[Odb-help] On Using ODB for Fundraising

[Rich Cowan]

Dear ODB Users:

We have lots of news and a big "gift" for all of you.  To see the "big=
 gift",
you will have to scroll down!

1) With help from Cory Forsyth, the testing of 0.9.4 is almost done.  We
have made many small improvements, which are listed on our web site at
the "release notes" web page:  http://organizenow.net/odb/relnotes.html
If you want to try 0.9.4 before the general release, please email us!

One more feature we are about to add is the ability to select from several
different thank you notes/acknowledgement letters.  And you could set
up ODB so that the letter would change depending on the donation category
you choose.  If this interests you, we can add you as a tester (for 0.9.4a).


2) We had our second ODB demo in two weeks, this time way up in
Burlington, Vermont.  Seventeen people attended and OC
development director Liat Wexler conducted the demonstration.
Thanks to Sonny Cloward of Cyber Skills for VT Nonprofits for
helping to facilitate this event and the NE Grassroots Environmental
Fund and the Peace and Justice Center for helping to promote it!


3) Here is our "big gift":  Dennis Fischman, a board member of
Organizers' Collaborative who works professionally as a fundraising
consultant for smaller-sized nonprofits, has written an essay for the
0.9.4 user guide entitled "Using ODB for Fundraising."  Please take
a look below; if you have any suggestions, you can email them to a
temporary email address that reaches Dennis:  dennis@organizenow.net.



ON USING ODB FOR FUNDRAISING
by Dennis Fischman

(c) 2003 Organizers' Collaborative

When communities come together to formulate and achieve
common goals, often they have to spend money.  That means,
of course, that someone has to raise the money to spend.

Community organizers often see themselves as "people people"
who care about the well-being of their neighbors.  Sometimes
they are "issues people" who work tirelessly to bring about
a change in policy or social structure.  Not many see
themselves as "money people."  No one goes into community
organizing for the money!  Yet many promising grassroots
campaigns wither and die because no one worked on raising
the funds--at least, not with the energy and creativity they
put into their organizing efforts.

Fortunately, getting people to give time and energy to a
cause and getting them to give money are similar processes.
Both involve:

=B7 Identifying people with shared interests =B7 Collecting
information about those people =B7 Building relationships =B7
Sharing information =B7 Recognizing opportunities to act in a
way that will promote shared goals =B7 Asking people to help =B7
Achieving and celebrating victories =B7 Being accountable to
supporters

If you can organize people, you can organize money!  And
just as a database is not essential for organizing people
but makes the task a lot simpler, so too, using ODB can help
a grassroots organization raise the money it needs to keep
itself alive and flourishing.

How can you make ODB work for your fundraising efforts?  ODB
is a relational database, and how you use it depends on
where you are in the cycle of a relationship with a donor.

=B7 You start a relationship with donors by identifying them
as prospects.  Members and supporters, their friends and
relatives, people who sign your petitions or visit your web
site: all have a reason to be interested in your success.
All are potential donors.

=B7 Your next step is acquiring donors, which is the technical
term for "getting them to give."  The basic techniques for
grassroots fundraising are beautifully explained in Kim
Klein's Fundraising for Social Change
(http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org/titles/fund.html).
Any way you raise money, from passing the hat or selling
t-shirts to soliciting through direct mail or in person,
counts as acquiring donors--as long as you get their names
and contact information!

=B7 You go on by cultivating your donors.  Over time, you want
them to know more about your organization, care more about
it, and feel more closely connected to it.  Your newsletter
is a simple, low-level way to cultivate your donors.  At a
higher level, you might invite them to your group's public
events--or schedule events specifically for them.

=B7  The point of cultivating is renewing your donors.  That
means getting them to give a second time.  The first time
might have been an impulse gift: you want donating to your
cause to become a habit.

=B7 You eventually move toward upgrading your donors.  As
their knowledge of the organization, participation and trust
it, and commitment to it all grow, so should their gifts.
Many people of limited means give substantial sums to groups
they believe are doing essential work.  Don't sell them--or
your organization--short.  Honor their dedication by asking
for an amount that makes sense to them.

As you build relationships with your donors, ODB can be
useful at each step of the way.


Identifying prospects

As soon as you become aware of a
person's interest in your work, create a record for him or
her in ODB.   As you interact more often with prospects,
keep adding what you learn about them to their records.

   EXAMPLE:  Someone who's been on the mailing list for your
   candidate a while volunteers to hold a sign at a
   "stand-out." While chatting with her, you find out she and
   her female life partner are both nurses involved in church
   and union activities.  You upgrade her Volunteer ID from 4
   to 3, check the boxes to note that she's interested in
   G/L/B/T issues and economic security and connected with a
   religious constituency--and clone her record to put her
   partner's name in the database.  The next time you ask her
   to hold a sign or give money, you will know a lot more about
   what matters to her.

Many of your donors will be people involved in your
organizing campaign.  By the time they give money, you may
already have entered a lot of information about them into
ODB.


Acquiring donors

Even if a person makes a donation, you
only "acquire" them as a donor if you know when and how much
they gave, and how to get in touch with them when you want
to ask them again.

When you create a record for each donor and add each gift to
their record as it comes in, ODB will enable you to print a
thank-you letter and receipt and send them out right away.
Your chances of getting another donation will increase
dramatically when your donors feel their gifts are noted and
appreciated.  ODB also allows you to check when a donor last
gave, and how much, and review their entire payment history
with just one click.

ODB can also help you with the activities that bring in
donations from people who aren't directly involved in your
campaign.  Inviting people to fundraising events or house
parties is easier with ODB.  So are sending direct mail or
e-mail appeals to people you have reason to think support
your cause.  If you have a web site, absolutely collect
e-mail addresses from people who visit there, especially if
they give online. Make it easy for them to give you their
addresses.  ODB will make it easy for you to record and use
those addresses from then on.


Cultivating Donors

Use ODB to send the right message to the
people who want to hear it most.

   EXAMPLES:  Find all your donors who are interested in one
   issue and send them a mailing about your work on that issue.
   Invite all the people who live in a certain neighborhood to
   hear a speaker or attend an event.  Reach out to all the
   people who identify with a particular ethnic community.
   Poll your most committed members on the strategic direction
   your organization should take next.

Using the rate codes, you can assign donors a level of
commitment. You can track all the events a donor or member
has attended, not just how much she or he has given. This
will help you determine how much they know about your
organization and if they may give more.

For donors who have a lower level of commitment, being able
to invite them to learn more about your organization or
campaign can be an important step to making their donations
habitual and upgrading them. ODB can help you easily select
all the most informed and committed members from your list.
You may invite them to events, send them a specific appeal,
or make a round of phone calls. They may even be a base to
find new board members.

When you ask them for money again, the more your donors feel
involved in your work, the more likely they will be to give.
  Cultivating donors through two-way communication
strengthens your group politically and builds its capacity
to raise funds.


Renewing Donors

This is where your community organizer
skills (like finding out people's interests, sharing
information, and building relationships) turn into money for
your group.

Do you publish a newsletter on paper and send it through the
U.S. mail to keep in touch with your supporters?  ODB makes
that process easier, from sorting addresses to printing
labels, to marking old or bad addresses as expired.  But why
not also keep in touch with your members and supporters by
e-mail?  As Michael Gilbert of the Gilbert Center
(www.gilbert.org) says, "Email brings down the cost of
keeping stakeholders informed."  Some people will always
prefer paper, but for those who don't, it may be worth your
while to get their permission to e-mail them their
newsletters, using ODB.

Do you canvass door-to-door or hold meetings to find out
their needs and interests?  Why not also survey them online?
  Using web forms (such as www.surveymonkey.com) you could
ask them basic questions like "Which of these community
issues do you care about the most?" or "What community
organizations do you belong to, and how involved are you in
each?"   With answers to these questions recorded on ODB,
you'd know who to call about that rent control issue you're
working on -- or who can help you get invited to speak at
the church breakfast or on the community cable news.

Do you ask your members for money at events?  Why not ask
online?  We're not talking about simply accepting donations
on a web site.  To quote Michael Gilbert again, "The ability
to take credit cards online is like having a checking
account. It's essential. But it's not fundraising. Just ask
yourself this question: When was the last time you opened a
bank account for a nonprofit and had a thousand people line
up to make deposits? "
(http://news.gilbert.org/features/featureReader$4637)

You have to ask, and e-mail is a great way to get people to
give.

   EXAMPLE: Organizers' Collaborative did a personalized,
   targeted end-of-2002 e-mail appeal to 3,500 addresses and
   raised over $2,500 in less than two weeks--at very little
   cost.  With ODB, you could do the same.


Upgrading Donors

Many people dread asking for the big
bucks.  If getting that first donation makes me nervous,
they think, how can I possibly ask someone who's already
given money (and maybe time and effort) to give more?  But
experienced fundraisers say that there comes a time in the
relationship when the donor is getting more and more
involved and is, in a sense, waiting to be asked.  Most
people don't ask their loved one to marry them before
they're pretty sure they'll hear a "Yes."  Asking for a
major donation is asking for a different kind of commitment,
but when it's the right time to commit, it's easy.

ODB cannot do the asking for you, but with it, you can keep
track of where you are in the relationship.  At the simplest
level, you can use it to check the donor's history of
giving.  You can personalize the reply slip you send them in
the mail to begin with $100 and go up, instead of $25, for
instance.  You can also search your whole database for
people who have given a certain amount recently and invite
them to a special event, or make appointments to see them in
person.

ODB lets you store and share what everyone in your
organization has ever learned about a donor.  That's a handy
tool when you're figuring out who cares about your
organization and why--which you must do if you are going to
ask them to give.

[If you have comments, please send to dennis@organizenow.net
  by the end of the day on Monday 9/29/03.]