Sharing Entries For Awards-Part Four, The Fundraising Video

We continue sharing the Greater St. Louis Area Council, Boy Scouts of America’s entries in the National President’s Marketing Awards, a marketing and communications contest held by the National Council of the BSA.

The Friends of Scouting campaign video is submitted in the Finance Support Material category.  (Friends of Scouting is the council’s annual fundraising campaign.) If we are recognized with an award, it goes to Marc Tenholder, a Development Director at the council, and Chuck Voss, a veteran Scouter in Cape Girardeau, Mo., who works in the creative services department at KFVS.

Objectives
The Friends of Scouting campaign video is produced to accomplish a number of objectives:
• Explain how Scouting influences the lives of thousands of young people throughout our council
• Show families of Cub Scouts that more fun and adventure await them if they remain in the program
• Explain how the council is funded
• Show Scouts and volunteers enjoying the program and talking about its value and outcomes
• Ask prospective donors to make a Friends of Scouting contribution

The video is primarily created for use during Friends of Scouting presentations at banquets and other unit gatherings where families will be asked to contribute. The video is posted on the council’s YouTube site so it can be accessed from other websites and e-mail solicitations.

The video was produced in 2011 for use during the 2012 campaign.

Planning
We received positive feedback from the previous year’s video that featured youth members in all levels of the program. We wanted to improve this year’s video by including more ethnic diversity, featuring all council camps and properties, and showing all levels of the Scouting program.

Council staff members used FlipCameras to record interviews and activities taking place at our council camps during the fall. The raw video was cataloged. A script was developed and a rough outline was produced. A member of the council’s marketing committee, who also is a video producer at a television station in the council, reviewed the video, the script and the outline. He performed the editing, sound mixing, and recruited the professional announcer from his television station to perform the voice over.

More than 150 DVDs were produced and distributed to volunteers throughout the council’s 15 geographic districts. The video also was played during the council’s Friends of Scouting kickoff dinner and Executive Board meeting.

Impact
This campaign raises approximately $750,000 each year. To date in 2012, the campaign raised $324,450, which is tracking approximately 5 percent ahead of 2011.

Lessons Learned
Scheduling the editing and production of the video needs particular attention during an election year as our producer communicated to us that his workload will be quite heavy between July and November. We also plan to get more video of Cub Scout day camps and Boy Scout summer camps to better showcase the wide variety of programs and activities made available by Friends of Scouting donations.

We also received some negative feedback on the professional announcer reading the script. Instead of the more polished approach, some believe the script should be read by an articulate older Boy Scout or Venturer.

Melinda Gates suggests nonprofits follow 3 of Coca-Cola’s strategies to better serve people

Here’s a juxtaposition. Someone who gained incredible wealth from a ubiquitous software platform is advocating the ubiquitous nature of Coca-Cola to improve the work of nonprofits.

Melinda French Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, gave a TED Talk in October, “What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola.” (See link below.)

Melinda Gates

Mrs. Gates dedicated her life to improving living conditions throughout the world through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has travelled the world and witnessed extreme poverty. But everywhere she goes, there’s Coca-Cola.

Coke is ubiquitous. Clean water, wholesome food and adequate medical care may be nowhere in sight, but you can get a Coke in these far-flung places. If Coke can be produced, delivered, marketed and sold in these third-world nations, she believes nonprofits can help people live better lives there as well. She believes nonprofits must continually learn from innovators throughout the world and develop Coke-like strategies to save lives and make the world a better place to live.

Mrs. Gates earned her undergraduate and MBA from Duke University. With that educational background, she studied Coke and stated how nonprofits should adopt three of Coke’s strategies to improve effectiveness:

1. Take real-time data and immediately use it to improve.
2. Tap into local entrepreneurial talent.
3. Great marketing.

Most successful nonprofits in the United States utilize some of these strategies. But there’s great insight into narrowing the focus to these three elements. Here’s a few thoughts and some elaboration:

1. Mrs. Gates evaluates the work of many nonprofits that were assisted by the Gates Foundation. She criticizes nonprofits for analyzing data at the end of the project instead of throughout execution. She recalls a description of this type of evaluation as ”bowling in the dark.” You roll the ball, hear the pins fall, turn on the lights and then look to see what happened. But real-time data helps ”turn on the lights.” The problem with most nonprofits is that they’re so focussed on executing, many directors and boards may think continual evaluation of data might detract from completing the project. Plus, evaluating outcomes will continue to be a weakness of many nonprofits organizations.
2. Nonprofits need to continually recruit the talented staff, boards and volunteers. They must be allowed to take risks, but too often are punished for failing. Nonprofits can never have too many passionate people who are strategic thinkers and action-oriented leaders.
3. Marketing in this sense is much more than television commercials. It is every aspect of a nonprofit’s image and brand. Mrs. Gates states that most nonprofits make an incorrect assumption that if someone needs something–vaccinations, clean water or medicine–nonprofits don’t have to make them want it. She talks about how all people seek a “deep happiness.” Nonprofits need to show people how they will find “deep happiness” by receiving assistance from that organization.

So, I’ll be thinking about the three Coca-Cola traits as I write my communications plan for 2011–using Microsoft software.

Where I Read ‘Ice Age’ To Describe Philanthropic Climate

A  number of people gasped Wednesday afternoon when I made a comment at the joint meeting of the Community Service Public Relations Council and the International Association of Business Communicators.

During the panel discussion, it was clear that corporate giving in St. Louis might never return to what it once was. Furthermore, businesses and corporations across the nation are more focused on survival than their philanthropic role or image as a corporate citizen.

I made a comment at the end of the discussion that nonprofits should be looking to businesses to engage their employees as volunteers and begin the process of cultivating them as donors because corporate philanthropy appears to be heading for an ice age.

I read that term in a Nov. 9, 2010, article on the Washington Post website: Nonprofits struggle to survive and maintain services. Here’s the paragraph that caught my attention:

Since the economy began to plummet, Chuck Bean, executive director of an association of local charities, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, has pushed organizations to make lasting changes such as shedding nonessential duties, sharing back-office functions, reducing staff size and in some cases merging with other groups. His core message, he said, was this: “If you think this is a storm, or you can batten down the hatches, maybe tap into your reserves and the storm will pass and things will go back to normal, then you’re wrong. I think of this as less of a storm and more like an ice age.

I sincerely hope that businesses and corporations will maintain or enhance levels of philanthropic giving in St. Louis and throughout the nation. But nonprofits cannot rely on previous levels. And nonprofit communicators will be critical to help organizations develop communications strategies that will increase volunteers and advocates and convert them to donors.

Tough Times Demand Re-Emphasizing Relationships

Kathy Reeves

You often hear common-sense advice when attending conferences. You take notes and you ask yourself, “This is so basic, I can’t believe I’m writing it down.” But have you ever caught yourself repeating that fundamental information several times after the event?That’s what happened after Kathy Reeves, the Community Relations Manager for Enterprise Holdings, spoke at the eighth annual Charity Symposium by the St. Louis Better Business Bureau on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009.  

The theme was, “Giving: Focus On The Economy.” Reeves’ presentation could be summed up with the headline, “Tough Times Demand Re-Emphasizing Relationships.”  

“In my mind, this is such an important time to be talking with your partners — both foundations and corporations,” she said. “Invite them for coffee. Invite them for a tour. Show them what their funds have done. Invite them to see programs. Reach out to them and talk about your story. Because if they funded you once, then they wanted you to succeed. They’re your advocates. But the only way they can be your advocates is if they know your story.”  

Once again, here’s a call to action for nonprofit communications and marketing professionals. But communicating to corporate partners and foundations requires an approach that’s embraced and executed by executive directors and the fundraising and development staff. These individuals often have a tendency to shy away from communicating the unvarnished truth because they don’t want to create a perception that they’re failing to fulfill the organization’s mission.  

“The biggest issue is that you have to communicate with funders and tell them that you have two less people and you’re trying to serve 30 percent more people,” Reeves said. “If you don’t communicate that to them, they won’t understand your situation.  

“Most (nonprofits) understand that grant makers don’t love to fund operating expenses. We’re now seeing much more of a willingness from grantmakers to fund operating expenses. Again, part of this goes back to telling your story. If you don’t tell them how the economy is affecting you and impacting your bottom line, they won’t know what your needs are.”  

So what can organizations do? Reeves said the current economic situation requires two-way communication.  

“We’re spending a lot more time talking to our partners,” she said. “In fact, we’re reaching out more to them and asking them what they need, ‘We used to do this with you, now what we should be doing?’ If (funders) are not getting it, help them understand.”  

Reeves also emphasized relationship maintenance with corporations or foundations that no longer provide funding. I probably use the phrase, “St. Louis is a big small town” about once a week. That statement accurately describes the business and philanthropic communities in many towns. But in St. Louis, many nonprofits struggle to navigate a corporate landscape that continues to shift. Anyone working in the nonprofit community for a decade or more can rattle off a list corporations that no longer call St. Louis “home.”  

“If someone starts cutting funding that you’ve received in the past or if somebody cuts it completely, this is not a time to be rude,” Reeves said. “And that happens… it’s amazing how many times that happens. Show loyalty because that will never be forgotten. Not only that, but when they’re talking to other funders, they are probably going to tell other funders a story about how gracious you were. Because all of the grantmakers do talk and they love good stories. They love good organizations.  

“Grantmakers also network and do it fairly well. They talk to each other, mostly about (nonprofits). We talk about who the best directors are and what the best programs are. We talk about people we’ve had challenges with.”  

With so many requests for funding, there’s a perception that grantmakers are overwhelmed with requests. With the stock market down 30 percent or more from its all-time high of two years ago or so, foundations have less money to give.  

When a foundation declines your request, accept it and don’t do an end-run around the person who handles requests.  

“No means no,” Reeves said. “A better approach than going through five other doors in the organization is to call the funder and ask them for reasons why you were turned down. If you just go through another door, they are going to hear about it. It’s probably going to land back on their desk and they’re going to wonder why no means no.”   

Foundations still want to fund organizations that are striving to solve problems.  

“One thing you don’t think about is that grantmakers and funders are the biggest optimists in the world,” Reeves said. “They really believe that they can address a cause or an issue if they give money to a program and that program will fix it or, at least address it. Tell them your story. Tell them about prior successes. And tell them about your struggles. The way that you’re going to get that flexibility from your funders is by helping them understand what your needs are. That’s how you build those partnerships.”  

Why Storytelling Is Fundamental For Fundraising

One of my 2008 highlights was attending the training in the Benevon fundraising method. This is a donor-centered fundraising approach that emphasizes development of personal relationships. It also focuses on engaging potential donors by sharing your organization’s stories.

This is a modern and common-sense approach to fundraising. When I first became a professional in the Boy Scouts of America more than 17 years ago, our fundraising approach was based on the message, “We’re the Boy Scouts, give to us.” Many other organizations took the same approach two decades ago. Much has changed in philanthropy and fundraising and fewer prospective donors–especially those who don’t have any relationship or past experience with your organization–will write a check based on your brand or their perception of your brand.

Earlier this week, a document was circulated at the Greater St. Louis Area Council that compared the results of our solicitation of Scout families for donations with other Midwest councils. Many councils are struggling financially. (Rick Cronk, the former President of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, once told an audience at an east-coast marketing conference I attended that the number one challenge in the BSA helping the significant number of councils that were in some type of financial distress.) The staff was encouraged to share the data of our council’s success, or lack thereof, to other Midwestern councils.

I was a sportswriter for daily newspapers for almost seven years. I knew when my stories would become bulletin board material to motivate teams and athletes before big games. Instead of the fundraising data being a motivator on the bulletin board, it put the focus on an unfair and unequal comparison of fundraising performance. Research and data analysis has a critical role in fundraising. But staff and volunteers who are out on the front line making solicitations for your organization need to be talking about your mission and outcomes.

Put yourself in the shoes of prospective donor or a loyal supporter. How would you like to hear, “We would like you to give (or give more) because the amount we’ve raised from you in the past doesn’t compare with our neighbors to the north.”

Our council’s video for this year’s fundraising campaign is carried by the story of two families involved in Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting and Venturing. (View: 2009 Friends of Scouting Video.) The audience for the video is families of Scouts who will watch it during a banquet, meeting or other gathering. We hope it tells our story and engages potential donors.

I’d like to hear or read your comments about this year’s video. Please feel free to comment below. I look forward to the feedback.