Non-Profit Management Secrets Revealed!

I recently asked our board members to be honest with me, then I asked them this question (stolen from Seth Godin):

When people talk about Community Partners of Dallas, what do they say?

Scary, huh?

Thankfully, I didn't hear anything bad (of course, maybe the board members were just sparing my feelings -- but they know that I'm tough enough to take it) -- lots of people mentioned our mission and helping abused and neglected children, our events (Chick Lit Luncheon and Change is Good), our auxiliaries (The Partnership, yCPD and THANKs), and our volunteer activities, but the thing that was mentioned over and over was that Community Partners of Dallas was thought to be well-run.

You might imagine that I liked that response since I know that this is a big part of my job as CEO.

So, for the next few weeks, I am going to let you in on all of my non-profit management secrets.  I'm even going to post more than once a week, so get ready.

Secret 1 is...

Do All You Can To Help Other Non-Profits Succeed

With me there really are no secrets and I think most members of the non-profit community feel this way.  I really will help other non-profits with advice to succeed, even though you may think that isn't too smart.

If I help someone to learn how to raise more money, doesn't that mean there's less for CPD?

I don't believe that.  If your cause is compelling and you can tell your story, there are enough generous people in Dallas for both of us.

And I promise that what you put out there will come back to you.  More tomorrow...

Quick Tips on Raising Money for Charity

Before we begin, you must answer these questions:

1. So, are you a staff person for a charity or a volunteer? 
2. Did you volunteer to raise money for XYZ charity or did someone beg you to be on the fundraising committee or chair their gala? 
3. Did you see a need in your community and want to fill it by helping those kids/animals/earth and just need to raise some bucks to put your 501(c)(3) on the map?
4. Are you crazy?

No matter what your answers were to the questions above, I guarantee that your answer to question 4 is YES -- and thank God you are crazy because most people don't have the time or guts to do what you're about to do -- and charities need you desperately!

NOTE:  The photo above is of me with two great fundraisers -- Christie Carter and Lynn McBee.  Love them and all they do for Community Partners of Dallas and so many others in our community!

I have been a professional in the non-profit world for many years now (15+ years) and even before that I was a volunteer, so let's just say that I have more than 25 years of experience in fundraising.

You'd think that with all of that knowledge we'd be raking it in at Community Partners of Dallas.  Alas, even with 1,000 years of experience, fundraising takes work.

So, here are my quick tips for fundraising success:

• Start with a plan.  This sounds simple, but it isn't.  Think about your community -- will they respond to a fundraising event or a mailing or both?  BUDGET!
• Research is key -- look at other groups and see what they are doing to raise funds.  If their cause is similar to yours, the types of fundraising they do (and the people who give to them) might be a good start for you.
• How much seed money do you have to start?  It takes more money to hold an event than it does to ring doorbells or phones asking for donations.  Choose accordingly.
• You must care about the cause or forget it -- you need to have passion in order to inspire others to give.  If your personal story aligns with the mission of the agency (i.e., you are a cancer survivor and you are raising money for the American Cancer Society), you have the perfect way to ask -- tell your story.  This is power with a capital P.
• You need to ask your friends and family for donations.  If you can't ask them, who can you ask?  But if they say no, don't take it personally.  All you are doing is offering them an opportunity to help a cause.  If they say no, there could be a million reasons why they made that decision.  The next person may say yes.  And no doesn't always mean no -- that no person may come back to you in a week or 10 years later.  Leave them feeling good about you and their decision -- whatever it is.
• Always be honest.  Tell the truth about how the money will be used and why you need it. 

This is just a start, but I'd love to hear what you think.  One of my very favorite tips is to ask yourself this question:

"What would you do if you weren't afraid?"

P.S.  That last one works in many situations -- not just fundraising ones...

3 Myths About Business and Charity

Tomorrow is the day that we give away coats for the kids at Community Partners of Dallas.  As you may know, CPD works with kids who are involved with the Child Protective Services system – so our clients are abused and neglected children who have open cases with CPS.

I have been here as CEO for almost 11 years and the coats we give out have pretty much single-handedly been supplied by the employees at Fidelity Investments for every one of those years – and even more years could be tacked on to the total from before I came here.  I don’t know how our relationship with Fidelity began, but we are surely blessed because of it.  I have no idea what we would do without them, as Fidelity delivered more than 1,500 coats to us on Monday morning – volunteers are sorting and counting them in our warehouse even as I type this post.

1. MYTH:  Corporations donate a lot to charity.  Some corporations do, but for the most part very little charitable dollars come from corporations.  In the US, charitable giving statistics are as follows:  Individuals, 73%; Foundations & Bequests, 22%; Corporations, 5%   NOTE:  At CPD we are very close to the national averages, as we are 71%, 25%, 4%
2. MYTH:  It is easy to raise funds from businesses.  If you have ever been in a meeting where people (aka board members/event volunteers/lay leaders) are brainstorming about how to raise money, invariably someone will pipe up and say “Well, you just need to call <insert name of big company here> and get them to give us some money.”  NOTE:  Notice that I used the word “you” in the “YOU just need to call” – that was on purpose, people.  Corporate money is the hardest money to raise in any economic environment and even more so in this kind of economy.  In fact, corporate giving declined 3% in 2011 and who knows what it will be like in 2012…
3. MYTH:  Money is all corporations give to charity.  Businesses do give funds, but many give in-kind donations that are worth thousands of dollars.  Corporations also provide volunteers to help charities and some even pay their employees to do volunteer work.  NOTE:  Working with corporations takes a lot of follow up and follow through.  If you are a charity who wants to “go for” corporate funds, be sure that you know this and plan accordingly.  Lots of emails, phone calls, and personal contacts are vital.  Corinne Karp, our Director of Corporate Development, does an outstanding job at this, so feel free to call her at 214-624-7588 to get your company involved today.

Thank you to everyone at Fidelity Investments for your huge gift to CPD.  You are champions and myth busters!

 P.S.  My #FundraisingFriday gift is going to CPD.  If Fidelity employees can do it, so can I.

How Fast Can You Tell the Story of an Abused Child, Lady?

Corinne and I headed out to the UPS facility at DFW this morning bright and early to do our first United Way of Metropolitan Dallas presentation for CPD. 

First, thank goodness I have Destination Assist on my car because the roads are so messed up out there that at one point the direction lady just gave up and quit trying to direct us -- I think she thought we were in the middle of a cow pasture!  Anyway, we got there (early, I might add -- I am an on-time gal normally) and went through the TSA screening.  It was interesting seeing that people going in and out were scanned and some had to remove shoes and some didn't.  It was also fun for us to see all of the good looking men and women in their brown shorts and happy faces coming in to work. 

Shortly thereafter we were met by our contact who had called me yesterday to ask if we could send someone out to speak.

NOTE:  If you don't know this already, when you are a United Way service provider you are asked to go out and speak to different corporations on behalf of United Way (UW).  These presentations are vital  to encourage employees to give to the UW campaign and of course it helps CPD to be in front of a lot of different people who may not have ever heard of us and what we do for abused and neglected kids in Dallas County.  This is our first year as a UW service provider (we are in the Basic Needs category), so I was thrilled to be called to give our very first presentation at UPS.

When UPS called yesterday I was told that I'd be part of the early morning meetings held for drivers.  They started with stretching (Corinne and I stretched too), heard a safe driving tip, then I was on -- for a three minute speech.

How fast can you tell the story of an abused child?

Pretty fast -- because that is what my host asked me to do!  Here's my advice for your next quick speech:

1. Smile and thank your contact by name.
2. Use good facial expressions and look your audience in the eye as you speak to them -- Energy is Key!
3. Paint a picture with your words -- give the name of the child (first name only for us because of confidentiality) and if it is a small child, use your hand to show how tall the child is.
4. Tell what your child is wearing -- "only a dirty diaper" is easy to picture.
5. Explain why their funds are needed -- "because of donations to United Way from people like you, Emily will enter a new safe home with clean clothes and shoes"
6. Smile and thank them for having you as part of their day.

For a company like UPS where every minute is precious, three minutes is a long time for them to give to us. 

I hope that we made an impact this morning.  Seeing those drivers and getting to see what they do each day sure made an impact on me.

P.S.  My #FundraisingFriday gift is going to United Way this week -- they even sent me a birthday card -- thanks, Jennifer and team!

#FundraisingFriday is here!

As you might imagine, I don’t read everything that comes across my desk, my computer screen, my I-Phone, my I-Pad, etc.  I bet you don’t either.

I am lucky enough to have a Mom who reads her Dallas Morning News religiously every morning and who texts (my mom taught me how) to let me know if there is something I really need to look at in case I don’t get to the paper that day.  I have co-workers who alert me to interesting articles about fund development, social media, etc. – but I would say that really, I am the main person who does this for them – as well as friends who will see something and let me know about it.

It takes a village, doesn’t it?  So much to read, so little time.

Anyway, I say all this to let you know that my friend Leslie Clay (Development VP at Hope Cottage.  Her mom and my mom were childhood friends.  So cute!) sent me an email about 3 weeks ago about this blog post.  Leslie thought it would make a good one – I think she’s right, so here goes…

There is a small movement in the Non-Profit world that is going around and the movement could use your help.  Called #FundraisingFriday, the idea is to ask everyone to commit to donating $10 each Friday to your favorite charities.  The #FundraisingFriday name obviously came from twitter since it uses the hash tag, but you don’t need to be on twitter to participate.

Everybody knows that $10 a week is a commitment, but it is totally do-able (and remember, I work for a charity, people), so I say let’s start this week.  Of course, I would love to encourage everyone to start by donating your first $10 to Community Partners of Dallas – CPD is an agency where $10 really buys something for the abused and neglected kids in our community.  It could send 3 babies home to their foster parents with new onesies or a whole bunch of kids back-to-school with pencils.  Hell, it can help pay $10 worth of our electric bill – and we would be honored to receive your donation.  Visit www.CommunityPartnersDallas.org to donate now and be sure to note that your gift was from #FundraisingFriday!

But just so you know that this post is not a total ploy to rake it in for CPD, I’m going to send my first $10 to my friend Leslie at Hope Cottage – this was her blog idea, after all – I know they help kids get adopted and a lot more.  Look for it, Leslie!

P.S.  I’d be happy to help promote your #FundraisingFriday recipients on this blog, so please post where your money is going in the comment box below.  I’d love some new ideas for my future gifts!

A Story You Haven't Heard

We have a big site visit today at Community Partners of Dallas.  For those of you who are not in the non-profit business, a site visit is done when a funder – an individual, a corporation, or a foundation – is considering your agency for a grant.  We do these all the time, so it is not typically a big deal for us.  However, some funders make it a little more difficult for agencies.  They put parameters on the visit and really want to hear from a lot of different people involved with the agency, they want board members to attend, and they give a very strict time frame in order to say everything you need to say.  And if you don’t know me – well, let’s just say it is hard for me to be succinct.

Enough said.

Practice was in order – lots of it.

So, in trying to make a compelling case for funding, I always tell the story of a child.  One of our board members asked me to tell this one and it is one I don’t usually tell.  It just breaks me up.  But it tells a lot about why our work is so important.

18 month old Amelia was tortured by her mother and step-father until her tiny body could take no more.  A neighbor heard her screams and called the police.  The adults were taken to jail and Amelia to ICU at the hospital and put on life support.  Caseworkers took shifts round the clock so someone would be with Amelia at all times – leaving their own children and families to do so.  Supervisors searched for family members and her paternal grandmother was found in another state and rushed to the little girl’s side.  Meanwhile, her caseworker came to CPD’s Rainbow Room and chose an outfit for Amelia to wear while her grandmother held her and the machines were turned off.

The Rainbow Room is here for children when they come into the system.  And sometimes when they leave it.

Hug your family today and wish us well on our visit.  Thanks – Paige

Civilized Society's Secret Code Revealed!

There is a code among civilized society, but some people don’t know the code.

Mothers teach it to children.  Bosses teach it to employees.  Wives teach it to husbands.  Friends teach it to friends.  Every person who is close to me at some point in time has heard about the code from me, or they have told me about the code.

Do you know what it is yet?

It is the Forgotten Name Code (FNC).  The FNC is multifaceted, so hold on to your pants...

When someone walks up to you and your friend – at a party, in a theater lobby, at a meeting, at a volunteer day at Community Partners of Dallas, wherever – and that person greets your friend and your friend does not (in turn) introduce you to that person, you must introduce yourself to that person, so then hopefully the stranger will tell you their name because your friend has obviously forgotten the stranger's name – otherwise your friend would have introduced you.  Your friend can then respond with something like:  “Oh, I’m sorry that I didn’t introduce you to Mary – Sue this is Mary.”  This is the most commonly used scenario of the FNC.  Extremely helpful to all concerned. 

Now, sometimes the stranger will just respond to the above by saying “nice to meet you” and not tell you her name.  At this point, you have two responses:  1) Do nothing.  Your friend is the one who looks bad because they’re the one who can’t remember this long-lost friend’s name, so what do you care?  2) Look directly at the stranger and say something like “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”  You must do this if you really like the friend you’re with and you don’t really want to hear her try to remember that person’s name for the rest of the night!

A variation of the FNC is sometimes performed in the following manner:  You see someone approaching you who you really don’t know well or maybe you just haven’t seen them for 20 years.  You recognize their face, but have no idea of their name.  When this happens to me (as it did last night at The AT&T PAC during the pre-show reception for In the Heights), I always put a big smile on my face and say in a very familiar way “Well, hello!  I’m Paige McDaniel.”  The hope is that this person will return the favor and say “Oh, hi – it’s Mary Smith – how about those days at Camp Longhorn together?”  This is the best of all possible worlds.  But, of course, many times this person will respond to you with “Oh, I know who you are.”  Ugh.  For God's sake people, if I remind you of my name, remind me of yours!

And of course sometimes the FNC just goes to hell and you must admit that you cannot remember the person’s name.  Something like “Oh my gosh – I am just having a brain freeze and cannot remember your name and I simply must introduce you to Joanna...” is required.  Don’t feel badly about admitting this.  It does help that the older I get the more people tend to forgive this – they know my old brain has trouble sometimes.

The FNC is helpful to all of us – the stranger, the old friend, and the forgetful person – once you know the FNC, you won’t allow these uncomfortable social situations to occur. 

Of course, the best thing would a universal rule that every living human being must wear a nametag at all times.  And as someone who raises money for a living – that would be paradise.

4 Tips for Non-Profit Grant Writing Success

I'm on vacation this week, so I forgot about the Wednesday blog until late last night and unless you wanted to read a blog about Top Chef Texas and The Real Housewives of Orange County, it is best that I waited until this morning -- but never count that reality blog out -- coming soon!

So a quick post about an area I know really well:  Grant Writing.

First, everyone and his dog wants to write grants.  I think at one point or another, every person who has ever worked for me in any capacity has told me they were interested in writing grants during their annual review.  I think it is because that on the surface, it sounds easy.  All you have to do is answer the questions and mail the grant, right?

Well, yes that is true, but there is more to it than that -- otherwise every non-profit in the world would be raking it in and never have to hold another auction again.  So here are my quick tips for success:

1. You must answer all of the questions and provide all of the info requested by the funder or foundation.  If you don't have an answer, say that.  Foundation representatives are very smart and they totally know if you are bulling them.  Include every piece of documentation that the funder requests -- you don't want to give them a reason to cull your application just because you accidentally left out the current financials.
2. You must write a compelling grant that shows the need of your organization. You have to show the funder why your client is important and why you do the work better than anyone else in town.  The funder is making a investment in your agency -- they want to feel good about it.  Help them to feel good about their funds!
3. If you don't fit the funding guidelines for the foundation, don't apply.  As an organization that supports abused and neglected kids, Community Partners of Dallas is never going to get a grant from a foundation that gives only to animal rescue.  Don't waste your time or theirs.  
4. Check out who is funding similar organizations and review foundation lists of grants funded.  If I see that such-and-such foundation gave a grant to CASA (Sorry CASA, but I'm sure you check out who is funding us, too!), I'm going to ask them for CPD.  Such-and-such foundation has just proven they will give to children in foster care, so CPD will probably fit their guidelines too.  The kids call it "creeping" -- I call it "research" -- do it!

This is by no means a full list of grant writing tips, but it's a start.  What are yours?

P.S.  I'll take any comments about Top Chef too.

Tips from Roger Horchow on Connecting with People

I was lucky enough to hear Roger Horchow speak yesterday at a lunch for the United Way.  He is 83 years old and if you don’t know who he is, Google him – he is simply amazing.  Throughout his life, he has met and worked with some of the most famous people in the world:  Nancy & Ronald Reagan, Diane Von Furstenberg, Barbara Walters, Carol Channing, Stanley Marcus, and many, many more.  Roger and his late wife were often seated at dinner tables with the world’s most interesting people. 

It really was a great speech, but the “Aha” moment for me was Roger’s fab advice to always continue to make connections with people.  Follow up later when you meet someone.  Send them a handwritten note.  If they invite you to come by the next time you’re in Kalamazoo, call them up before you arrive and tell them you’re coming to town and would love to see them.

Now, you know that this advice isn’t a new revelation for me – I am a gal from Texas and my mother “raised me right” – I know that I need to do this, and I do it.  Believe me, when you raise money for a living, you have to do it!  But what I loved about hearing it from Roger was that he showed us how the connections he made with people helped make him into a successful business leader, a successful person, and someone who we would all love to sit across from at our next dinner party. 

I’m available whenever you call, Roger.

P.S.  Here's a photo of Jennifer Hilton Sampson and me from yesterday -- by the time I remembered to take our picture, Roger was gone.  Oh well, 2 more interesting people he'll have to meet another day...