Meredith Delaney

During Small Business Month, it's an excellent moment to contemplate integrating the WOSB certification into your portfolio. The Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Certification presents a chance to tap into government contracts, as annually, the government aims to allocate 5% of all contracts to Women-Owned Small Businesses, offering numerous opportunities to deserving small businesses like yours. This initiative aims to bolster female representation in the business sector and to furnish opportunities that may have been previously unavailable. If your business is majority-owned and operated by women (51%), you may qualify to access a portion of these funds. At Women's Business Council Southwest, we provide this certification. It can bring opportunities that you didn't know existed.

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Educating Bosses and Boards About Setting Fundraising Goals First of all, its a huge issue - one that we all need to keep flagging as a major cause of: Donor attrition Staff turnover Donor fatigue Staff discouragement The erosion of our greater philanthropic potential So where's the best place to begin? Within your own data. I know from long and direct experience that there is no better way to change clients' outlook than to show them their own data. Particularly helpful are the histories of their previous major gifts including: How many years of giving preceded that donor's largest gift? How long it took from the time donors were approached with the idea for the major gift to the time they committed? These analyses invariably reveal that there is a long incubation period in development of loyal, generous donors. They also reveal a long gestation period in the birthing of major gifts, from the time an idea is introduced to the time the commitment is made. The average is two years but major gifts are like mammals - the larger the gift, the longer the gestation period. In addition, powerful trends can be seen in your annual giving including: A loss of donor volume A growing dependence on fewer donors giving increasingly more Large "annual gifts" secured in ways that are much more like major gift processes That dialogue and community building produce better results then one-way appeals If you are a young organization or don't have access to such data, request it from a colleague in a like organization or from those who contribute regularly to the field. It's in my books, articles and posts as well as those of my colleagues. If we are to better educate our bosses and boards, we need to start with ourselves. Second, we have to get over this notion that anything we suggest in the name of more informed goal setting is: Complaining Not being positive Unprofessional Just flip that around to see how ludicrous this sounds. "Well, I'm proud to say I maintained my cheerful, can do disposition in the face of steady donor loss and accelerating staff attrition." That's "professional"? Times to address goal setting include: When applying jobs When presented with KPIs During a performance review In requesting professional development or staff training In all these instances you can contrast current practice with more data-driven approaches. You can make it clear that you are positive about the mission and keen on advancing it but want to focus your efforts in ways that will produce the more significant, sustainable successes. Finally, we can't lose sight of a basic truth. You don't increase fundraising success by tasking fundraisers to get more money but by giving them evidence of how investment in your organization leads to higher service levels. Donors don't give because they're asked but because they are given compelling opportunities to make differences in ways they find personally meaningful and satisfying.

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The benefits of conducting feasibility studies run well beyond establishing the viability of your capital campaign. They have a special way of generating interest and excitement and of capturing important data. You never know what they will produce, but when correctly run, they almost always open unexpected doors. #nonprofitfundraising #nonprofitcapitalcampaign #capitalcampaign #capitalcampaignconsultant

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New Major Donor Prospect name drop! 👉🏻 “Major-Middles”: Mid-Level donors who are major donor prospects and get increased treatment. 🫶🏼 I love a new term to describe strategy and heard this one a few days ago and wanted to share. These are often your best donors who could deepen their commitments to your organization, just need the support to make it happen. 🕺Is this a new name or am I just late to the name party? #fundraising #Majordonors #datadriven

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The Great Wealth Transfer is coming - is your nonprofit ready to engage the next generation of donors? CCS Fundraising's latest article shares strategies for finding, retaining, and connecting with Millennial and Gen Z philanthropists. Click the link to learn how to adapt your approach and secure a strong future for your mission. https://bit.ly/4avFHBJ #GreatWealthTransfer #Fundraising #Philanthropy #GenerationalGiving

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As much as marketing can do to burnish a brand, you have to deliver service people value, day in and day out, to give that brand substance. #branding #customerfirst

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How will election mail affect the nonprofit world?   As the owner of Kent Communications, Inc, Money for Ministry, and Canopy Resources - I’m in a unique position thinking about both sides of the Fall mailing season. At KCI we’re planning for the onslaught of campaign mail. At Canopy and Money for Ministry we’re thinking about how the mailbox full of campaign mail will change a nonprofit's response rate.   Our data team analyzed how response rates for our survey mailings changed last political season and we found that they were negatively affected. With Spring being the time most nonprofits plan their Fall mailing schedule, it's time to prepare for how the political season will change your response rates.    As a professional mailer I recommend that nonprofits avoid the mailbox from October 14 to November 7th. You should still plan to mail, but don’t waste your efforts by letting your Fall appeals get lost in the stacks of campaign mail! Your donors want to hear from you, just plan your in-home dates with the political season in mind.   Have more questions about navigating mail in an election year? Don't hesitate to reach out. #election #electionmail #nonprofit

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A Positive Trend In Fundraising That's Applicable to All We Do "What trends are you seeing across your peer group or aspirant peers?" I asked a client team last week. "Campaigns that play down the monetary goal and play up specific projects or initiatives," was the consensus. Yay! I was so thrilled to hear that. Some of us have been pushing for this for more than a decade, for obvious reasons including: Most donors are not the least bit motivated by monetary goals When you crow about meeting or exceeding your monetary goals, you deaden your subsequent fundraising appeal; donors rightly ask, "Didn't you just get everything you asked for and more?" Monetary goals don't provide the foundation for philanthropic partnership building, impact delivering projects do. Impact delivering projects demonstrate institutional momentum and relevance So more and more organizational and advancement leaders have figured this out. Yay! But it applies to much more than campaigns. The same lessons should be applied to every aspect of fundraising including giving days and annual giving, which need to be much more about projected impacts for all the reasons listed above. Once you change our mindset from "fill our buckets" to "here's how to fuel our potential," you become immediately more strategic and responsive and whole new animating vocabulary unfolds as is suggested below. You show people how to give through your organization to make significant, sustainable societal advances. You stop asking people to subsidize operations and start to showing them how to optimize potential. With a more animated, service-oriented mindset, a more enlivened vocabulary, and more concrete milestones, you put your organization in a far better position to attract new support, build philanthropic partnerships and create a stronger community of shared purpose.

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The Great Wealth Transfer is coming - is your nonprofit ready to engage the next generation of donors? CCS Fundraising's latest article shares strategies for finding, retaining, and connecting with Millennial and Gen Z philanthropists. Click the link to learn how to adapt your approach and secure a strong future for your mission. https://bit.ly/4avFHBJ #GreatWealthTransfer #Fundraising #Philanthropy #GenerationalGiving

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