t have an apparent negative effect, but can hinder your phonathon performance if unchecked. Watch out for these four easy-to-overlook habits:

• Glossing over the warm-up. Oftentimes, warm-ups for callers turn into quick cheerleading sessions before you send callers to the phone.  Cheerleading gets old fast and doesn’t give the callers any value.  Be sure that your warm-ups have an educational component in addition to setting the tone for the calls.  Doing it right might take you longer at first, but in time you’ll be able to get through a valuable warm-up quicker, and you’ll start seeing the results from doing it right.

Are We Ready to Lead?

Echoing what our friend Elizabeth Miller eloquently outlined as challenges faced by the next generation of potential leaders of the nonprofit sector, a recently released study asked close to 6,000 “next generation leaders” for their input on this seemingly hot topic.

The study entitled, “Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out” was produced in partnership by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Meyer Foundation and Idealist.org.

Whether we like it or not, we are the focus of discussion relating to the future of this sector. What a sigh of relief then that our feedback has been gathered into this comprehensive study.

Check it out, come back to FLiP, and let us know what you think!

Challenges for Young People by Elizabeth Miller

Editor’s Note: FLiP is pleased to bring you another post from our friend Elizabeth Miller, Senior Program Associate at the Overbrook Foundation.  You may contact the author at emiller@overbrook.org.

Someone recently asked me what the primary challenges are that prevent young people from working in the field of philanthropy. That query echoed questions that I’ve had from my peers about why one would want to pursue a career where “you don’t make a lot of money” and where it’s unclear what skills you bring to the position and besides “what do you do all day?”. These kinds of comments get me thinking about how best to address these kinds of concerns so that we can encourage more young people to be excited to join the foundation and nonprofit world.

One of the primary problems is that foundations and nonprofit organizations are not very well understood by young, would-be professionals. Likewise, the organizations themselves are not very good at educating college students about the field nor are colleges. This invariably leads to a field that can be esoteric. Unfortunately, this deflects interest not only from young people, but from other seasoned professionals who don’t understand the nonprofit field. However, for young people this lack of understanding is more severe because they don’t often understand how their skills can contribute to the sector and although young people are often filled with a sense that they want to “do good” or “give back” they aren’t clear about how nonprofits can provide the opportunity toward achieving that larger goal.

Young Founder Interview: Peter Deitz

I'm happy to present the latest in FLiP's series of young founder interviews. Peter Deitz created Social Actions, an organization which helps individuals and organizations use social media to plan, implement, and support peer-to-peer social change campaigns so that grassroots solutions to local and global problems can flourish. Peter also writes a blog, About Micro-Philanthropy, to highlight the leaders in the social sector. What's micro-philanthropy? How do you go about becoming a consultant in your 20's? FLiPs, I'm happy to introduce Peter Deitz: 

Future Leaders in Philanthropy (FLiP): Thanks for taking the time to speak with FLiP! Let’s start with some basics. Where did you go to school? How did you get involved with the social sector?

Peter Deitz (PD): First, thank you for this opportunity to talk about my work with the FLiP community.  I’m always looking for like-minded souls.  People who are interested in Social Actions can friend me on Facebook.  My profile is listed on the FLiP Facebook Group.

My path to the social sector is pretty direct.  I graduated from McGill University in 2001 with a B.A. in history and then went on to get a Masters in history from The University of Toronto in 2003.  When I graduated the second time, I was ready to leave academics behind and throw myself into the so-called real world. 

My time in Canada, my studies of history, my experiences with Quakers, and current events at the time had all led me to pursue a career in doing something good for the world.   Entering the private sector was never an option.

When I started applying for jobs in New York, Washington, Toronto, and Montreal, I found that I was not alone in the pursuit of meaningful work.  A Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in history are common currency in our field.  I needed something to distinguish myself.  As a closet nerd, I had developed a decent sense of interface design and could program my way through a basic website.  I started applying for web manager and IT jobs for nonprofits. 

Eventually, I found my way to a full-time job in New York City as a technical consultant on several human rights and global governance projects.  The work was great.  The people were great.  For the first time, I felt like I was making a difference.  But after two years, I wanted to move back to Canada and launch my own project.

FLiP: What is Social Actions? How old were you when you launched it?

PD: As I was leaving New York City, my colleagues asked me what I would do next.  I responded tongue-in-cheek by saying, “I’m going to devote myself to philanthropy.”  I wasn’t joking.  Within three months, I starting publishing articles on something called “micro-philanthropy” and had launched a project called “First-of-its-kind.”

In hindsight, the name First-of-its-kind was a placeholder as I clarified the way in which I wanted to shake up the world of philanthropy.  My goal was to do something totally original that would encourage more people of my generation to become philanthropic.

By August 2007, at 28 years old, I had developed a clearer vision of how First-of-its-kind could evolve into something truly useful.  I revamped the site and changed the name to Social Actions.  Today, Social Actions is a search engine of peer-to-peer social change campaigns and a training resource for individuals, organizations, and foundations that want to use social media to create social change.   

My project pulls the latest giving and do-gooder opportunities from 14 social action platforms, ranging from Kiva.org’s community of micro-finance lenders to GiveMeaning’s platform for group fundraising.  A social action platform is a website or online tool that allows individuals to use social media (i.e., email, video, images, social networks, and widgets) to raise money and support for specific projects.   

As the number of social action platforms grows, Social Actions is positioned to be the go-to place for finding opportunities to engage from across the sector and learning how to create peer-to-peer social change campaigns.

Through the blog on Social Actions, called About Micro-Philanthropy, I post articles for individuals on how to use social media and social action platforms to start fundraising and do-gooder projects of their own.  For nonprofits and foundations, I write articles and offer consulting on how to leverage the resources and passions of supporters.

FLiP: As a young founder, what kinds of challenges did you run into?

Summit onPhilanthropy V! by Will Schneider

Yesterday at the Yale Club in New York City, over 300 people got together for the fifth annual Summit onPhilanthropy. The Summit, which is hosted by FLiP’s parents, onPhilanthropy and Changing Our World, Inc., is an annual gathering of the leading voices in the world of philanthropy.

I know I’m a little biased, working for the company that produces the event, but year after year I find the Summit to be the smartest conference about the philanthropic sector.  This year the all day event featured three panel discussions and two separate speakers. Topics ranged from branding to microfinance and from global engagement to the future of online causes.

Here are some high notes from the conference:

• Webcasting. For the first time all of the speeches and panels were videotaped, and excerpts will soon be available at onPhilanthropy.com!

• Cause Wired. The first panel of the day kicked us off with a lively discussion of where online causes are taking us. More than ephilanthropy, more than political organizing, what is the future for causes online? Is this the end of fundraising by organizations? Will fickle Facebook groups be the new standard for raising money? What about the next big thing? The panel, moderated by Tom Watson, Publisher of onPhilanthropy and future author of the book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World [due out in November], addresses these issues and more. Check out excerpts from the panel on the onPhilanthropy.com homepage.

• Microfinance. The second panel, which was billed as a discussion of emerging, innovative market models, spent a lot of time talking about one in particular: microfinance. Moderator Stacy Palmer, Editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, led the discussion and managed to clear up about 90% of my questions… but also raised more than a few new ones. Fundraisers of the future may need accounting/law/business degrees just to keep up.

• Branding. The last panel of the afternoon, led by Marcia Stepanek,  Editor-in-Chief of Contribute Magazine, centered around getting your organization’s message out to the public. Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED), was a member of the really outstanding panel and told the audience how (RED) is fighting its way out of Bono’s shadow, and around some bad, inaccurate, press. I don’t mind admitting, she turned me around on the (RED) concept, and if you watch the excerpts I bet she’ll win you over too.

• Keynote. The keynote address, delivered by Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Robert Orr, presented those in the room the opportunity to partner with the programs and services of the United Nations. How can we achieve our goals together?

• Plenary. Dr. Susan Raymond, who has given an address at each of the last five summits, gave a speech entitled, “For What?” [transcript and excerpts to be available on onPhilanthropy.com shortly] – that received the longest round of applause for a philanthropy-related speech I’ve ever heard. Susan called out the industry top-dogs, many of whom were in the room, for not truly deserving the tax-exemption our government has given them. Sure, as an industry we’ve raised and spent a ton in the past 40 years, trillions of dollars actually, but we haven’t ended poverty, cured diseases, or housed the homeless. In fact, in that time, many of the problems we’ve dedicated our lives to haven’t gotten better at all. Most have gotten worse! If that is true, why do we deserve to circumvent our tax burden? Why should society carry organizations with poor results? For what? Susan also has all of the answers, but for those you will need to watch the speech at our parent site, onPhilanthropy.com. When you do hold on tight and enjoy.

• After party. Not to be overlooked, the cocktail reception in the Tap Room provided an outstanding opportunity to network and de-brief about the overwhelming amount of information delivered throughout the day.

It was a great day, and as soon as it was over the organizers started to map out the plan for Summit VI! You want to join us next year? Book early!

Another Great Event! FLiP's Fourth Event

FLiP's fourth event was a huge success. The big news it that, unlike last time, we were finally in a space big enough to fit us! 130+ FLiPs gathered to listen to the philanthropic musings of Brian Walsh, the guy with the coolest title in the room. Brian, the Director of Global Social Engagement, focused his speech on describing to us how Liquidnet – for lack of a better phrase - does philanthropy. One of the most innovative approaches to corporate giving I’ve ever heard, Brian goes beyond financial donations, and in fact seeks to create a culture of philanthropy at Liquidnet.

Personally, I was really happy with the vibe in the room. Not to harp on the same subject we always write about, but people just seem really happy to meet each other! How often do young professionals in philanthropy get to meet each other? How often do young people in the philanthropic sector exchange business cards with their colleagues, trade advice, and make new connections?

Judging by the crowd and the energy in the room, not nearly often enough.

Stay tuned and subscribe to the FLiP website – http://flip.onphilanthropy.com – for information about our next event, coming in April – Speed Networking!

Thanks for coming, it was great to see so many friendly faces!

To see pictures from the event - head to FLiP's Facebook group - http://cmsv.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2223446458

Event Update

After being summoned on official presidential business, Chris Watson of Changing Our World, Inc., disappointedly informed me that he will not be able to speak at the FLiP-on-Tap on Tuesday, March 4th.  We’ll miss Chris and hope to see him at a future FLiP event. 

But don’t worry FLiPs, we won’t leave you in the lurch!

We’ve invited the Director of Global Social Engagement at Liquidnet, Brian Walsh, to speak about making the transition from a FLiP to holding a leadership position in philanthropy. 

Join us as on the second floor of Turtle Bay (987 Second Avenue, between 52nd & 53rd Streets) from 6-8PM. Mingle with your fellow FLiPs, exchange ideas and hear Brian’s take on what it’s like to take your career to the next level.  RSVPing is not required but in an attempt to get an idea on how many FLiPs will be in attendance, please either RSVP through our Facebook group or send me an email.

I hope to see you on Tuesday at Turtle Bay!