Here at eTapestry/Blackbaud we have many traditions. Personally, I think such traditions add so much to the day to day culture of our working world and hopefully make it special for all of us.
One of those traditions involves a piece of equipment that you do not normally see in a professional office environment. By the way, our stoplight is not the only piece of equipment you will find at eTapestry which is seldom found elsewhere. Other items like washers, dryers, a room devoted to a top notch ping pong table, a café with self service fountain drinks, showers, walls loaded with photos of employees, walls filled with thank you notes from local charities, a Hall of Fame and my favorite, a gym, are all in use daily.
Incidentally, if you truly want to know how a stoplight or traffic light works or why there is never a burned out bulb here is the video for you!
What does a technology company who exists to serve non-profits do with a full-fledged commercial stoplight? We use it in a slightly different manner than it was designed to be used. Instead of directing traffic, we use it to monitor our various hosting centers and the vast amount of equipment within them as well as communicating to our team the status of the equipment and the number of users.
Yes sir, ever since we acquired our stoplight it has been a superb tool for monitoring and communicating with our entire team. I believe we found it on eBay, but you would have to check with our resident eTap historian Rick Radcliff or our resident eTap museum curator John Moore to verify. Perhaps they will add a comment to this blog post and the rest of the world will know.
Our tech team, in this case led by Andy Morin, utilized output from our monitoring software contained at each of our hosting centers to create and implement the link to the stoplight. You see, in the SaaS (software as a service) world we live in for all of our thousands of customers, we are counted on to provide 100% uptime during all normal business hours. Maintaining such a high standard has been the mantra of our entire team. In fact, we track it down to the second for every minute of every hour of every day in each month. Below is the chart of our results from a recent month:
As you can see, the team achieves a truly high degree of success in this key area. So much so that all of customers pretty much take it for granted that eTapestry will always be available for them. To say the least we are all proud of reaching that state of mind!
Let’s return to our stoplight and outline just what its lights represent. The obvious ones are:
GREEN = All Systems are Operational
RED = A Hosting Center is Down (Hopefully for scheduled maintenance!)
The not so obvious combinations are where the fun begins because they apply to the number of concurrent users which equates to the overall load factor. Here are our combinations for load:
GREEN/YELLOW = The Number of Users is within 20% of a New Record
YELLOW = The Number of Users is within 15% of a New Record
GREEN/RED = The Number of Users is within 10% of a New Record
GREEN/YELLOW/RED = The Number of Users is a New Record (Like the picture above!)
Over the years, we have come to appreciate the huge amount of effort it takes to keep the GREEN light prominent as well as the outstanding sales, support, training and implementation effort required to establish new records on a regularly basis. Pride is abundant each time the record is set and when we reach that important 100% uptime rating in most every month.
The story would not be complete if I did not let you know when we almost always establish a large jump in the number of users. It should be no surprise that our number of eTapestry users rise near the end of every year, just like the amount of donations rise for most charities. It then culminates in early January with the highest peak as year-end donations are entered, thank you letters are created and reports compiled. Each year we watch the lights change as the work of the charity world reaches full steam. We hope the last few months were busy for all of you in the fundraising world. It was for our customers as the picture above attests to!
Just like Blackbaud's CEO Marc Chardon, I was about to release a blog post on another subject, which all of a sudden did not feel important at all. Here are the opening paragraphs from his post:
"About 600 miles southwest from Miami coast lies a country in dire need.
Tuesday's earthquake in the Republic of Haiti affected more than one third of the population and has left an untold number dead. Relief efforts, led by both UN member governments and nonprofit organizations, are underway but are being hampered by the devastation the earthquake left. I know many of you are following the news closely and are aware that countless nonprofit staff members working in the country are among the dead or missing.
Haiti and its people are at the very beginning of a relief effort that will take years to complete. For now, I wanted you to know what we are doing to respond. First and most importantly, we’re focusing on helping our customers who are involved in providing aid, making sure they knew we are there for them. Customer Support was in touch with these organizations yesterday, encouraging them to tell us their special needs. As in past situations like Katrina and the Iowa flood, we stand ready to ramp these nonprofits’ operations and handle the influx of donations that will come in all forms."
Few of us can even imagine what the people of Haiti are trying to live with and through right now. The destruction for an already struggling country is beyond belief.
Here is where the story changes for the better. The outpouring of care, concern and monies is exceeding just about every disaster relief effort prior to this. On-line fundraising, mass communications, social media and the outright pure generosity of the rest of the people on this earth DO make a difference. Look what is happening via cell phones alone!
The Red Cross has topped $35 million in relief aid in just 48 hours! Of course social media sites are making a difference too.
So many of our customers here at eTapestry and Blackbaud are involved with helping. If you did not see yesterday's post from my colleague Steve MacLaughlin listing many of them here is the link.
Here is even a larger list from a new landing page on the Blackbaud corporate web site.
Even our smaller customers and personal fundraisers have created a small tidal wave of giving via our BlackbaudNow product. It is so revealing and heartwarming to see such an outpouring of funds to help.
Hopefully, some of this news is reassuring about what mankind can do to aid each other. Let's all hope and pray it does make a difference for the people of Haiti.
I am typing this post as a 1/15/2010 deadline hangs on the near horizon. When my friend Dr. Gene Tempel asked me to author a chapter regarding Social Media in the Non Profit world for the upcoming 3rd edition of Hank Rosso’s Achieving Excellence in Fundraising back in September the date seemed so far away. Really, how hard could creating 4,000 words be? Wow, now it is this week!
Like most every goal I have attacked since Mrs. Carnes taught me the methodology of goal setting and achieving back in the 6th grade at dear old Gaston Elementary, I broke it into multiple steps with dates associated with each. I wonder what Mrs. Carnes would think about having automatic reminders pop up in Outlook. My bet is she would embrace it has another manner to achieve success.
As those dates popped up, my research and outline grew stronger. I even devoted a decent portion of my holiday time away from Indiana to start the actual writing process. Even with such preparation and effort having the actual date pop up on my Monday morning week ahead Outlook printout was alarming enough for me to start typing this post so I could share a few thoughts and thank a person or two.
The project is coming along great. I hope it is a useful chapter for this next in a series of outstanding publications about achieving excellence in fund-raising. Time and feedback will tell ...
Thanks to the team at Blackbaud, especially the superb folks at Target Analytics, we can say that one of the real bright spots in 2009 fundraising were the on-line fundraising activities. The full report labeled the Index of National Fundraising Performance can be found here.
Here is the summary chart:
My research has taken me to numerous resources. One of the better resources was recent speech and slide show by Chad Norman at Blackbaud titled 50 Social Media Tactics for Non Profits. Here is a link to the actual slides.
I think any of you out there reading this post would enjoy perusing Chad's slides. I would be greatly surprised if you do not pick up a few jewels to use later on. Obviously, I am most grateful to Chad for allowing me to use his concise presentation as a resource for my upcoming chapter.
May 2010 bring the excellence in fundraising for all of you engaged in this vital activity throughout the world. My respect and admiration goes out to all of you truly making a difference every single day!
The term sounds a bit foreboding doesn’t it? I often ask this question in interviews as we search for new talent here at eTapestry. "What do you want to be doing in 10 years?" Very few individuals are able to provide much of a meaningful answer. I am guessing it is because seldom do most of us look that far into the future.
Is looking out ten years that hard? Perhaps it is because it’s scary to think and commit to something so far out when we know we have plenty of time to plan to make it happen.
I was inspired to write this post after being on the receiving end of a kick-off email from the head of the newly formed division we are part of at Blackbaud. Kevin challenged us to eliminate old barriers, which seem to stand in the way of producing meaningful, if not, radical change. As I read it, it also made me think of what the entire decade had in store for me and our team. (Maybe it is because I have always embraced change as well as trying new methods...)
When you stop and think about it, most of us only have 6 – 9 chances for a dawning of a new decade in our lifetime. Six to nine chances to plan how we will make a difference and leave a legacy of some nature. This came very close to home for me when my father passed away just prior to the recent Christmas holiday. During the funeral I related numerous stories about dad. By doing so, I framed the legacy he left for me, my three brothers and our families. Thankfully, he was a masterful planner and instilled a few of those instincts in us.
I have always enjoyed the use of New Year resolutions. As you create yours for 2010 maybe this post will help inspire you to fast forward to the end of the second decade of this century to envision where you might be and just what you will be doing. Imagine creating a list of accomplishments for the decade and having the experience of relishing just how many you achieved during this upcoming 10 years. I guarantee anyone reading this, if you have written any of those potential accomplishments down, you have just tripled your chances for achieving virtually all of them! Sounds too powerful and like too much fun to ignore doesn’t it?
Best of luck to all of you in making this upcoming decade a huge success!
I think this is a story that will brighten your holidays no matter where you are this year. The story began with the brainstorming of our two eTapestry/Blackbaud marketing gurus Amy Kellinger and Steve Rusche who created our "Win a Laptop" special referral promotion for our Consultant Referral Partners. Within the scope of program any of our nearly 200 CRP's could win a laptop by just referring two prospects to our sales team that resulted in a sale of eTapestry.
Now such a neat promotion is a fun story in and of itself, however what happened next is what truly makes this story special. One of our outstanding partners and recent winner of a new laptop is TMC Consulting in Durham, North Carolina. The principal there is Mike Crum. We have worked with Mike many times over the years with much success for both of us.
When Mike heard the news of his win, he decided to "pay it forward" in a wonderful manner. The concept was popularized in the movie of the same name. Here is the trailer from YouTube.
Rather than just keeping the laptop, Mike decided to donate it to a woman who had been a victim of domestic violence. She is currently putting herself through community college while taking care of her young child. Mike said this will make a huge difference in her life.
When we followed up with Mike to ask his permission to share the story, which he kindly gave, he stated that this individual is achieving straight A’s in her classes and should be totally on her feet in the near future. This is truly a win/win/win for Mike, eTapestry/Blackbaud and of course the lady with the bright future ahead of her!
Happy Holidays to everyone from myself and the eTapestry/Blackbaud team...
Yes, it is that time of year for our annual eTapestry/Blackbaud recognition awards. If you do not recall or if you are reading my blog for the first time here is the link to last year's details.
Mother Nature cooperated with setting the scene as a true winter wonderland with a surprise inch of fresh snow here in Indy. Although beautiful, it was quite the traffic mess for the commute in early. Perhaps all such special touches do come with a price...
(Personally, I loved the big holiday tree with Indiana cookies hung with great care inside.)
Our event began with the award winning entertainment of the Central Sound performing show choir from Lawrence Central High School. An interesting side note is that the school's foundation was one of our earliest eTapestry customers and continues to be one even to this day. The choir's performance was even more outstanding than last year. One could easily see why they finished the year undefeated in all of the performing show choir competitions they engaged in.
We next revealed that 2009 turned out to be a banner year for the awarding of grants by our corporate foundation. The head of our Philanthropy committee, Katie Rucker, highlighted the large number of grantees providing a glimpse of both their mission and their location. She also recapped the multitude of our volunteer endeavors. Blackbaud has certainly encouraged this involvement and it is neat to see it making a difference for so many local charities!
As the title specifies, the main attraction of our event is the awards. This year we bestowed our partner of the year award, or as we call it, the Spirit of eTapestry award, upon our long time Advanced Email provider Delivra. We integrated with their email engine several years prior and have truly created a winning combination for a large number of eTapestry clients.
Pictured below are Neil Berman and Alex Johnson from Delivra. They have both been with us since day one of our partnership. They are a big part of our successful relationship. Thanks guys!
Now everyone in the room was ready to relieve the anticipation which always builds on who might be our Associate of the Year. Once again, the award was bestowed upon two very worthy employees. The winners are pictured below . . .
On the right is Dan Boehning our never say die Manager of National Account Sales. He has worked closely with many of our largest potential customers as well as interfacing closely with his counterparts handling the other solutions in the Blackbaud family. As you might guess, he has had quite a year and was certainly deserving of such recognition.
Jenny Saghir is the linchpin of our accounting division. She had quite the number of nominations from throughout our division for not only her strong daily work achievement, but for making our changeover to the new Blackbaud corporate accounting system go smoothly. She is the master of millions of details each year. She always has a smile and a "can do" attitude for anyone needing help.
It was a true pleasure to bestow this special recognition on two of our quieter employees who work so diligently behind the scenes for all of us. I hope some of you reading this post will get a chance to interface with Jenny or Dan or both in the coming year. I think you will see why there is a huge banner with their names spelled out for all to see hanging from our rafters. It will be next to the rest of the "CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCES" we have recognized over the years!
Among the many wonderful traditions we have here at our eTapestry Division of Blackbaud, one of them stands out in my mind due to the opportunity to spend time with the children of our employees. Over the years being able to spend those precious hours with the various kids reminded me of such hours with my own grown children. As you might guess, those memories made this night each year quite special.
This particular event was the idea of our COO Steve Rusche and his wife Liz. You see they have quite a bit of practice in keeping children engaged since they have four boys of their own. To capture the true spirit of the evening and perhaps let all of you see the insights leading up to the first eTapestry Parent's Night Out I have asked the mastermind herself Liz Rusche to be a guest blogger. I think you will see why Liz and the event are both quite unique to so many of us.
"After office hours on the Monday after Thanksgiving each year at eTapestry, the office becomes a three hour playground for the children of eTapestry employees! Our Parents Night Out enables employees to drop their children off at the office and enjoy a dinner/shopping trip alone while their kids are busy making Christmas crafts, handmade ornaments, and also the annual 'REINDEER FOOD SCAVENGER HUNT'!
"For the past nine years, this annual tradition has become a favorite of the kids of eTap! This year we had thirteen kids attend and two of those were our 'big' kids (now 13 and 14!) that wanted to come back and enjoy the fun as 'helpers'.
"The fun included making Christmas lanterns, handprint Christmas tree ornaments, and carving huge chunks of rice krispie treats and then decorating them into a Christmas treat! In past years, we have baked and decorated cookies, created individual gingerbread houses, and even fashioned a 'Christmas eTap Village' out of packing foam from the computer boxes - complete with a toy store, jail, bakery and school!
"The favorite part of the night each year is when each kid is given a list of food items that are hidden around the office - they have to assemble 'reindeer food - (a.k.a. trail mix) by reading the clues on their list and then finding the hidden bag with the individual ingredients! The kids love this and RACE each other to see who can find all the items first! Pizza and dessert are served and a Christmas movie is usually playing on the conference room 'big screen'. Of course the night wouldn't be complete without a game of dodge ball in the eTap gym!
"The wonderful staff of eTap participate in this as well as the kids - usually have 5-10 of our eTap employees that volunteer their time after hours to help coordinate this event by holding the babies, chasing the 1 and 2 year olds and making sure all the kids have a great time."
Once again each picture of such an event is worth as much or more than all of the words above. This year's pictures are no exception. I hope you enjoy perusing them as much as I did. Just think most of the parents were out making sure Santa Claus is well prepared for visiting their home later this month! That is what I call a WIN/WIN!
Each week I read quite a few newsletters, probably more than I should. However, staying in touch with a large number of our customers, partners and the non-profit world in general is sort of one of my passions. One of my favorite newsletters to peruse each time it comes out is the GuideStar newsletter. Their content and messaging seems to be always spot on.
The current issue is no exception. The Word of Mouth Marketing article within truly caught my eye.
Scott begins the article this way:
Word of mouth. It is the holy grail of marketing. It's effective and inexpensive. Everyone dreams of achieving it, but few organizations are truly able to make it work. Most likely it's because they are not ready for word of mouth. Before you get started on this journey, look in the mirror and ask yourself a few questions.
I have to agree that nearly every organization in both the non-profit and in the for-profit sectors strive to achieve being talked about. In a world where we are bombarded with so many messages during every hour of the day, we are all looking for someone we can trust with advice and viewpoints.
Such personal viewpoints have always been the glue that holds any sales related or marketing process together. Those personal views are the crux of reference checks!
Just think of how much easier it is for you when you are about to buy any product or service and you have a friend just rave about that product or service. Such references remove all doubt and enable the purchase process to flow like water over a steep waterfall.
All of us at Blackbaud and eTapestry have been working to make such comments easy for our customers and partners to make. I personally believe they flow best when there has been any out of the ordinary experience when dealing with our products or services. Most of us have become so used to ordinary that seeing or feeling something special is so easy to remember and share.
One of the factors in our favor is the fact that ordinary is the norm. Just taking a few extra minutes to help someone or to better design or improve a product can make such a difference in the word of mouth marketing that happens next.
I have had the pleasure of being in the technology world for over thirty years. Often times the difference between success and failure were the comments made during reference checks. No matter how compelling your literature (back when we used to have such items), proposal or your demonstration is, it was the feedback from current customers that closed the sale!
Therefore, in just about any arena where someone is making a decision on whether to buy or donate, references are the best types of word of mouth marketing. Since it the holiday season, I will refer to the following famous reply about the existence of Santa Claus for my metaphor. Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus, and Yes, Virginia top notch references equal success!
Over the last week or so, I have been watching the Tweetsgiving story unfold. Here are the complete details.
Here are some key points from the home page of the web site:
TweetsGiving is a global celebration that aims to change the world through the power of gratitude. Follow these simple steps to bring your grateful heart to the party:
Share Your Gratitude
Share whatever you're thankful for on Twitter, your blog, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, or blip.fm. Include the #tweetsgiving tag and a link to www.TweetsGiving.org so we can share your grateful heart with the world!
Give
Contribute in honor of whatever you're thankful for. Each $10 donation brings us 1 brick closer to a classroom, orphanage/dormitory, library and cafeteria at the #twitterkids' school in Arusha, Tanzania, or helps us fund a future Epic Change project.
Spread the Love
Most importantly, repeat step #1 as often as possible until noon EST on Thursday, November 26th, 2009. Then:
Follow @TweetsGiving and RT often to fill your stream with global gratitude.
Update your avatar with the twibbon below.
Follow 1800Flowers on Twitter and they'll donate $1 per new follower to Epic Change.
Follow the Story
Subscribe to follow Epic Change!
Let’s hope their fundraising for such a good cause is a huge success. As of last Wednesday, they seem to be off to a great start. Maybe a few others will find out about this via this post.
Very few of us in the United States can even imagine the basic needs that are so overwhelming in so much of the world. Basic needs like food, water, safety and shelter are just not there. In fact, the need is so great that most of us lucky ones in truly developed countries cannot fully comprehend how great the need is.
My hat is off to all of you out there trying to help meet those needs in whatever manner possible. Perhaps someday they will be met via the raw power and generosity of global philanthropy. I am proud to be a part of the philanthropy community, especially as we paused to give thanks during our recent American Thanksgiving.
I thought I would use this blog post to follow up two previous posts. I will begin with the most recent one regarding NPO Mission Statements and the often unneeded frenzy associated with them. Here is the link.
Within a day or two of making that post I ran across a report regarding non-profit taglines. This was the perfect addendum to any thoughts on mission statements, since the taglines are often the first way to truly catch the essence of any organization. Perhaps they can be one in the same for many organizations. I think it is worth a try. Let me know if you agree after reading this article...
The balance of this blog post I am writing as the small regional jet is winging me back from Charleston to Charlotte then Indianapolis. As I reread my post from a year ago at this time, I would have to say my original thoughts are still spot on for this year. Here is the link.
I would have to say this was the year for the true emergence of social media. The sessions on the subject were overflowing and the tweets regarding the conference were fast and furious. There was even live streaming video from the conference going out to the web to enhance Blackbaud's involvement in this rapidly growing part of the non-profit world. Perhaps most important is the absolute wealth of knowledge that can be gained from the large number of educational sessions. The presenters and their content were both superb!
Once again the networking was top notch. I think the Charleston Convention Center lends itself well to informal and impromptu gatherings amongst the sessions. I would be remiss if I did not also comment on the food. It was honestly even better than last year! Kudos for both the fresh fruit and the huge chocolate chip cookies served during some of the breaks. Lastly, it was sure nice to have abundant sunshine and 20 degrees warmer weather this year.
I will have to offer another salute to the conference planners and the scores of wonderful volunteers who made such a rich experience come to life for the large number of attendees. How will they make it bigger and better next year? If you are Blackbaud customer please come and find out. Better yet, if you are not one of our customers, become one in the next year and then you can experience this top notch event for yourself!
Last Thursday was the celebration of National Philanthropy Day in beautiful Fort Wayne Indiana. I say that because it was truly a warm sunny day for so late in the year in Indiana's second largest city. Perhaps that helped draw nearly 140 fundraisers together to celebrate the best and brightest in Philanthropy. From students to fundraisers to philanthropists, the stories of their accomplishments were outstanding, if not truly heartwarming!
I was delighted to be part of this celebration in several ways. First, Blackbaud provided sponsorship by being an exhibitor at the event. Secondly, I was honored to address the "Master's Track" of senior fundraisers with a presentation on Ethics. Just as I had figured, my presentation to such senior professionals quickly turned into a group discussion. This was especially true with regards to the four case studies I presented. Each case study was adapted from those provided by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Here is a link to the section of the web site where the Code of Ethics guidelines are found here.
What truly separates the fundraising profession from many others is not only the Code of Ethics, but the ability to enforce them via a specified appeal and hearing process. Being involved with several of those hearings as part of the AFP Ethics committee did allow me to help bring the case studies to life. Of course, very little prompting was required to bring the thoughts and opinions of the senior group to the forefront.
Please find below the case studies we discussed. As you glance through them, do you think you know the proper and ethical answer or answers to each one? If not, please refer to the link above for the specific guidelines. No matter what, I think you will enjoy the scenarios. Perhaps many of you will be better equipped to prevent them with proper policies at your organization after you review them. Here you go:
Last week I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to participate on a key partner panel for PayPal Leader Day. This invitation came as the result of being a new strategic partner with PayPal for non profits looking to get started with on-line donation processing. Here is the link to the joint product announcement on the PayPal web site.
When I was informed I would be spending time with executives from Yahoo, eBay, PayPal and other well known technology companies and I would be asked my opinion about our partnership in a leadership forum, I knew I just had to attend. Boy, am I glad that I did
After being part of this superb event I will describe below, I realized that in the business and non-profit worlds we seldom ask the question "How are we doing in meeting or exceeding your expectations of us?" In key markets where service is a prime differentiator posing such a simple question could make a huge difference.
Let me paint the scene for you. On a typical beautiful San Jose morning I arrive at PayPal headquarters.
Within a few minutes, I realize Leader Day means that all of the key leaders of the company were gathered into a fairly large room to strategize and to share. Prior to our panel session we were encouraged to be open and honest with regard to every question we answered. No concern or issue or compliment was too big or too small to skip.
The moderator Art began with allowing us to describe in detail our partnership. From that point on Art proceeded into a wide array of provocative and probing questions. Even then all of us on the panel tended to keep the boxing gloves off. So the first hour was somewhat eventful, but nothing like the second hour. During the second half it was time for the leaders themselves to fire questions at us. You could immediately tell everyone one of the PayPal leaders that stepped to the mike wanted open and honest feedback on what they were doing right and what they could improve upon.
All of us on the panel were somewhat stunned by this eagerness to find out more and to use the information as a fulcrum to lever improvement for their teams. It was such a surprise that it was refreshing. Most importantly, we all felt it creating a stronger bond in our various partnerships.
After the session we were joined for lunch by the executives of PayPal. During the lunch the unique open dialogue continued at the same pace or stronger. I was able to pick the brain of the CIO for PayPal Michael Barrett. Just as you might expect he also picked mine.
After lunch several members of their partner related team gathered all of in a conference room to dig deeper into our concerns and suggestions. Once again, the team at PayPal dared to ask exactly what we thought about anything and everything related to the relationship. We truly dug into some finite details and brainstormed regarding solutions. How wonderful if we could all engage in such an exercise with key partners and customers. Having been on the receiving side of such an exchange will certainly cause me to push for it more often for any organization I am part of in the future. Daring to ask is good for everyone involved.
Finally, we were each personally thanked by Scott Thompson the CEO of PayPal. If you have never seen or heard Scott are a couple of links to introduce you.
Thanks to everyone involved in this experience. I hope we get to do it again next year!
This blog post is going to be hard for me not allow it to become a rant...
I say that because people make this incredibly powerful form of communication and engagement far too complicated. I would compare it to the novice marketer who tries to say everything in their first full page ad instead of realizing the extreme power of white/blank space around a short message that resonates and might actually be remembered!
I have to admit I was prompted to write this post after reading Nancy Lublin's article in the November issue of Fast Company. Here is the link.
I love how she begins with the use of Dilbert’s Auto Mission Statement Generator:
How to Write a Mission Statement that Isn't Dumb
By: Nancy Lublin
Why most mission statements are dumb -- and how to write one that isn't.
Here are four mission statements. Two are from real organizations. Two were created by Dilbert's Automatic Mission Statement Generator. Can you guess which ones are genuine?
1. It is our job to continually foster world-class infrastructures as well as to quickly create principle-centered sources to meet our customer's needs. (Dilbert)
2. Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance-based infrastructures. (Dilbert)
3. To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities. (United Way)
4. Respect, integrity, communication, and excellence (Enron... hard to believe!)
Mission statements are like corporate Hallmark cards. Often written in a bland cursive font and plastered conspicuously at headquarters, these aspiring epigrams are pretty words in Air Supply -- like rhythm. Sometimes they're created at a retreat in the woods, between the trust fall and the passing of the speaking stick. Vigorous fights over semantics last for hours, even months. Then you end up with some variation of the jargony quasi-poetry above.
I could not agree more with the author Nancy of the above paragraph. When you try to be everything to everybody you often become nothing to anyone.
Having been a founder of various organizations in both the for-profit as well as the not-for-profit worlds, one of my favorite exercises is the creation of the business or operating plan. Like most people, I tended to go way overboard on the detail, and as such, the size of the plan. That was until a dear friend and mentor of mine lead me through the following exercise.
This person insisted that my other founders and I condense the essence of our plan down to a two page executive summary. We then were asked to boil it down to two paragraphs. We were now truly focusing in our core being. Lastly, this person insisted we shorten it down to 8 words or less so it could be on every business card, email signature and letterhead. Eureka, we had our mission statement and it was short enough as well as impactful enough that everyone could remember it!
The 8 word criterion has held up well whenever I have been asked to participate in the creation of or revision of mission statements. I love it because it keeps the "word smithing" and the playing of Scrabble to a minimum.
Whatever the group is we are forced into a laser like focus on what is our core essence or being. The results are usually outstanding and easy to use/recall.
The phrase "less is more" could not apply in any larger degree in my comments above. Bear in mind reducing your mission statement to 8 words or less is exacting, hard and perhaps just plain daunting. However, the end result is so beautiful and useful that the amount of effort will soon be forgotten.
I urge any of you with large and unwieldy mission statements to perhaps devote 20-30 minutes of your next board meeting or executive management meeting to the exercise. There is a good chance you just might be thrilled with the results. While you are at it, invite whoever is in charge of your advertising and see if they can move the central theme of any ad to 8 words or less too.
Now if you are the type who wants to weigh several viewpoints on the subject listed below are the first 7 results from my Google search on the subject. Be aware some of these below take the art of "word-smithing" to new heights!
missionstatements.com
About.com Mission Statements
About.com Nonprofit Management
Suite 101
Raise-Funds.com
Helium.com
tgci.com
Obviously, everyone has enjoyed shopping in one form or another whether it is on-line or in a regular store. From the early part of this decade until last year the on-line shopping statistics were growing rapidly. They are still growing but the pace has slowed according to Forrester Research. Perhaps the most telling aspect of the recent results in the on-line shopping world is that the average transaction has dropped slightly.
I truly believe that on-line shopping will swing back into high growth mode again next year. It will hard to stop it with the large growth occurring in broad band usage as shown below.
Such stats and insights are important to know for any non-profit organization with a web site presence. (Let's hope the percentage of NPO's with web sites is now near 100%!)
The reason I say it is vital to know, is due to the key role shopping can play in increasing the bond between your constituents and your NPO. Any of your supporters who have embraced your mission are more than likely to want to display their loyalty via items with your logo or cause outlined. In addition, this can be a superb auxiliary source of revenue for your non-profit.
Earlier this year eTapestry made this potentially key part of many of our customer's web sites come to life via our new shopping cart module. This great addition to our product line provides an easy way to sell any type of product via the web site with all important data flowing directly into the eTapestry database. It also automates all transaction processing while providing appropriate receipts and follow-up emails. Appropriately it is a one-stop shop for non-profits requiring this functionality!
Make It Right Foundation
National Railroad Museum
Hopefully we can help many of you make this additional relationship building and revenue generating tool come to life!
Even though I am not on vacation this week, I wanted to continue a nostalgic look into eTapestry. When one mentions marketing and advertising around our office usually Steve Rusche is not far behind. I think you enjoy his parade of our advertising. The Non-Profit world sure seemed to like many of them!
Last week John Moore gave you a glimpse of the early days of the eTapestry application. This week we look back at some or our early eTapestry ads, which helped get us the exposure needed to launch our fledgling company.
The first eTapestry ads were literally "homemade". It didn’t take us long to realize that we needed something a little different if we were going to get recognized in the very competitive fundraising software sector. So we began a relationship with a local advertising agency, Young and Laramore, to help us build our advertising.
We had a number of challenges in the early days. First, we had a radically different product for that time – a web-based database. Second, we were the new kid on the block and had to battle the skepticism some folks had of a start-up organization. So our ads needed to convey our unique product and at the same time make us look like a professional, established company.
As you can see, we took a very creative approach to our ads. We wanted them to be eye-catching, simple, different, and with a little humor. It fit our company. We were – and continue today – a group that likes to look at things a little differently and to have some fun along the way as well. Here's a sampling of some of our ads over the years.
This is one of several ads that invited folks to attend one of the first "online seminars". Today online seminars are a common tool for all types of services.
This ad series highlighted the differences between "traditional software" and our web-based, online software.
A more recent ad promoted an offer to get organizations up and running quickly.
Our most recent ads continue the eTapestry tradition of fun, different ads with a specific message. In this case, illustrating the symbiotic nature of the relationship we have with clients. Our success depends on their success.
I hope you have enjoyed a brief look at our advertising history. You can continue to expect something different from eTapestry in the future. We are already at work on something special for 2010!
Steve Rusche
Chief Operation Officer
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