What Makes Change Stick?

What’s the one most powerful indicator of an agency’s ability to make lasting change in its development returns?

I have a surprising answer to that.

You’d think it was the board, or a wealthy founder, or a super-rich patron who takes the agency under his/her wing – but I don’t think those are the factors that lead to real, sustained, institutional fundraising change.

It’s the support and attention of the executive director.

Why do I say that?

Because board members are volunteers.

And at the end of the day, they go home, and they leave it behind. I say that as a board member myself – I have to triage my life, and some times I just don’t have the room to take my work, my kids, and my board responsibilities home and into the shower (our metaphorical board member “ownership” test – are you thinking about it in the shower?). Just not enough mental space…or capacity for stress from so many directions.

Which means… that as the nonprofit executive, the buck stops here. It’s up to me as an executive director to keep the balls in the air, the board members motivated and appreciated, the volunteers excited, etc. Doesn’t mean I have to do everything, but yes, I am responsible for making sure that everything of that nature does get done.

In fundraising, this doesn’t mean that the executive director brings all the assets to the table – but that his/her support, interest, and attention is what gets board members (and staff) to perform. And what gets fundraising prioritized, again and again, when program and financial imperatives threaten to take all the air out of the room.

But how do I say that?

As an executive director myself – ruefully.

I wish it was true that my board would take off by itself – that all the boards we work with would “see the light” that fundraising = friendraising and just start to fly all on their own – but the fact is, it all comes down to us.

There is, after all, the aura of leadership. The fact that people prioritize what I prioritize. That people do, actually, want to please the executive director (though I know some times it doesn’t feel that way!)

What can you pay attention to? And how far do new initiatives travel without the sustained drive of the chief daily leader…?

Before the Ball Begins: Asking the Big Questions Before the Contract is Signed

We’ve been doing a lot of special events “pre-counseling” these days – helping groups figure out if they should do their annual event, what they could get out of it, and what, exactly, would make the effort worth it in these times.

In fact, we’ve been having these conversations so often, we created a list of 10 questions every group should ask as part of this assessment process.

What I want to talk about here is getting to that dialogue – having the guts to back away from the “peach vs. plum-colored tablecloths” discussions, or even from the fascination of “let’s-have–chicken-this-year-because-it’s-cheaper-than-salmon.”

Events bring out the detail-oriented dog-with-a-bone in each of us.  In fact, often the most valuable board or committee member on event duty is someone who relishes wrestling with the details, creating the total picture, tracking all the micro-decisions that add up to a really fabulous event.

And although that kind of person will sigh at the inception of yet another event, they truly love getting down in the muck and making it happen.  So even in these times, they’re ready to work twice as hard to pull your event off.

But sometimes, and especially in these times, that kind of “put-your-head-down-and-get-to-work” stance isn’t what’s called for.

With events, it’s all too easy to lose your shirt if you don’t get it right.  And that “it” is not just the hula hoop versus karaoke machine details of event production – it’s the match of audience, activity, and goals. 

That’s the conversation that has to happen this year.

Every year – good to have.

This year – essential.

What We’ve Got Here…

I was reminded of one of the most famous cinematic lines the other day (voted #11 of the top 100 of all time):

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate…”

Both times it appears in the movie Cool Hand Luke, it’s spoken in irony, reflecting on one-way communication that’s brutally unresponsive. The line is steeped in loss of dignity…in demotion of social status…in failure.

It mocks the niceties of polite discourse, presuming that some human beings aren’t worth the time of day.

So what brought on this reflection?

I was thinking about how we communicate with donors – both how important that is, and how it can settle into a routine that’s ultimately only one-way.

We tell them what we’ve done, in nice, graphically-appealing mocked-up newsletters.

We communicate our impact.

And then we check that off the fundraising calendar and move on.

But what about listening?

What about communication as understanding what your donors have to bring to the table – their insights, their passions, their points of view?

It’s tricky – it can get into some of the same territorial issues as board-staff communication (I’m the program expert and here they are giving me advice on my field) – but if we don’t approach donors from the standpoint of “We’re in this together to make a better world,” they certainly won’t take the lead in putting us on the same side of the table.

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What is...Rich?

I was playing Apples to Apples at an end-of-summer family barbecue last night. That’s the party-game-in-a-box that involves matching descriptive words such as “cuddly” with a random choice of nouns such as “frogs” or “a dark alley” or “my bathroom.”

One person serves as the judge of what is the most appropriate – or the worst but most humorous – match. (The judge position rotates with each turn.)

Well about an hour and a couple of glasses of wine into the game, on my turn as a judge I drew the word “rich.” Hmm – not something, with a lifelong career in the nonprofit sector, that I have a lot of familiarity with.

But lo and behold, there was a life-lesson there.

Along with cards for “Cleopatra” and “Las Vegas” – there was a dead ringer.

My 16-year-old son, who knows me best, thought to himself: “This is the worst card, but I know my mom is going to pick it.”

And sure enough, as soon as it went down, the woman next to me, who works in the nonprofit sector, winced.

So what was the horrific card he threw down?

“Fundraising.”
….

Well did I pick it?

With gusto (although I have to admit that “Las Vegas” did give me pause)…and with affection.

For the way that fundraising makes the world a richer, brighter, better place.