Mazarine: Charlotte, why did you go to Uganda originally?

Charlotte: I came to Uganda with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) on a two-year placement as the Marketing Development Manager for the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF). It was my dream job: marketing elephants! But when I say it’s my dream job, making it all happen can be a real challenge at times.

I’ve wanted to live in Africa since I was a teenager and always wanted to do VSO (the British version of Peace Corps). Twenty years after my first phone call to VSO, I’d finally acquired the skills and the life experience to help me spend two years living in and contributing to a developing country.

On a good week, we’d go on safari. (I still have to pinch myself!) It’s a day’s drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park and we would usually include an impromptu game drive. Reconnecting with the field projects is crucial, and of course fun!

Most of the time however, I wrote funding proposals, reports to donors and developed our Facebook page. My role was to raise UCF’s profile, fundraise, communicate with donors, help develop the local team’s skills – and fundraise some more! There were weeks when my job, plodding away on the laptop, was as routine as any other office worker’s, but then I remembered: I’m in Africa! And I’m helping protect elephants!

The VSO philosophy is sustainable development through sharing skills. This year I recruited a Marketing Officer who I continue to mentor, thus passing on my marketing skills to the local team. It means my VSO placement should have a long term, sustainable impact on UCF.

A key part of the role was sharing skills. Western IT skills, for example, are typically much more advanced than the average Ugandan’s and people tend to learn from each other (passing on the mistakes as well as the learning). You can really increase a person’s productivity through sharing simple PC skills that the average Westerner takes for granted. VSO teaches you to show people how to do things for themselves. It’s empowering and quite humbling to be a part of it. There have been some very frustrating and challenging times over the past three years but I can look back now and see some big improvements in terms of efficiency, team morale and organisation profile. It makes me smile to think I’ve been part of that.

Mazarine: What do you like best about Uganda?

Charlotte: That is such a difficult question, there are so many ways to fall in love with the country! Ugandans are wonderfully friendly people, and they will put themselves out to greet and welcome you. The countryside is beautifully diverse, the weather is (generally) fantastic and the country has the most incredible biodiversity: gorillas, chimps, elephants, lions, leopard, giraffe and zebra and 1,060+ species of birds. It really is paradise on earth.

Ugandan kids

The pace of life is slower: the work culture, travelling to meetings (because of the terrible traffic and enormous potholes) and even the time it can take you to cook dinner (after you’ve haggled for your purchases then boiled and filtered your water). The internet can be slow or off for days, people are sick more often, heavy rains can prevent people getting to work, the electricity can go off without warning – it can wear you down! But, people take the time for each other, it’s a simpler way of life. Modern life is so stressful – the choices I’m faced with when I travel home to the UK boggle my mind!

Mazarine: What have you found blogging helps you do?

Charlotte: I started my personal blog so friends and family back home could keep up to date with my adventure as a volunteer. I’ve often kept a diary when I travel so it was the logical thing to do. Blogging quickly became my biggest pastime. It was a way for me to process and try and make sense of the new world around me and gave me some creative time out from the formal proposal and report writing for UCF.

Over the past two and half years, promoting my blog via Twitter and Facebook has allowed me to connect with bloggers worldwide, which has helped me develop my creative travel writing. (My blog has appeared on Lonely Planet since 2009). After my VSO contract finished, in October I joined a Ugandan travel company. Conservation and tourism work hand-in-hand in Uganda, so it was a natural step for me. I can continue to support UCF in my spare time too, an added bonus. (I joke that I’ve been promoted from being a paid volunteer to an unpaid one!)

Blogging and social media have given UCF a global platform. It puts us up there with the biggest and the best, it’s made everyday communication with our donors simpler, and has given our fans the opportunity to interact with us on their terms.

Mazarine: What is your take on fundraising internationally in Africa? Tips? Tricks? Must dos? Must not dos?

Charlotte: It’s the same as anywhere in the world  - never take your donors for granted. Befriend them, get to know them, keep them up to date with everything you’re doing, even if it’s a photograph with a good strapline. There are many organisations out there who would love to support successful projects, and innovative ideas, you just need to find them. Often these recommendations can be made through existing donors.

UCF gets the majority of its funding from the West, thus it’s crucial that we have a good Internet connection and are able to maximise social media. It took me two years to get the hang of using Twitter in Uganda, the system distrusts users from Africa, it seems, and thought I was a hacker! (I had to ask my sister in the UK to log on for me. This reactivated my account and since then I’ve been able to have access again). Once I got the hang of it, it’s been the best medium for networking.

Travelling to the UK every six months also gives me an opportunity to get up to date with the latest technology trends. Much of the technology is not available in Africa; if it is available, it is much more expensive and has limited resources. Virtually everyone in Uganda owns a mobile and we are actually quite advanced in terms of SMS use for marketing and financial transactions using mobile phones. This is because very few people have bank accounts and, outside the cities, people don’t have computers or Internet access. So there is technological innovation, and it’s interesting that it’s taken a different direction from the West.

International donors have standards that developing countries may find very difficult to achieve and maintain. This relates to use of English language, good grammar, timekeeping, financial transparency, ability to use different computer programs, presentation skills. This does mean that small and local NGOs are at a huge disadvantage and simply don’t qualify, in terms of resources, to submit a winning funding application. It means that English language skills are much in demand, so that does give plenty of opportunities for Westerners who would like to support project funding overseas. If you get it right however, money from the West can go a very long way in a developing country.

Ideally you should always aim to get some of your revenue locally. This gets better local buy-in for your project (brownie points for advocacy campaigns, long-term survival of the organisation more likely, etc), and means you’re less at the mercy of foreign currency regulations, global recessions etc! That said, the Ugandan shilling has devalued so badly (current inflation is 30%) that funding from international donors is going even further than normal. We can’t expect this to last for long though, and it’s certainly not a fundraising strategy.

The average Ugandan doesn’t have much spare cash. Everyone goes to church and many will people will pay a tithe (possibly 10% of their salary will go to the church). This money is supposed to support those in the community who are in need. Charity fundraising is generally on a small scale, but big companies do sponsor various types of events and causes.

Mazarine: For projects donors will never visit, how do you create a connection to your mission?

Charlotte: Few of our donors have had the ability to fly out to Uganda to meet our projects. Our reports include lots of photographs. We bring back data on stories from the field, invite them to our events and speak to them on the phone. Our reports are very colourful and full of lots of big photographs and data that shows the impact of what we’re trying to achieve. We feature lots of people – and of course wildlife! We also include quotes, from members of the community, the wildlife Rangers, etc. This really brings our reports to life. All our reports include live links to our website and Facebook and Twitter and we always encourage people to engage with us online.

Uganda Conservation Foundation

If we had the money, we would make video too – and I’d certainly recommend that to anyone trying to make a connection. For us in Uganda, the other issue is Internet connection. It’s so slow that uploading videos is not something that we can do regularly, it just takes too long. However, the Internet infrastructure is slowly improving.

Mazarine: Do you fundraise from the local community as well? If so, how do you find your language shifts from talking with overseas donors versus talking with local donors? Do you ask for different things? Do you try to connect them with the mission in a different way?

Charlotte: We do fund raise from the local community, but predominantly from the corporate community, many of whom are westerners.

We have a corporate membership program, and we accept in-kind sponsorship as much as cash donations. Having these business friends whom we can call in favours from, is incredibly useful. A note of warning though, this feelgood factor doesn’t always give you the best service. There is a feeling that paying clients get a better service than we do, but if your cash strapped small organisation, it might be enough to keep you going.

In terms of Ugandans, their support is very important, as these people are the ones that can effect behavioural change in the long term. Our language very definitely changes, as do our messages. For example, most of our international donors are conservation organisations, thus our message is heavily focused on wildlife and habitat management, protecting human populations in order to protect the wildlife populations.

To local subsistence farmer communities in the national parks, the messages are different: we want to protect you and help lift you out of poverty and are investing in your community through education and income generating projects (beekeeping, digging of elephant trenches, slashing of the Bush). In return, communities are warned that the penalties for poaching are higher than they were before, but it does mean that you, your family and your livelihood will be better protected (from crop raiding animals) by the wildlife Rangers.

For the average Ugandan who lives in Kampala, for example, the message is that tourism is the number one foreign revenue earner. The majority of tourists come to Uganda for the wildlife. This wildlife is under threat but you can help protect it and thus help develop your country. We encourage people to be proud of their heritage. Many people don’t have money to spare to give UCF. That they hear our message is more important than them supporting us financially. You would simply not think of asking them to become members but you would refer them to Facebook, something which Ugandans are really crazy about!

Mazarine: Do you also run the volunteer coordination/recruitment and events for the Uganda Conservation Foundation? If so, do you have any tips for people who are asked to do too much?

Charlotte: We do not recruit volunteers, generally speaking. We have had one full-time VSO for two years at a time, three times in our history.

Many people approach us, asking to do voluntary work, but they’re not usually clear about exactly what it is they’re going to offer us and I’m afraid represent more work for us than opportunity. A volunteer has to be managed in the same way as a paid member of staff.

In terms of being asked to do too much, if you’re coming to an organisation and have a good skill set, it might be assumed that you can do all kinds of things. Have your role as clear as possible in your mind, and on paper, and communicate this with your colleagues. Do this more than once! Don’t rush to do everything, allow people the chance to try. VSO quite clearly warns us that we are unlikely to achieve the same amount of work as we would back home. You are working in a new culture with many limitations, so you have to reduce your expectations of yourself. It can be frustrating, it really can!

Mazarine: What’s one thing you wish you had known before you started in the NGO/Charity/Third Sector world?

Charlotte: I wish I’d appreciated how much free support is available online. I wish I had connected with you three years ago!

(Aw! Thank you Charlotte!)

Mazarine: How do you do marketing in your job? What resources and tools would you recommend for someone starting to market a charity in Africa?

Charlotte: Network as much as you can, attend external meetings, join groups, socialise.

Make Twitter your friend – this is the best way to meet people who are doing the same thing as you, same job in a different country, or related organisations in the same country as you. They will give you ideas and connections, and keep you going when you’re struggling.

Invest in an Internet dongle, a decent laptop, a Skype headset and a digital camera. Back everything up regularly!

Use Facebook to connect with your fans. Write a blog – and write it regularly. Spend time tagging it well and do some research on how to promote a blog. There are tons of free resources available to you. Have catchy subject headers, for example, and include at least one eye-catching photographs each time you post. Integrate everything so that news appears simultaneously across all your social media.

If you have a budget, considering using SMS for targeted messages. In Uganda, these have been particularly successful for encouraging people to have HIV testing for example.

I have a design and print background, and I was lucky enough to have an ex-colleague who developed some free report, presentation and newsletter templates for us. Having a professional, consistent image immediately improved our profile with our donors. You can download some fantastic free templates online and customise them with your organisation colours. If you can then insert photos and distribute by e-mail, your costs are very, very low.

There are thousands of charities crying out for decent marketing in Africa. There are some fantastic initiatives and it can be difficult for people to know which one to support. Keep your objectives clear. Report regularly to your donors and communicate with your supporters.

Mazarine: Do you also do grantwriting? If so, where do you go to look for grants for Uganda?

Charlotte: Proposal writing has been a key part of my job. Most of our funds are from existing donors, and they in turn recommend new donors for us to approach. We research donors that support similar organisations to our own, in Uganda and in other African countries. We also approached the big aid agencies, like the European Union the US Fish and wildlife service, etc.

Although UCF came into being to protect elephants, over the past 10 years in operation, we’ve widened this to cover poaching, human wildlife conflict, conservation education and livelihoods of subsistence farmers. Put your creative hat on and think how your projects touch on different issues, and different groups of people. One project may have many different areas of influence and impact; try and work out what these are. Understanding these will give you ideas on new people and organisations to approach.

Mazarine: What is your plan for the future? Where would you like to be in 5 years?

Charlotte: I was not the first VSO who wanted to stay in Uganda and first extended my contract by six months.

I now work for a travel company based in Kampala. I’m hoping to develop my travel writing further and in 2012 I am writing a ‘coffee table book’  about Uganda. This is due for publication in October.

Whether I’m based in Africa or back in the UK in five years, I know that my heart will still be in Uganda and that I will be working in the travel business. I feel there are tremendous opportunities for helping develop and promote tourism – across East Africa.

Thank you so much Charlotte! Even though I too have volunteered and done grantwriting overseas, I did it in Indonesia, and it was a very different time than it is today! I learned so much about international fundraising, marketing, and volunteering from your interview. Thank you! (if you have any questions for charlotte, or if you’d like to learn more about volunteering or working internationally, please visit her blog, Diary of a Muzungu, or follow her on Twitter @CharlieBeau)

Are you fundraising for Africa? Read this! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on January 23, 2012.

Fundraising Predictions 2012

The Atlas of Giving is different than Giving USA in that it gives you PREDICTIONS when your fundraising is most likely to do well. It tells you when you can expect the best results, and when you should hold back.

Really. Isn’t this exciting?

Check out the whole report on Scribd.

Here are some highlights of the Atlas of Giving report for December 2011.

1. Giving was up in 2011, and you can expect it to be up again in 2012 because

• The DOW is up
• Consumer confidence is up
• Unemployment is trending downward
• Consumer borrowing increased
• CEO confidence is up
• Winter weather was nonexistent in much of the US, so people didn’t have huge heating bills. (I swear I am not making this up)

2. The Good and the Bad: Fundraising results will go up in Alaska, but down in Illnois, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and California.

3. April is the cruelest month:
Apparently April is going to be a slump month this 2012, so don’t try to do your appeal or an event in April. Do it in March or May instead. (Unless you’re fundraising for the arts or the environment. Then go nuts!)

4. Religious giving is now lagging behind other sectors, which is shocking, usually they do the best! So, if you’re fundraising for a religious or spiritual institution, try doing direct mail, e-appeals, etc and bust out of your business as usual thing.

5. September should be an exceptional month for fundraising, so try to plan your events and appeals for then.

Those are the main things I got from the report.

What did YOU get out of it?

Are you as excited as I am about the possibility of being able to do a broad sweep and make predictions based on what’s come before?
 

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What are you planning for? Fundraising Predictions for 2012 originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on January 19, 2012.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What’s the big idea of this year?
• What am I most proud of accomplishing this year?
• How did I stretch myself this year?
• Did I accomplish my goals this year?
• What’s the bottom line of 2011?

Please answer these in the comments, or write your own post and link to it in the comments. I’d love to learn more about what YOU accomplished, and how YOU stretched yourself this year.

What’s the big idea of this year?

The Biggest Idea of 2011: PARTNERSHIP!  

I preach it to nonprofits all the time, and this time I took my own medicine!

Thank you to Pam Slim and Desiree Adaway for their Partnership Playbook (which is available through Pam Slim’s website, and also through Fundraising Rockstars). It taught me so much! 

I am most proud of the partnerships and relationships I have built with fellow nonprofit bloggers and internet entrepreneurs, including Steve Havelka, Pamela Grow, Desiree Adaway, Jessica Journey, Mary McCalalane, Kurt Steiner, Tony Martignetti, Phil Cubeta, Joe Waters, Jules Brown, Alexandra Peters, Mark Schaefer, John Haydon, and others.

And I’m happy that I’ve kept my relationships with my friends in other parts of the country; Irene Konev, Amy Sample Ward, Rebekah Shubin, Sabrina Gogol, Zach Archer, Ealasaid Haas, and others.

How did I stretch myself this year? How did I grow?

Launching!

This year I learned all I could about launching a product, and then I launched Fundraising Rockstars with the help of Steve Havelka, Desiree Adaway, Pamela Grow, Jessica Journey, John Haydon, Sandy Rees, Joe Waters, and others! And it went so well! And it made me reach out to more people than I would have otherwise.

It emboldens me to try this again next year!

Creating Apps for Smartphones!

I stretched myself by creating three android apps to help people in their fundraising offices and I’m about to come out with iPhone versions of them.

Writing!

I stretched myself in the area of copywriting, and read not just blogs but books about this subject, and it has really paid off for me.

I stretched myself in the area of daily writing, and to date I’ve written over 250,000 words and 216 days straight on 750words.com.  I find myself not struggling so much with what to write, because it comes more naturally.

Blogging has actually become easier since I started my private writing every day. I find that I think through writing, and I process through writing, and if I’m not writing, it’s almost like… not thinking as much.

Creative Writing!

I stretched myself by writing poetry more diligently in 2010 and I’m still doing it in 2011! Hoa Nguyen and Larry Fagin have been instrumental in this process, and thanks to their prompts, editing, and feedback I almost have enough for another book. Everyone writes for someone specific to read it, and I confess, when I write poetry, I write to them.

New Encaustic Painting Techniques!

I stretched myself by offering encaustic classes in subjects I had never taught before, subjects such as encaustic and photography, accretion technique, and encaustic glazes. I’m looking forward to offering Encaustic monotype classes in 2012!

I also stretched myself by doing more art blogging, and creating a series of encaustic painting online classes. Crazy!

Calling up radio shows!

Even though I was scared, I called up radio shows and asked to be interviewed about my book, and I actually got quite a few interviews!

Liveblogging a conference!

I was asked to write blog posts for different corporate blogs, including DonorPerfect and CharityHowTo, and asked to liveblog a conference for the first time. Thank you to DonorPerfect to asking me to liveblog for you!

Going Gluten-Free!

We started this in January. This shift has helped me accomplish so much.

1. Saving money. I don’t spend money eating out anymore.
2. Eating well. When I eat, I eat fresh, organic and wholesome foods.
3. Breathing more easily. I don’t feel so out of breath. I can stand and teach a two hour art class without feeling wiped out.
4. Full of energy! I have been biking so much, and I’ve had the energy, I think, because I went gluten free.

If I attempt to eat gluten now, it sits in my stomach like a rock, and makes me feel sluggish, like I can’t think straight, and even depresses my immune system. I cough, and feel gross for a couple days.  So I know this shift has been good for my health. I encourage you to try it, even for a week, and see how you feel.

Did You Accomplish Your Goals?

In 2010 I took a public speaking course from Communispond. It rocked.  I had the goal to start a professional speaking career, and I actually accomplished this goal in 2011.

In 2011 I spoke at the Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Texas Association for Nonprofit Organizations, Board retreats,Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, the Ginac Group, Texas Business Women, The City of Austin, CharityHowTo.com, BigAustin,  BioPharmaInstitute, and I’ve had speaking engagements every month booked from April onwards. It’s looking even more packed for 2012, and I love it!

I learned so much more about appeal letters, about getting sponsorships, about managing volunteers and finding new donors, because I started to teach these subjects. Even though I already knew a bit about them, it REALLY motivated me to learn.

Did you discover something about yourself?

Yes! Being Wild! It’s kind of my thing! You’d think that would have kind of been obvious, but it wasn’t. So I started and stopped a social media business, and started another one.  Treyz Social Media was okay, but it wasn’t really my brand. Wild Social Media is actually my brand, and it makes more sense! And also it works with the title of my new book too. The Wild Woman’s Guide to Social Media.
I like writing more when I can illustrate too. I got featured on Mark Schaefer’s Business Grow Blog, with my little ebook that I wrote and illustrated called Twitter for Monkeys.

Anything else that surprised you?

More Nonprofit Journey!

I got hired to be the part time development director of the Austin Civic Orchestra, and helped them by researching and applying for lots of grants, helped them do two appeal letters, researched where they could find sponsorships, and helped with creating a marketing process for each concert. 

There’s always a way around

Because of the record heat in Central Texas (7 months of 100+ temps and no rain), I biked at midnight a lot from June to October. And I’m still biking, here in December, and I just got in from outside, covered in rain and dirt. After 8 months of practically no rain, this feels perfect. Healthmonth is helping me with this! I highly encourage you to check this out!

Bottom Line on 2011

I stopped trying to get other people to pick me.

I picked myself.

How about you? What did you do in 2011? What are you proud of? What did you learn? Please, leave a comment.

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Will You Look Back With Me on 2011? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on December 28, 2011.

Join Us

Today’s post is for every person reading this blog who is working to help the dead be heard.

Whether you’re working at a domestic violence shelter and you work for each woman who is murdered before she can leave for good, or perhaps you’re working at an environmental nonprofit that helps people cut down on environmental toxins before they become ill, or even if you’re working to help people with a particular disease, this post is for you.

Greg Palast writes

Greig, 13-years old, and her mom, Jacqueline, were burnt to death when a gas pipeline exploded under their home in San Bruno, California. Our investigation reveals that “PIGs,” pipeline inspection robots, were deliberately mis-programmed to under-report dangerous pipeline cracks …all so gas and oil companies can save a couple bucks on repairs. The Greigs died because pipeline companies lied. And now the PIG-jackers want to build a new pipeline from Canada to Houston.

. . .

For a decade, Goldman Sachs worked a scheme with Greek politicians to manipulate currency reserves to hide big deficits. The fraud netted Goldman a secret fee of over a quarter billion dollars; and netted the Greek people, when the scam blew up, a destroyed economy and a debt––to Goldman and cronies––of $14,000 per year per family. When the debts bankrupted fruit-seller Petrakis, he committed suicide.

Paraphrasing Terry Pratchett:

“Who will listen to the dead?

We who died demand justice now. These are the crimes of Goldman Sachs, Chase, Bank of America, British Petroleum, Shell: Theft, embezzlement, breach of trust, corporate murder

There was no safety. There was no pride. All there was was money. Everything became money, and money became everything. Money treated us as if we were things,and we died.

Blood oils the machinery of the financial system as willing, loyal people pay with their lives for congress’s culpable stupidity, unaware of the toll that is being taken. What can we say of the men that caused this, who sat in comfort around their table and killed us by numbers?

We want Justice. We who died demand this of you.”

To those who know this system is broken, to those who Occupy, don’t give up. We are winning.

How do you know we are winning?

Los Angeles became the first major city to vote out Corporate Personhood on December 7th, 2011. Boulder Colorado also voted to end corporate personhood in November, 2011.

Representative Ted Deutch and Senator Bernie Sanders introduce House and Senate constitutional amendments for Campaign Finance Reform

Dumping Foreclosure Barons

Nevada sues Bank of America

Martha Coakley, Massachusetts Attorney General sues for fraudulent foreclosures and robosigning, against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial.

Money moved in October 2011: More than 5 Billion And who knows about November? Probably at least that amount.

“Since the Move Your Money project began, we have been blown away with the response. A year and a half into our campaign and over 4 million accounts have moved away from the nation’s largest Wall Street banks, with an additional 7 to 9 million accounts predicted to move by the end of 2011, according to Michael Moebs, CEO of Moebs Services (UPDATE: new numbers suggest nearly 10 million have moved since 2010). In 2010, Bank of America lost 400,000 accounts alone, as customers grew weary of ever-increasing fees, a lack of personalized service and an overall distaste with the largest bank’s abusive practices.” -From MoveYourMoney.info

Take action.

How to Move your Money

Wells Fargo Rat Protest

Check out a movement about the New Bottom Line in your state

More pictures of inflatable protest signs from Mother Jones

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Who will listen to the dead? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on December 15, 2011.

What's the time orientation or sense orientation in YOUR appeal letters?

Are you getting towards the end of the year and just totally scratching your head on what you’re going to write to make people want to give to you?

Once I saw a book on the shelves in a bookstore that was called, I believe, “How NOT To Write a Novel” and I picked it up out of curiosity. It was full of horrible examples and not a single good one. I put it back quickly and ran away from the shelf. I could FEEL my writing getting bad just by reading a couple of pages.

Don’t listen to anyone who says you can learn to write better by reading bad writing. If this were true, the world would be full of incredible writers, when we know that incredible writing is actually the exception, not the rule.

So, in service to you, writing your appeal, please read an excerpt from SOFII’s file on the marvelous copywriting of Indra Sinda, for Amnesty International in 1992. (He was voted one of the top 10 copywriters of all time).

Sinda writes:

Should we give up?

The pictures on this page are upsetting.

Normally, we wouldn’t publish them. Our advertisements purposely stay away from violent or horrific pictures.

When we publicized the murders of street urchins by Brazilian and Guatemalan police, we spared you the sight of children with their tongues ripped out and eyes burned from their sockets.

When we wrote about Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurdish civilians, we deliberately did not use the photographs that make our volunteers cry.

We at Amnesty have no choice but to look at these pictures. and hear the stories that go with them.

A million failures.
Were we naive to imagine we could make a difference?

In the last thirty years, things have not got better, but worse.

In 1961, we believed, didn’t we, that the world would never tolerate another genocde? Since themn we’ve had Suharto, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein.

We’ve had Emperor Bokass who stocked his fridge with human heads. For every prisoner freed, thousands are still in prison. For every person plucked from the torturers, thousands suffer agonies beyond our imaging. For every life saved, hundreds of thousands have been lost.

Between then, Suharto, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein have executed and tortured to death more than a million people. For Amnesty that’s a million failures. All we’ve done in the last thirty years is bail a few buckets from a sea of human misery.

Should we give up?

—————————————————-

Is your Mindset Negative? Certain? Extrovert?

This is just a small excerpt of his writing, but I want you to pay attention to two things.

He starts his title of the article/ad in the newspaper with “Should We Give Up?” and if we’re honest, we’ve all thought that at one time or another, but none of us reading it, anyway, actually DID give up. We still keep striving.

He writes in short paragraphs. He shows terrible pictures. And he admits failures. Most nonprofits are too afraid to admit their failures, too afraid to say, Yes, the problem DOES seem unsolvable. Yes, we have had a couple of successes but MILLIONS more people are suffering than we can deal with.

That’s powerful.

It almost makes you root for the organization because they seem like an underdog, trying to right injustices against an ever-streaming wave of tyrants.

I typed this letter up in a website called “750words” which analyzes the word choice, the mood, time orientation and other things and came out with these results to show you.

Why not try this with YOUR appeal letter?

Why not put your appeal letter to the test at 750words?

And if you’re REALLY serious about getting one hundreds checks in the mail a day for this December appeal season, then check out my CharityHowTo webinar called “Tons of Money in the Mail” where we delve into writing more persuasively and MUCH MUCH MORE.

Look! Anatomy of an Effective Annual Appeal originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on December 5, 2011.

I need to Confess to You...My Secret

OKAY radical honesty time!

I’m not Catholic, but here’s my Confession:

Cynicism was a coverup. For the last two years, I have not known what the next five years would hold. I felt incapable of making a decision about the future. I felt demotivated about the nonprofit world and fundraising in particular. And then, tonight, I surprised myself. It hit me. Why I couldn’t imagine a future.

I held a position in the last few years that left a bad taste in my mouth. For this nonprofit, I wrote the grant proposals, and they got funded. I wrote the compelling appeal letters, the annual reports, the newsletters, and they brought in the money, but I felt disconnected, and I felt ashamed that I was getting money for a nonprofit that would only squander what I was hired to help them get. And I was not sure that any nonprofit that I worked for in the future would be any more deserving, that they wouldn’t also be corrupt and squander my hard work.

And I had not analyzed my motivation in that light, but it really affected me. I felt rudderless. Drifting, wanting to believe that all we needed to do as a sector was band together and the world would magically become a better place.

BUT My own experience with bad leadership belied that. My own experience told me that people involved in nonprofits are just as much out for their own material gain as anyone else, and what’s more, they are forced to conceal this or try to convince themselves that they have a higher, nobler purpose. And most of the time, the board is not paying attention to what is happening, and embezzlement continues to happen, while leaders stay in place, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE CAUGHT. Having a nonprofit job has become just that, a job, instead of a calling.

Let me explain.

URGENCY: Remember when American women got the vote? Women worked tirelessly for two years to get it in America, in 1910, and once they did, then the groups disbanded.

This structure we have is a false one: Causes and nonprofits were never set up originally to employ people like corporations. They were set up to achieve a mission, and then disappear. And presumably people were supposed to figure things out after that.They were never meant to be 9-5 jobs that you showed up for.

They were meant to be things you did because you cared about the mission. Maybe you would work on the cause after your job in the factory, or in your spare time when you weren’t taking care of your children. The urgency was palpable. You HAD to be there. You NEEDED the change. Desperately.

You look at nonprofit job descriptions now and the mission is kind of thrown in as an afterthought. They want you to have experience helping some other mission. They want you to have a background with software. They want you, in short, to be employed, like a corporation would employ you, for wages, where you will hopefully go about your job without too much fuss about whether or not you fully believe in the mission.

What’s the Point? Here’s the clincher. In fundraising, I feel like the most cynical idealist imaginable. I worked tirelessly for women’s rights for several years. And then was thrown out on my ear for absolutely no reason at all. Then I tried to go work for a cause that was about social justice. But when I saw that no one cared about the mission, when I saw that the urgency had left, and that there was no vision from senior leadership, then I just felt completely demotivated about fundraising. I just started to have a bad case of NOT GIVING A RAT’S ASS ABOUT ANYTHING. What was the point? I wondered. What was the point in getting money just so the Executive Director could squander it in some new pointless way ? What was the point if the board were out to lunch and no one actually was paying attention to the real mission? I can say this here, to you, that the status quo suits some senior leaders very well.

So when I went out and looked at other nonprofits and their missions, I saw some people clinging to the tiny raft of their ideas in a sea of administrative bloat and incompetent leadership. And I just thought, you know, there are few enough rewards for fundraising staff at dysfunctional organizations, maybe it’s better to help a lot of different nonprofits than to try to chafe under that yoke again. Can you relate? Have you ever had a terrible case of the FUCK-THIS-JOB-WE-ARE-NOT-REALLY-HELPING-PEOPLE?

If this system is broken, What can we do about it?

I WANT to believe the world will be better if nonprofits can just get their acts together, but in reality, we have to get EVERYONE to get their acts together. And that’s not going to happen in a blog post. But here are some ideas.

• Big ideas and dedication aren’t going to save us. The most tireless, selfless, dedicated people in the world can get used and abused by a nonprofit corporation.
• A good board isn’t going to save us either. Boards change up every year.
• A degree in nonprofit management isn’t going to save us. Just like an MBA doesn’t teach you how to lead a company day-to-day. Theory is nice, but you learn by doing.
• Looking at administrative overhead is not going to save us. Every nonprofit calculates this differently. Just because you’ve learned to read a 990 form does not make you an expert on organizational effectiveness and mission fulfillment. The 990 doesn’t talk about that. Because measuring that is a LOT more complex.

Here’s what I propose:

Unionization: A decent, living wage for nonprofit workers, which will probably only happen if we unionize. Whether you’re a nurse at a nonprofit hospital, or a fundraising professional, wages need to rise with the cost of living, every year.

Remote Working: Living more lightly on the earth. We’ll cook more wholesome food if we work less. We should be able to choose if we want to work from home, to save on commuting costs. Saves on office space too. Extra incentives to use public transport or to bike.

Dignity for All: Nonprofits set up more like Co-Ops, with every employee able to make suggestions and have a voice in leadership. Everyone allowed to come to board meetings. Everyone allowed to help make decisions about who will be the head of the agency. Hiring and firing by communal vote.

Return to Mission: Each year, ask everyone, Are we successfully fulfilling our mission? How many have we truly helped? Should we still exist? Is there someone else out there who is doing what we’re doing? What can we learn from them? How can we partner?

What do you think?

Have you ever felt completely demotivated in fundraising? In philanthropy? In feeling like you’re “making a difference” in this broken system?

What did you do about it? Did you surprise yourself? If so, how?

What do you think this system needs?

Please leave a comment.

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Dear Reader… Can I make a confession to you? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on October 26, 2011.

Here are some highlights from the GivingUSA Report based on research in the Center on Philanthropy in Indiana.

Bob Evans Giving USA Presentation Donor Perfect Conference

The Good news:

Americans are the most generous people on the planet
Arts giving is up, but it’s like a yo-yo.

The Bad News

Traditional umbrella campaigns like United Way, Combined Federal campaigns etc. are rebounding, but you are seeing donor direction a lot more. Their gifts have gone WAY WAY down in the last few years. People at United Way are a bit scared.

The competition is more severe than ever before, even with the IRS removing 250,000 501 c 3 organizations. We still have 1.2 million nonprofits in America, up 50% from 1970.

Interesting facts:

Individuals give 87% of the money in America. Still. Yet.

Donors want ROI. Return on Investment. If I make a gift, what happens as a result of that gift?

Donors want financial transparency. They want a serious annual report with REAL info and how you run it.

Giving to religion is not as prevalent as it once was because there’s more competition, and there is a lack of professionalism on the part of the clergy.

What you need to know:

Donor Advised Funds received significant money in 2010. This is the bank account for donors, and they are waiting to hear from you about a project that sizzles

This is where the money is going.

What ARE Donor Advised Funds?

They may have $5,000 or above in their funds. These funds, people can get a tax write-off and can put in gifts as many times as they want. They usually build up their funds to a certain dollar amount before they start making a distribution.

Where do you FIND Donor Advised Funds?

You could try to research in the National Philanthropic Trust and Fidelity, you would want to talk with the people managing the fund, even if you don’t talk to the donor directly.

But honestly you need to meet the people who have them. This is usually people who have between $250,000 and $2M in personal wealth, and they can start these with $5,000, instead of the usual number $50,000 to $100,000 that people

TAKEAWAY:
You need to find out WHO has the donor advised fund, who wants to give and what knocks their socks off.

The other place money is going is into Planned Giving, and you need to set up that program ASAP.
When you have a conversation with people about their current gift, talk also about their PLANNED gift.

AND finally, Bob Evans recommends that you research your donors as much as you possibly can.

———————-
Full disclosure:
I was flown to this conference by Donor Perfect, they paid for my car and my hotel room, and that is it.

Fundraising Secrets from the DonorPerfect conference! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on September 19, 2011.

Huh? What’s the deal?

Well, let me back up. When I was just starting out fundraising, I thought that fundraising was grantwriting. I was afraid to appear stupid, so I did not ask basic questions of people around me or teachers at the Foundation Center. I just walked around thinking this for a good three months as I got into the fundraising field. When I started working for small nonprofits I realized that they were asking me to do events, marketing, branding, and more, and then I thought, huh, maybe this fundraising thing is a lot more complex than I thought it was going to be!

So through the years, I’ve been learning more and more about fundraising, learning about marketing with this organization, learning about appeals and online fundraising with that. All the while, in the back of my mind was a thought, “What can I do to take this knowledge and help other people who are just starting out or who have some gaps in their knowledge like I did?”

So, I wrote this book. You probably know about it.

And it was pretty successful, so I started teaching webinars and workshops for nonprofit professionals with the Center for Nonprofit Organizations, the Texas Assocation of Nonprofit Organizations, CharityHowTo, and others. Then I thought, “But how can I scale my impact more?”

A few months ago, Desiree Adaway interviewed me for her coaching program and afterwards I asked her, or maybe she asked me, I wonder if we could do something together!

And then I talked with Pam Grow, who had just done a virtual workshop with Sandy Rees, and they all said, YES! Let’s do something together to help more nonprofits raise money! a lot of nonprofits can’t afford a full fundraising department, or even to hire consultants like us. But perhaps there’s a third solution.

We thought,

What if we could teach people via continuing education what we would recommend that they do anyway? What if we could combine our brainpower and help people use all of our experience, skills, and knowledge to become the rockstar fundraising dream team that they needed to help get their cause the most money possible for their cause, and build relationships with donors that would sustain them for years?

We wanted to make a place where people could come and figure out how to do fundraising better, with forums and a teleseminar with all of us. It should be called:

Fundraising Rockstars: 50K in 30 Days!

So, we got to work.

Desiree Adaway contributed some interviews, worksheets and more from the Partnership Playbook with Pam Slim.

Sandy Rees contributed some expertise in the area of online fundraising, grants, appeals and stewardship.

Pam Grow contributed her grants knowledge and stewardship knowledge, and got us all together to help us brainstorm on phonecalls, and

I contributed my knowledge about sponsorships, appeals, my hands-on how-to worksheets from my book, and more.

After months and months of work, it’s finally done!

You can click here, because today, we open the doors to help more people raise more money for their causes, and become fundraising rockstars!

We’ll help people one-on-one in the forums, as well as do a tele-conference call in November to check in and answer questions too.

We are not going to make this available forever however. We are all doing multiple things, with multiple clients and speaking engagements and projects, and we need to stay focused on these things as well, so on Friday, September 30th, at midnight, our sale will end.

Fundraising Rockstars is here!! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on September 15, 2011.

Managing Up, How does it work?

Have you ever known a boss or a person in management who just seemed to be there by luck, not by skill or management ability?

Have you ever known a nonprofit leader who didn’t know about nonprofits, but wasn’t aware of how much they didn’t know?

Have you ever heard of the term managing up?

Where does this term, managing up, come from?

Do you know about the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
fail to recognize genuine skill in others;
fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;
recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve.
(from the wikipedia page.)

This relates to Peter’s Corollary.

“Peter’s Corollary states that “in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out their duties” and adds that “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence”. “Managing upward” is the concept of a subordinate finding ways to subtly “manage” superiors in order to limit the damage that they end up doing.”

How can you manage up?

Well, let’s assume your boss is a prime example of the kruger-dunning effect, and they don’t know what they don’t know, or worse, they assume that they know more about your job than you do, when in reality, they know nothing.

So, if this is the case, how do you get the message across?

First, set boundaries and expectations in your interview, straight out. And if it’s too late for that, then in your next meeting. Say, “Here is how you should measure what I’m doing.”

1. Measure fundraising not just in dollars raised, but in number of people touched.
2. Measure how well you’re doing your job by rebranding and polling community members about what they think of your nonprofit.
3. Measure how many grants out the door, not just which grants you won.
4. Measure the engagement of old and new volunteers and board members. Have you been having more meetings? What new initiatives are you planning?

If you can succeed in turning the conversation from “Where is the money” to “How can we get everyone to take responsibility for fundraising” then you will have succeeded in getting more help and managing up.

Any other tips for managing up? Please leave a comment!

(Also, if you are in a situation where you just want to tear your hair out because of a boss or coworker, we are about to make an app to help Stop Workplace Bullying and you can totally get to the bottom of that problem.)

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Are you managing up? Where does that come from? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on September 2, 2011.

My little brother’s story

Let me tell you about one of my little brothers. He graduated college a couple of years ago, and has since bounced from job to job, trying to find his place in the world. He worked in a supermarket, at the fish counter. He works mowing lawns and trimming hedges. In the winter he works snowplowing the roads. He is selling cars right now and looking for another job. His boss canceled all of his days off so that he could be on the lot for 3 weeks in a row, trying to sell cars in one of the worst economies this country has ever seen. He never complains. I have never known a more hardworking person. He is living with my parents and has lived with them since he graduated, because he can’t afford his own place.

I never talk about him, because I feel so sad and helpless to do anything for him. I see him suffering and want to help him find his place in the world. I want to help him find fulfillment, a job with true security, and direction. But with the world the way it is, I doubt he will find any of this.

Let’s talk about context. I want to talk with you about three lies, and three truths.

Lie: All our lives, if we are American, we are taught that interdependence is weak.

Lie:We are taught that we have to go out and be the lone hero.

Lie: Our culture has taught us that consuming goods will solve our problems and ease our pain. It even implies that without consumer goods, we have nothing and therefore we are nothing.

So if you’re a new graduate, and you don’t want to live with your parents, but get out and be the lone hero and buy lots of stuff, you may feel pretty low right now. Why are you losing?

Change gears for a second. Have you heard about the protests in London and how they are spreading to the rest of England? Then you’ve probably heard about the riots in Egypt, in Spain, in Denmark, in Greece, in France, and other places too. What’s the deal? A whole bunch of people, graduates without a future, rising up? We could see them as thugs and violent anarchists, but what’s the greater context behind the protests?

Um, hello? The austerity measures that the EU is trying to put into place are basically helping millions of people fall off the poverty cliff, and I am not down with that.

People in Europe are protesting enforced austerity measures which mean that they are going to have to pay more for college, that their social services programs are being cut, that they are going to have much poorer lives while the bankers who ruined the economy, and the biggest corporations who don’t have to pay taxes get off SCOT FREE.

Dr. Cornell West and Tavis Smiley on the Poverty Tour

And now here we are, in America, with the same austerity measures, poverty of graduates with no future. Luckily Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West are on tour exposing poverty in America.

Paul Mason of the BBC talks about “A new sociological type: The graduate with no future.” in his article, “Twenty reasons why it’s kicking off everywhere.”

Nothing left to lose
His article explains that when people graduate and there are no jobs for them, they decide to get connected and go and protest. I don’t agree with everything that he says, specifically when he says;

“This evaporation of a promise is compounded in the more repressive societies and emerging markets because – even where you get rapid economic growth – it cannot absorb the demographic bulge of young people fast enough to deliver rising living standards for enough of them.”

Londoners seem to think that there are root causes people like Paul are overlooking. I think we could all have better standards of living with better corporate taxation and better funding of NGOs, nonprofits and charities from the government. And as I understand it, the protests in Tottenham Court in London happened in part because youth clubs were shut down and youth had no place to go. A case for funding more social services and more charities if I ever heard one!

Diane Abbott, on Tottenham Court riots

According to “This Can’t be Happening”The slashing of social service funding, particularly for youth related matters from education to recreation, by Britain’s Conservative led coalition government, has accelerated the conversion of Tottenham into a “tinder box waiting to explode,” declares Diane Abbott, the first black women ever elected to Britain’s Parliament. Abbott represents a district adjacent to Tottenham.

When people protest, and break shop windows and set fire to cars, as they did in London a few nights ago, it’s because they have nothing left to lose. They are galvanized enough to demand change. You may not like their methods, but they may feel they have no other choice, that no one will listen unless they resort to violence.

Egypt Protests

Social Media aids protests
Paul goes on: “6. Horizontalism has become endemic because technology makes it easy: it kills vertical hierarchies spontaneously, whereas before – and the quintessential experience of the 20th century – was the killing of dissent within movements, the channeling of movements and their bureaucratization.”

The methods employed by many protesters in Egypt, England, and France include social media, which allows for people to act more like the Apaches, who resisted against American “manifest destiny” for years because they were decentralized and everyone could be a leader, communicate with each other and then drop back into the scenery and be an ordinary citizen again.

We’ve got protests by graduates with no future. they are in debt for school, and they are struggling to find work, or giving it up and just getting mad at the system, and deciding a brick through a window is better than sitting at home just feeling depressed. They call up their friends, and learn to do things together to express what’s happening.

They are illustrating interdependence, expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of the world. I am not advocating violence. I am advocating acknowledging our interdependence, and thinking about collective power.

Truth: Interdependence makes us all stronger. We are better together than we are apart.

Truth:The lone hero is capitalist propaganda. We are all in this together. This is what fundraising keeps reminding people. We are all in this together, so let’s do our bit.

Truth: Consuming goods is neither good nor bad. Obviously, buying fair-trade and local is important, but apart from that, consuming is as apolitical as brushing your teeth. No one really cares if you don’t drive a Ferarri. No one really cares that your clothes don’t come from the most expensive shop in town. Your life is worth just as much if you have a million dollars or one dollar. When we help donors care about our causes, we are encouraging them to step out of a dream of consumerism, and into one where we can help make people who are economically disadvantaged matter more.

Greece Protests

When I see those protests in London, Paris or Greece, I think, “My little brother, if he was a bit more politically aware, could be there. He could be allying with people who have nothing left to lose. He could be attempting to make change.”

How does this apply to us, here, now? What can we do, where we are, in this moment?

We need to be helping new graduates ally with our nonprofits and help them see that they can help make a better world without violence.

We need to depend on each other, to recognize the strength in building networks of friends, colleagues, and family members. To build coalitions and alliances with other sister nonprofits so that we can set the example for others, save money, save time, and get more things done.

No matter what your political inclination, you must admit that the world economic system is pretty broken. We all need to work together now.

Can you make a commitment to reaching out to a nonprofit with a similar cause to yours this week? Even if you feel like your plate is full, can you lend a hand to someone for an hour?

Fundraising can be a lonely job. The more we communicate with each other, the more we can depend on each other, create relationships not just with donors but with other fundraisers, and share our knowledge, our expertise, and our time to help lift everyone up.

And yes, I’m walking my talk. I’m reaching out this week, and I will reach out next week too. If you want to chat, I’m here. This is my phone number. 512-763-5161. Go for it.

Do you know a Graduate with no future? What is up with these protests? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 16, 2011.