For Philanthropy the Answers Are All Around Us

by David LawsonNo Comments
One of my favorite lessons about faith is the story of a man caught in a flood praying to be saved as the water rises. Two boats, and a helicopter, come and are sent off as he trusts that his prayers will be answered. When he eventually drowns and goes to heaven he asks - why did you not answer my prayers? The simple answer, "I sent two boats, and a helicopter." I am reminded of this story when I hear about what fundraisers, and others involved in philanthropy, say is needed to be successful. There never seems to be enough information, technology, personnel, and good donors. Imagine telling this tale at the pearly gates. I'm not sure a sympathetic audience awaits. Do you really want to make the case for information being in short supply? Is the technology available not amazing enough for you? Good people seem hard to find, but how many good people have left your organization in frustration? And with...
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Distance Does Not Cause the Giving Heart to Grow Fonder

by David LawsonNo Comments
The recently released study by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and CCS - The Million Dollar Gift Next Door - revealed that 50% of the donors lived in the same state as the organization they supported, and another 10% in the same region. So 60% of all top gifts come from people who are thinking local. Good news for local organizations, and schools with a lot of alums nearby. For everyone else it is a wake-up call to find ways to bridge the distance between their missions and the hearts of their donors. On the face of it there is an easy answer as to why - people want to keep their money close to home. Certainly makes sense, but is there something deeper at work? Are donors saying they don't trust organizations they can't see? Is the connection between their mail box and the mission not enough? Is social media failing to make the digital connection? Has face-to-face...
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Time for a Mission Underwriters Laboratory

by David LawsonNo Comments
For returning readers you know I'm pushing hard to make the mission the center of the social sector universe and pushing back even harder on the idea of cost-of-fundraising. When you push you get push-back, and some of it has been around the challenges of measuring the mission AKA impact. The difficulty of evaluating impact may well be the reason the watchdog groups like Charity Navigator went for the easy math and created the whole cost-of-fundraising farce. Certainly the IRS 990 doesn't help. It tells as much about what an organization does as the 1040 tells about you and me. What if there was a place that looked only at the mission the way the Underwriters Laboratory only looks at products? The UL doesn't give a wit if the company is profitable. It simply wants to know if the product does what it says it does, and whether it is safe. Here is their mission statement:   Dedicated to promoting safe living and working...
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What Would Make the Rich Give More?

by David LawsonNo Comments
A recent study by SEI Private Wealth Management revealed insights into what would make U.S. Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (average wealth of $11 million in this case) give more. Before we get to that, let’s first look at the potential upside:   The average increase across all segments is 63%! So how do we make that happen?   The first two items are out of our control, but the next two are right in philanthropy’s wheelhouse – passion and impact – or at least they should be. One would think given their wealth these individuals are being approached by a number of organizations and their alma maters, so what’s missing? With all of the need in the world (and all of the organizations saying they will meet those needs), hearing people say they are not able to find something to be passionate about and want to more clearly see the impact of their giving, is frankly depressing. We have the greatest product in the...
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Cost-of-Fundraising is the Kryptonite of Philanthropy

by David Lawson2 Comments
When the conversation turns to cost-of-fundraising I can almost hear the collective sigh of missions across the globe. It is a knowing sigh, one that understands when the focus is on quantitative measures, the qualitative aspects of missions suffer. The cost-of-fundraising madness is truly the kryptonite of philanthropy. It turns the mission from a bold and daring venture into a meek shadow which only comes to life as a photo in direct mail or a website surrounded by copy extolling the virtue of how little was spent to send the photo or to receive an online donation. If you have been reading this blog lately you know I’m on a bit of a rant about the need to move away from the transaction-based culture of giving to a mission-based culture of philanthropy. Making this move will require that cost-of-fundraising be encased in lead and buried in the cave with other ideas which seemed good at the time, but not so much on...
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The Mission Demands Fundraisers (of All Persuasions) Come Together

by David LawsonNo Comments
When your father is a fundraiser, and that fundraiser is Doug Lawson who wrote Give to Live, you are definitely going to have a bias towards major gifts. I don’t believe it is just pride talking that my father is one of the best face-to-face askers on the planet, and I’m sure as you read this he is either asking or on a plane to an ask. In this environment I grew up thinking if you needed a million dollars for your cause then you found a person with a million dollars to support it. This simple idea led me to create a series of donor profiling and screening companies the last 25 or so years. Early in my career I met Roger Craver who can write direct mail copy which almost puts the money in the envelope all by itself. For Roger if you need a million dollars get 50,000 to give $20 each. Then you have 50,000 supporters who...
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Creating a Culture of Philanthropy by Being Mission-Centered

by David LawsonNo Comments
A lot of ink – real and digital – has been expended on the topic of being donor-centered. After all the conferences, white-papers, books, and blog posts it boiled down to a simple message – listen to your donors and respect their individuality. This certainly seemed like sound advice which dovetailed beautifully with increasing the level (and quality) of stewardship in the fundraising process. Unfortunately as the idea of being donor-centered gained popularity, the level of donor retention fell. What happened? I got a clue a few years ago while presenting at the WOW Institute, an experiential conference of which I was part for a number of years. A well-known philanthropist, who was speaking about his experiences as a donor, commented that he did not want organizations to be donor-centered – he wanted them to be mission-centered. His comment got me thinking about how the donor-centered philosophy was part of a culture of giving where everything revolved around either asking for money or...
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So Much for the 90/10 Fundraising Rule – Time to Think in Tenths

by David LawsonNo Comments
The 90/10 fundraising rule of thumb has been broken (more like shattered) by my good friend Peter Wylie who provides some incredible data and insights on the CoolData blog. I was fortunate enough to receive an early look at the data, so I have had some time to ponder the implications. There is a wealth of data to explore, but here is the chart that really caught my eye:   This means that 1/10th of 1% of alumni donors to this school account for 60% of all giving (the top 1% represented nearly 96%). And Peter only looked at alums who gave. If he had factored in non-donor alums then the number would be even more dramatic if that is even possible. Before I continue I want to tip my hat to the amazing donors who are willing to underwrite such a large percentage of an institution's needs. I also want to say "well done!" to the fundraisers who worked with these philanthropists,...
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Philanthropy – When Did It Become About Fundraising?

by David LawsonNo Comments
In the beginning there was a need and someone met it using their own time and resources. Then the need grew and became too much for one person, so they enlisted the time and resources of others. Out of all this activity was born a mission which served as the foundation for an organization to manage all of the time and resources. And so was born philanthropy. At some point it was decided a person needed to spend all of their time asking more people for more and more of their time and resources. And so the fundraiser was born. It was also when philanthropy began a long slow march away from its mission. Merriam-Webster defines philanthropy as: 1: goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially:active effort to promote human welfare 2 a : an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes     b : an organization distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes Notice there is no mention of fundraising. It is about giving, not...
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Time for Vendors (and Fundraisers) to Be Big About Big Data

by David LawsonNo Comments
In January The Atlas of Giving provided fundraisers with an in-depth look at 2012 giving, and a forecast of what to expect this year. In February Blackbaud came out with their view of 2012 and 2013. For a sector that for years had to rely on Giving USA, who will not report their numbers until June, it is great to see two companies working to give us more real-time insights. Full disclosure, I am on the Board of Advisors of The Atlas of Giving. Even further disclosure, a company I founded - Prospect Information Network (P!N), is now part of Blackbaud. I also work and compete with Blackbaud, and have many friends there. I have no direct connections to Giving USA, but as a long-time social data geek I have used their data for many years. So fundraisers are pouring over this wealth of data right? They are excited to see they can now have not only more timely yearly reports, but also...
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