A Hidden Gem

Jay Love — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:08:00 GMT

The Free Dictionary defines "Gem" as either a. Something that is valued for its beauty or perfection or b. A beloved or highly prized person

After listening to a cadre of successful Indiana businessman and women, who comprise the Philanthropy Council of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy located here in Indianapolis, rave about this institution, I fully believe both definitions apply. Here is the link in order to fully appreciate the scope of the Center’s endeavors. It is a true gem for Indiana and the non-profit world.

How often do many of the people of a community never visit, understand or help communicate about a wonderful key landmark or historic institution right under their nose. Just think of the number of times you may have journeyed to visit a distant site, which seemed so special to you and your family, only to have nobody in a local restaurant be able to guide you there or even tell you what to expect.

My favorite example of such lackadaisical approach is a conversation with a former high school basketball teammate of mine. For most of the years of our youth, we focused on the game we loved so much. A few years back I asked him if he had visited the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, which is located less than 45 miles from his home. He had not, but he did mention during a recent family vacation to Texas they had visited Prairie Dog Town in Lubbock. Maybe I am off base, but I think a true gem was missed no matter how great the prairie dogs were...

Anyway, let’s return to the Center on Philanthropy. As a new board member, who happens to live in this region, I was an invited guest to the council's strategic planning meeting. When I glimpsed at the list of attendees and who the chairman was I immediately cleared my schedule for the two and a half hour early evening gathering.

I have always found strategic planning sessions to be fascinating, if not exciting, on many levels. This one was no exception. Debating strategic issues and possible solutions among a distinguished group of very successful people is a joy to watch and participate in. The experiences and insights jumped out in rapid fire order, especially under the watchful and experienced eye of our leader Frank Walker. By the way, he is a gem too!

This experience made me wonder why more NPOs and for profit businesses do not establish some sort of council to supplement and enhance their board. How about a council comprised of bright folks under the age of 35? Believe me their insights on many subjects will be different and brilliant! How about a council of retired individuals with a passion for your business or cause? How about a customer or partner council? Any and all of the above when organized properly are just as powerful as the going to the audience to answer any question such as they do in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"

By the way the success rate for Ask the Audience on the show is 91% or higher! Just think if you had a council who supplied strategic answers at a 90% or higher success rate what that would mean! Maybe we have uncovered another hidden gem .

eTapestry is Proud to be a Huge Part of FEP

Jay Love — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:43:00 GMT

In 2006, AFP and the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., launched the innovative annual Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) survey. By comparing gains and losses in annual giving reported by donor software vendors, the survey helps fundraisers fine-tune their strategies.

This project is truly unique in several key areas. First, the results are based upon actual data contained in literally thousands of real life nonprofit fundraising databases. Second, as you will see below, this is one of the times that ardent competitors came together to pool results for the good of our beloved sector. (I am still not sure some can believe we truly did it. However, I am personally so proud of our group of vendors for rising to the occasion for such a good cause and dropping most of the petty reasons for not sharing data.) Third, the results are startling and highlight some key courses of action for nearly every nonprofit engaged in fundraising.

Participating vendors in the AFP Donor Software Workgroup include the following (companies marked with an asterisk are charter members of the AFP donor software workgroup):
Blackbaud Inc. (The Raiser’s Edge®)*
Compass Technology
Donor2/Campus Management Corporation*
DonorPerfect Fundraising Software*
eTapestry*
MatchMaker FundRaising Software*
Metafile*
Mission Research (GiftWorks)*
PhilanthrAppeal (FundTrack Software)*
ROI Solutions
Sage Software*
SofTrek Corporation (PledgeMaker)
Telosa Software Inc. (Exceed!)

Quite a strange group of bedfellows, would you not agree? I have to take a moment and brag a little bit about the huge part eTapestry played. Since our online model of the database application made it literally a single push of the button to participate for our customers, over 2,500 of them did just that! This definitely helped make the project a success since we provided the lion’s share of the data. I guess if you are going to brag a little you might as well mention all the key facets. In addition, eTapestry suggested the key report format used by the project. It was none other than one of our application’s key Executive Reports called Giving Dynamics. (See chart below).

In addition, since the FEP project and eTapestry’s customer participation were so successful, we decided to build upon that original concept and create an entire series of reports. It has become one of our most sought after modules called Benchmark Reporting. More background details about this exciting module are discussed in the podcast located here.

Now for the results . . .

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is essential in the blogging world since we are not writing novels or for the NY Times. The chart below reflects the actual Giving Dynamics as of 11/14/2008 comparing the previous year for a random portion of the eTapestry nonprofit customers located in North America. (Please note: dollars shown are in $000’s).

The report reflects a startling bit of news. Even though all organizations involved in fundraising strive to achieve a majority of fundraising goals in order to extend their mission, most of them lose more dollars from existing and previous donors than they obtain from new and recaptured donors! This report reflects 1,631 participating organizations with the new, recaptured and upgraded donors in 2008 representing 33 percent of the donors, while the number of lapsed and downgraded donors represents 59 percent of the total! Similarly, for every new donor gained, the organizations lost more than twice as many.

The true power of such reporting is in comparing your specific organization to the aggregate or to some specific subset meaningful to you. Subsets such as other organizations in your state or region or in your vertical part of the nonprofit sector reveal just how you are doing and what trends may be affecting you. Have you ever been in a board meeting where a board member asks how your results compare to other like organizations? Now you have an easy to use tool to more than answer such a question. More importantly, you are equipped to respond to or adjust to changes in our sector. Lastly, you know where to focus your efforts. A little extra care of existing donors could go a long way in changing the results in next year’s report!

The Jay Love Blog : Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy

A Hidden Gem

eTapestry is Proud to be a Huge Part of FEP