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I recently called a foundation listed by a grant directory as "a supporter of youth programs." The foundation officer told me that, contrary to the printed information, young people per se were not their primary focus. They were really interested in programs that allowed families living in poverty to access health care services. Since her foundation had been flooded with requests from youth programs, she was relieved when I told her I could submit a grant proposal that reflected the foundation’s true interests.
Several important lessons occurred to me during this encounter. First, when doing development work, you cannot simply blanket prospective funders with proposals that look like a fit on paper. In order to successfully raise money, you must truly know your donor. At LAPA we make conversations with foundations' grant officers a central part of our fundraising process when working with organizations that outsource their grant-writing to us. We strongly recommend that all organizations initiate such conversations.
But there is a larger point. Too many organizations treat both their current and potential funders as abstract, impersonal bureaucracies. Intimidated by perceptions of the foundation as an "all-powerful" entity holding the purse strings, they create a dynamic that leaves the donor at a distance. As with other stakeholders in your organization, a personal touch is usually more effective. Foundations and individual donors need to be cultivated and nurtured just like your volunteers, board members, and clients.
While not all foundation officers are willing or able to build a substantial relationship, developing contacts with those who make themselves available is vital to turning single grants into multi-year gifts, to getting feedback about your program planning, and to learning about how you can better navigate the philanthropic world. Foundation officers rely on you to convey your passion for your work and to demonstrate the effectiveness of your programs. But the relationship can also be a two-way street; foundation officers are often experts in their field and can impart a wealth of knowledge about your service area.
If you would like to discuss ideas about the donor cultivation process, give me a call at 212-932-8001 x1. In the meantime, please enjoy this edition of LAPA News & Views, which features articles about how to make outcome evaluation work for you and how to keep your Board of Directors active in fundraising.
Laurence A. Pagnoni, MA, MPA
lapagnoni@lp-associates.com
P.S. Feel free to forward this newsletter to others whom you feel it would benefit. If you do, please copy us (info@lp-associates.com) into the "mailing address" of the e-mail. This helps us know how far the conversation has traveled.
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| 2005
is LAPA's Tenth Anniversary--It remains our privilege to help you
make a positive difference in your communities! |
by Melissa Shurkin, LAPA Senior Associate
Here at LAPA, I often work with organizations to measure the impact of their work. Today more than ever, nonprofits are asked by donors to provide quantifiable evidence that their programs have helped change lives. In fact, many funders will only support projects with concrete, well-thought-out plans for measuring outcomes. If you are busy with program delivery, evaluation can feel like an overwhelming burden. But it offers an important opportunity to show that your precious organizational resources are effecting the social change you desire.
As project manager of LAPA's outcome evaluation of 23 HIV/AIDS organizations receiving Ryan White Title I Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) funding, I encounter many programs that measure success by indicators as narrow as blood test results and HIV-related hospitalizations. Indicators like "CD4 counts" and "viral loads" do not reflect the complexities facing people living with HIV/AIDS, but they do provide one piece of concrete evidence to demonstrate that MAI programs may indeed make a difference.
Recently, one MAI treatment education program that I work with (along with a partner organization, Philliber Research Associates) decided to take its evaluation to the next level. The program staff wanted to know how they were doing in achieving some larger program goals, such as instilling self-advocacy skills that ensure clients get the best care from their physicians. They used interviews and staff assessments of client progress for the evaluation, and were pleasantly surprised by the results of their preliminary efforts. "It helped us know we had an impact on people's quality of life, and not just their blood tests, " a program director told me. "With the amount of suffering that the educators confront everyday, reading this analysis has been great for morale. "
Outcome evaluation is a way of validating your impact, a result that does much more than please donors. If you'd like to talk about your next steps around evaluation, contact Melissa Shurkin at mshurkin@lp-associates.com or 212/932-8001 ext. 4.
Q. Dear LAPA,
We constantly struggle to keep our Board of Directors interested and active in fundraising. Sometimes it's even hard to get them to follow through on their pledges. Do you have any suggestions for how to keep the fundraising momentum alive?
- Ginny from the Block (The Bronx)
A. LAPA Associate Raissa Smorol responds:
Dear Ginny,
We here at LAPA feel your pain. While it may feel like failure when that goal of 100% Board participation is not achieved, the reality is that many highly effective, well-managed organizations do not have that level of participation. Every Board is unique.
Before you take action, we urge you to think about each Director's overall contribution to your organization, including his or her current ability to secure donations. Many attributes other than giving make a valuable Board member, such as his or her assistance with evaluating client services or contribution to enhancing your agency's reputation in the community.
That said, we do believe that personal giving and assistance with fundraising are important Board functions--signaling a level of commitment that is reassuring to prospective donors.
To best engage your Board of Directors in fundraising, it is essential that you understand why your Board members initially became involved with your organization. Does the mission affect them personally? Do they have a family member or close friend who is affected by the mission?
Once you consider these questions, we have seen three steps work to increase board involvement:
-- Assessing what you need from each individual Board member;
-- Asking them how they want to become more involved;
-- Continuing to nurture their emotional investment in your cause.
Consider meeting with Board members individually or setting aside time at your next Board meeting or retreat to ask your Directors to speak about what made them passionate about your mission in the first place. Your Board may appear to be disinterested in fundraising only because they have forgotten why they are committed to your organization. By rejuvenating their passion for the mission, you can foster greater commitment to building the long-term sustainability of your organization.
Yours sincerely,
Raissa
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