The Annual Campaign E-Book

Erik J. Daubert

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: The AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 372

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

LEARN THE SECRETS TO BUILDING AND MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL ANNUAL SUPPORT CAMPAIGN FOR YOUR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION Whether your organization is building its first annual support campaign or working on its hundredth, The Annual Campaign offers a fresh look at how your organization can raise the most money possible by effectively engaging staff, board, volunteers, donors, and prospects in embracing your mission and rallying to its cause. This nuts-and-bolts book presents practical advice on: * The secrets to running an effective, well-coordinated annual campaign * Why your annual campaign needs a strong support base * How to know when your organization is ready to launch its campaign * Best practices for growing human relationships--and big pledges and gifts * How to get your volunteer force purposefully engaged Brimming with step-by-step guidance and practical tools, including checklists for annual support campaigns, assessments for campaign readiness, sample pledge cards, cultivation tips for obtaining larger gifts, and much more, The Annual Campaign is the only guide you'll need to launch a successful--and abundantly lucrative--annual campaign.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

The AFP Fund Development Series

The Association of Fundraising Professionals

2008-2009 AFP Publishing Advisory Committee

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Author

CHAPTER 1 - What Is the Annual Fund?

Annual Campaign

Grants

Special Events

Federated Campaigns

Advertising

Commemorative Giving

Commercial Sales Concepts

Games of Chance

Door-to-Door and Street Solicitation

Mass Media

Telethons and Radiothons

E-mail and Instant Messaging

Summary

CHAPTER 2 - Benefits of the Annual Campaign

Where Do Donors Give?

Everyone Has a Role in Annual Campaigns

Roles the Annual Campaign Plays in Your Nonprofit

Developing Communications

Roles of the Annual Campaign in Your Overall Financial Development Program

Summary

CHAPTER 3 - Assessing Campaign Readiness

Good Campaign Preparations

Summary

CHAPTER 4 - Developing the Case for Support

Developing the Case for Annual Support

Summary

CHAPTER 5 - Recruiting Volunteers

Understanding Your Constituency

Reasons People Will Want to Volunteer for Your Nonprofit

What Do Strong Fundraisers Look Like?

Performing Volunteer Recruitment

Things to Bring on a Volunteer Recruitment Call

Recruiting Basics

Summary

CHAPTER 6 - Building Your Campaign Teams

Team Structure

Campaign Leadership

The Staff Component

Board Component

Major Gifts Component

Community Gifts Component

Summary

CHAPTER 7 - Building Relationships and Asking for the Gift

Building Relationships and Cultivating Donors

Asking for the Gift

Summary

CHAPTER 8 - Planning and Evaluating Your Campaign

What Are Your Objectives?

Deciding When to Do Your Campaign

Creating Your Annual Campaign Plan

Campaign Meetings

Spirit Factor

Assessing Where Your Organization Is Currently

Gifts and Pledges

Collecting the Gifts

Accuracy of Campaign Information

Setting the Money Goal

Evaluating

Summary

Index

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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eISBN : 978-0-470-52718-4

The AFP Fund Development Series

The AFP Fund Development Series is intended to provide fund development professionals and volunteers, including board members (and others interested in the nonprofit sector), with top-quality publications that help advance philanthropy as voluntary action for the public good. Our goal is to provide practical, timely guidance and information on fundraising, charitable giving, and related subjects. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and Wiley each bring to this innovative collaboration unique and important resources that result in a whole greater than the sum of its parts. For information on other books in the series, please visit:

The Association of Fundraising Professionals

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) represents over 30,000 members in more than 197 chapters throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education, and certification programs.

The association fosters development and growth of fundraising professionals and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising profession. For more information or to join the world’s largest association of fundraising professionals, visit www.afpnet.org.

2008-2009 AFP Publishing Advisory Committee

Chair: Nina P. Berkheiser, CFRE

Principal Consultant, Your Nonprofit Advisor

Linda L. Chew, CFRE

Development Consultant

D. C. Dreger, ACFRE

Senior Campaign Director, Custom Development Solutions, Inc. (CDS)

Patricia L. Eldred, CFRE

Director of Development, Independent Living Inc.

Samuel N. Gough, CFRE

Principal, The AFRAM Group

Audrey P. Kintzi, ACFRE

Director of Development, Courage Center

Steven Miller, CFRE

Director of Development and Membership, Bread for the World

Robert J. Mueller, CFRE

Vice President, Hospice Foundation of Louisville

Maria Elena Noriega

Director, Noriega Malo & Associates

Michele Pearce

Director of Development, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta

Leslie E. Weir, MA, ACFRE

Director of Family Philanthropy, The Winnipeg Foundation

Sharon R. Will, CFRE

Director of Development, South Wind Hospice

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.:

Susan McDermott

Senior Editor (Professional/Trade Division)

AFP Staff:

Jan Alfieri

Manager, New Product Development

Rhonda Starr

Vice President, Education and Training

This book is dedicated to all the people who have ever toiled in the efforts of ethically raising money for nonprofit organizations. While it is not easy work, it makes our world a much better place.

Preface

This book shows nonprofit professionals and volunteers how to run the human efforts of an annual support campaign. There are great books on direct mail, telephone soliciting, Internet fundraising at your nonprofit organization, and so many other fundraising topics.

This book is not one of those.

My goal is to explain how to run a high-functioning annual support campaign with volunteers and staff acting as partners. I strive to impart basic knowledge as well as best practice solutions for people in any stage of their fundraising career. For people who may be new to this subject, I outline how to set up and manage an annual support campaign and its many components. I attempt to lay out as much as possible about the annual campaign—from what a campaign should look like in design, to how to recruit and engage volunteers in the integral work of annual campaign friend raising and fundraising. For those with annual support campaign experience, I bring attention to areas that are important to focus on to make your efforts more effective with greater results. For those with less than successful annual support campaign attempts in their past, take heart: This book works to give you solid ideas for how to make an annual support campaign that will be more successful. As well, there are exercises throughout the text; be bold and jot down your ideas in the book as you go along. At the end, you will come away with a tremendous head start for making your annual campaign great.

Chapter 1 outlines the many components of the overall annual fund, which is the 12-month fundraising efforts of a nonprofit organization to raise money for yearly operational needs. This information begins to reveal how the annual support campaign fits into yearly fundraising as a whole at your organization and what a foundational piece it can be if done well.

Chapter 2 then makes the case that the annual campaign should be the cornerstone for your annual fund program and begins to establish some basic concepts. Well-run and high-functioning annual support campaigns are almost always the most effective means for raising money and for sharing the story of the important work that you do each and every day, month and year at your nonprofit.

Chapter 3 discusses the issues that you may face in determining how ready you are to embark on the annual support campaign program. It includes many aspects of nonprofit financial development management and encourages you to analyze each one prior to beginning your annual support campaign. Far from being discouraging, it is meant to show things that you should consider prior to beginning annual support at your nonprofit. Note that the assumption is that you will begin!

Chapter 4 discusses how and why to develop a strong case for support regarding your annual support campaign. How do you write and create a strong case? What needs to be included? What are the most impactful aspects of your nonprofit? This chapter includes these and other features regarding your story and how to tell it to your community.

Chapter 5 shows you how to recruit and establish a volunteer workforce in your annual support campaign. It illuminates how integral volunteers are to the overall success of your campaign and the need to take care to engage them purposefully. Volunteers are a source of much energy for your organization and need to be appreciated and maintained.

Chapter 6 illustrates why and how you should design campaign teams to tell the story of your organization and to raise money for your charitable mission. The staff, board, major gifts and community gifts teams all play a special part in the entire effort that is the annual support campaign.

Chapter 7 discusses how relationships are a foundational piece of a nonprofit’s ultimate success. We then review procedures and tips regarding the “ask” for money from donors and prospective donors. With details on how to understand your donors and then ultimately ask them for gifts and pledges, it is an invaluable resource for those interested in maximizing charitable funds.

Chapter 8 helps you to figure out where you are and where you want to go. It also contains a timeline for keeping your annual support campaign on track and organized. Attention is given to how good planning will serve you well and evaluations will help you learn more with each campaign.

The goal of this text is to show you methods and explain the rationale behind certain strategies. You will come away with the necessary tools to run a highly effective annual support campaign that will raise more money annually and position your nonprofit organization to thrive in future fundraising endeavors. Whether your organization is approaching its first annual support campaign or its hundredth, you are sure to find helpful tips, hints, stories, and techniques within these pages.

Best wishes for a great annual support campaign experience!

Erik J. Daubert MBA, ACFRE

Acknowledgments

I am so thankful to my wife and first line editor, Andrea, who helped shape not only the words of this text but also the flow and general content. Without her, this book would be much less than it is.

I am also thankful to AFP and John Wiley & Sons for approaching me and giving me the opportunity to write The Annual Campaign. It has been a privilege to work with everyone involved in the publishing of this book.

A book of this type does not come together without the decades of working with many talented individuals. I have been fortunate to have in my fundraising experience some great teachers and mentors including but not limited to: James Greenfield, Judy Bright, Shannon Williams, Ceil Weatherman, Jim Epps, and all members of the YMCA of the USA Consulting Team, with special thanks to Steve Burns, Mike Bussey, Doug Goodfellow, Carol Schmidt, Gerry Hundt, and Courtney Weiland. My gratitude extends to so many great staff and volunteers including but not limited to: Doug McMillan, Lacy Presnell, John Alexander, Jr., Eliza Kraft Olander, Kay Morgan, Jim Stewart, and Bill Malloy to name a few. Thanks also to The Akiba School of Dallas, Texas, The Evelina Children’s Hospital of London, England, and the University of California—Irvine for allowing their case statement documents to be shared with readers as examples in this book. I am also thankful to the many educational institutions that have been foundational cornerstones of my learning in fundraising and so many other areas. I am appreciative of all the people at the many diverse non-profit organizations who I have had as clients over my years of fundraising. I am equally as thankful to the many students I have taught from all over the world, as they each have allowed me to gain wisdom and insight as we worked to strengthen their unique programs and improve their communities. Particular thanks is due to the YMCA movement, as I have worked with so many fabulous YMCAs over the years. The YMCA of the USA and the YMCA of the Triangle Area were particularly helpful in so much of my philanthropic training and experience and also in the creation of this book. It has been an honor and a privilege to be involved with the largest nonprofit in the United States for so many years.

I am also grateful to my friends and family who have remained with me over the course of this great journey. My mother and father, Bob and Madeline Daubert, my sister, Lisa, and my brother, David, have all helped to make me the person I am today.

Thank you to everyone involved, both mentioned and unmentioned. I appreciate you!

About the Author

With almost two decades of nonprofit experience, Erik Daubert is regarded as a leader in the areas of development and nonprofit management. In addition to a broad-based career in nonprofits, he has served as a consultant and founding partner of a consulting firm. Erik formerly served as Association Financial Development Consultant for the YMCA of the USA, serving YMCA associations across the United States.

Erik’s education includes degrees and certificates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Stanford University, Indiana University, Campbell University, and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). He is an Association of Fundraising Professionals Master Trainer and has served as an instructor for the Duke University Program in Non-Profit Management, the North American YMCA Development Organization, AFP, and the YMCA of the USA, among others. He has delivered trainings for non-profit professionals across North America and holds the title of Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive, as recognized by the Association of Fundraising Professionals; he is the 81st individual worldwide to have obtained this lifetime credential. Erik volunteers with and has worked with a variety of nonprofits, and brings with him a unique combination of nonprofit fundraising and board understanding. He has worked directly with a variety of nonprofit organizations primarily in the United States.

Erik has been personally involved in the raising of millions and millions of dollars, which has included work in annual, endowment, and capital campaigns.

He has been recognized nationally or locally by these organizations:

Child Advocacy Commission

Coca-Cola

Eno River Association

International Who’s Who

National Arbor Day Foundation

North American YMCA Development Organization

Nourish International

Olympic Games

Public Allies North Carolina

Sierra Club

Stanford University—Center for Social Innovation

Triangle Business Journal

Triangle United Way

Who’s Who in America

YMCA of the USA

Erik lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, Andrea, and his cat, Jasper.

CHAPTER 1

What Is the Annual Fund?

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand the various components of the annual fund program.

• Begin to see that the annual support campaign is a foundational piece of the overall financial development effort.

• Describe possible annual fund options for your nonprofit organization.

• List the various aspects of your overall annual fund program.

Before we begin to discuss the annual campaign specifically, it is helpful to understand the context of the overall annual fund within a nonprofit organization. In order to do this effectively, we must first understand the components of a typical annual fund.

The components of the annual fund usually include the annual support campaign, grants, special events, Internet fundraising, federated campaign efforts such as the United Way or Earth Share, direct mail, individual appeals, telephone fundraising, and corporate appeals. While additional components are discussed at the end of this chapter, the components just mentioned often make up the entire annual fund for most nonprofit organizations. Each of these components also has importance in the overall organizational financial development plan.