And now to announce our Challenge winner!!

News You Can Use

Make Your Friends Happier – Ask them to Give

Dick Duckworth, a volunteer who raises money for Providence sent me an article he clipped from the St. Petersburg (FL) Times that cites a March 2008 article in the journal Science.

A joint American and Canadian study of 700 people showed that increases in income have no reliable correlation to increased happiness. However, more money subjects spent on others (pro-social spending) showed a strong relationship to greater happiness.

The most telling component of the research was one where 46 students were given envelopes containing cash. Some were told to spend it on others, some on themselves, Those who were told to spend the money on others reported consistently greater happiness. You can read the article here (free subscription required).

Often we are reluctant to ask our friends to donate, thinking it to be an imposition. In reality you are helping your friend attain greater happiness. Consider how happy you are when you hear about the success stories occurring at your Learning Center. Then reach out to your friends and help make them happy too!

(If you come across any news you’d like us to share, please email me or send it along.)

Inspiration

“He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a complex writer and Philologist (one who studies religions). He wrote in a unique form, largely through short ideas, aphorisms. He is known for his thoughts on the power of the individual and self-determination. He is often associated with the movements of existentialism and postmodernism. For more information on the life and works of Nietzsche, please refer to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Ideas that work -Go to the old 5 & 10

Last week I had the honor of attending the 3rd annual 5/10 Club of New Jersey Dinner. The dinner recognized the donations of individuals throughout the Garden State that have made operating gift commitments to the New Jersey Learning Centers of $5,000 or $10,000 ... and sometimes even more.

An idea born from adversity

Verdon Skipper, then Scottish Rite Deputy for the state of New Jersey faced a desperate dilemma in 2005 - a sponsor of 3 Learning Centers was stopping future funding. Skipper and his board members were adamant that the Centers would remain open. So, they first reworked the budgets. With this new (and lower) goal this team set about finding financial sources to make up for this large need. Special events could only do so much. Skipper concluded that he must find a committed core of people with the means to make a substantial dent in the fundraising goals each year.

In this light, the 5/10 Club was inaugurated.

Ducks in a row

Skipper started this endeavor the best way one can. First he pulled a team of volunteers together who were committed to the cause of supporting the Learning Centers. Next Skipper led by example and donated enough to earn the right to be a member of the 5/10 Club. He asked his volunteers to join him in this (they did). Then the team determined who might also be interested and capable of joining and determined how best to ask them. Finally they determined how best to acknowledge participation in this effort (an annual dinner).

The first 5/10 Club dinner was in 2007. More than $100,000 was committed by its members that year. Each year since, the size of the group and the amount this group has committed has risen.

The dinner held the last Friday in May is an affair befitting the generosity of the group. A hallmark of the event is a graduate of one of the Learning Centers describing his or her experience. This year's speaker was a young woman who came to our Centers as a freshman in high school, reading only at a 4th grade level. She and her parents would drive 2 hours a day just to get to the Learning Center. The transformation was enormous. She went from an inhibited girl barely hanging on academically to a confident National Honors Society student who is looking forward to attending college with scholarships.

This is the greatest return the members of the 5/10 Club could receive, as their many damp eyes attested. This is what helps to grow the Club every year.

Why not here?

There are people who have the capacity to make major annual gifts to your Learning Center. You can start a similar club if you follow these guidelines:

• Determine a giving threshold high enough to be significant. Don't be afraid that it is a small club. It will grow.
• Make sure the committee is composed only of those who are givers. If you skirt this, the success of the effort will fail.
• Celebrate appropriately. If the level of giving is high, a good dinner is not inappropriate. It is an investment that will pay back.

Remember, this is a flexible high end program. 5/10 is a great idea, but 1-2-3 may work better for you. Or nickle, dime quarter. Go with what's best for you.

News You Can Use

The news isn't all doom and gloom. A new poll shows that donor confidence is rising, especially among donors to faith-based organizations.
According to the latest Donor Confidence Report, conducted by nonprofit marketing research company Campbell Rinker, donor confidence grew to an index of 88.2 in April, a .7 increase from February. Faith-based charities showed the sharpest increase, up 2.07 from February. Check out the complete article here.
Although our dyslexia program is not a faith-based charity, the article does exert a good, positive indicator that donor confidence is on the rise. And the Learning Center model shares many of the elements of faith-based charities: passionate volunteers supporting a worthy cause in their communities.

Inspiration

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”
-Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) from his book The Lorax

Dr. Seuss died in 1991, but his works and legacy live on. The author has ranked in the top 10 of Forbes.com’s Top-Earning Dead Celebrities since Forbes began compiling the list in 2001. Under the direction of his widow, Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss Enterprises and the Dr. Seuss Foundation have given away millions of dollars to various causes.
The Lorax was a harbinger to the environmental movement long before Americans were being encouraged to “go green.” Check out more about Dr. Seuss and his works here.

Ideas that Work - Prospect Review

Where do we look first?
Strategies for seeking support.

When I begin to seek funding, I start with two basic tenets in mind –
Know the number and size of donations needed to meet the need
Start with the prospects with the greatest interest and capacity

When considering the gifts needed, one should remember that fundraising is NOT egalitarian. Usually a $60,000 goal is not met by 100 $600 gifts, it is met by PROPORTIONAL giving – donors giving in accordance with their relative ability.
This is where a gift table comes in. Consider the $60,000 goal. Given a Learning Center’s history of donations, this goal might be met by securing:
One $20,000 gift
Two $10,000 gifts
Three $5,000 gifts
Four $1,000 gifts
Ten $500 gifts
Numerous smaller gifts

Using this as a basis, the next challenge is to determine who, if properly motivated, could donate at these levels. This is the point of prospect review. There is a simple tool for this process that I have developed over 25 years of fundraising work. It is the Prospect Review Matrix. To do this effectively, do the following exercise:

• 1. Gather together a list of all the potential donors you can imagine for your Learning Center. Include present donors, board, Masonic bodies, active Masons, foundations, parents, philanthropic people in the communities, service clubs and any other possible supporter.
• 2. Select a committee of people who have reasonable insight in the capacity of this list (the board as a whole might do this).
• 3. On a sheet of paper, draw a square divided into 9 boxes (like Hollywood Squares). Then place the following numbers in the boxes:
• 531
• 742
• 986
• On the vertical side of the square write $ and an arrow pointing up each row denotes a financial level (let’s say for this example, $250-$999, $1,000-4,999, $5,000+). On the horizontal side write interest and an arrow pointing left each column denoting the prospect’s perceived interest – low, medium, high. This is the Prospect Review Matrix.
• 4. As a group review these prospects using the matrix as a guide. Only those who have knowledge of the prospect should render an opinion. Record the number associated with the consensus review, i.e: Prospect A is capable of a $2,500 gift and is highly interested in the Learning Center – on the matrix, that would render a review of “2”.

Once you have finished, group the prospects by review number. You now have a prioritized list of prospects. Start by deciding how to see the prospects from “1”s to “6”s. Consider how much to solicit each prospect by what you need and their ranking. Go see them, remembering what Benjamin Franklin said about prospects when raising money for the first public hospital in this country, “A third will give what you ask for, a third will give less, and a third won’t give.”

If you want help with this model please contact me at spekock@scottishritecharities.org.