External Hardrives and Fundraising Etiquette

About 20% of my professional time is devoted to prospecting. When I am not working billable hours, engaging in professional development or straightening out administrative details in the office, I am researching ways to develop and improve my business model.

This evening is dedicated to organizing files with samples of projects from each of my areas of experience so I have them on hand when new clients ask for them. I was only going to pull together a few recent samples. Like all good intentions when you are a little OCD, once I started culling the archives I couldn't stop, I search new laptop, my old laptop and then I hit the mothership.

If our house was on fire I'd save my husband, the dog and the mothership. I realized a few things going through files dating back to 2005.

1) I love what I do for work and always have. The warmth I felt reminiscing about past projects is indescribable.

2) I am fairly certain I was born taking visionary ideas and breakdown them down into excel spreadsheet and actionable lists.

In all of these files I came across several transition documents created when I left my job in Portland and moved to New Hampshire. During this transition I remember the new hire joking with me, begging me to write a book about fundraising etiquette.

The truth is...when I learned about fundraising etiquette I didn't know that is what I was learning. Why? The expert who taught me lived his values, they were more then just work.
I haven't written a book in case you are wondering, maybe one day. Until then here are some things I learned along the way because a brilliant, charismatic visionary who hated organizing information into excel sheets took a chance on young women who loved taking his scraps of paper and scribbled on napkins and turning them into databases.

Appreciation doesn’t mean spending a lot of money.

Organizational culture is what people connect to, from children to the oldest donors they love what the organization is about. So my philosophy is do something to thank people that which fits the your organization's culture. Do not that try to match the dollar amount they have given.

Ex: Flowers are great, but they are dead and most often they are exotic, so they have traveled a great distance to get here at the expense of the environment and the consumer. Send bulbs or a small plant, something that will grow and continue to remind the recipient of their relationship with the organizaiton.

Ex: A major donors makes a significant gift to the organization and you want to take them out to dinner to thank them. You don’t need to take them to Fore Street, all of our major donors can take themselves to Fore Street, they didn’t donate $ to see it blow on dinner and wine. Take them somewhere unusual, offer them a dinning experience they might not have thought of….have you ever eaten sushi? African food?

When to Pay.

One of my favorite questions, here goes my formal/informal strategy.

If you are asking a volunteer, donor, committee member etc to the meeting because they are being groomed to donate, $, time or services. Always offer to pay.

If the meeting is with someone, board member, long time volunteer who you are meeting with regularly.

• Offer to pay the first time and anytime after if the meeting is about asking them to increase their efforts or up there commitment.

• Otherwise my thought is the organization pays the first time and then either split or take them up on their off to pay once or twice.

You are invited to a meeting with a constituent (s). Bring $, it is better to be safe then sorry.

• If you are in a one on one meeting, offer to cover yourself.
• If they pay and you want to contribute
• Offer to cover the ti

In a group situation, bring cash. Offer to cover yourself. There is no reason why you should pick up the whole bill if you didn’t call the meeting.

I always try to keep a mental log of people who I meet with regularly and work on an equitable ratio of organization buys/they buy. I also try to schedule these meetings at off times after the first few, no one needs to be spending a ton of eating out. If you have had a dinner or lunch meeting, how about breakfast or meeting for tea/coffee or a drink.

Alcohol at Events and Consumption

The saying goes everything in moderation, though I have a personal rule never to drink a large events where I am in charge.

When I plan a gathering of adults I generally ensure there is wine (typically not beer b/c it is messy, smelly and makes a lot of trash). My feeling is people are gathering after work after a long day and really appreciate the chance to unwind. Again in moderation, do the math on the number of people coming to the gathering, make sure you have enough for a glass or two a person and nothing more.

Same holds true when holding a gathering at a bar or restaurant, the organization should consider covering glass of wine for everyone….then you are on your own.

If you are having gathering with underage folks, even staff, do yourself and the organization a favor no drinking.

Special Event Detox

This year for the first time in my career I contracted to manage an event for a business. The vision for the event emphasized community, creating opportunity for peak participant experiences and there was even auction beneficiary built into the weekend festivities.

I saw the opportunity to cross train my professional skills; build relationships and explore parallel professional possibilities should I decided to jump ship from the public and nonprofit sectors.

Logistics are logistics so I entered the planning undaunted by this piece.

Securing sponsors proved less challenging then I imagine. The demands of marketing purse string holders are reasonable and formulaic. Consider and generate information on the following and you will likely get support - prove your target demographic and their products are the same; address how participants will interact with their brand and finally bring creativity to the table and share opportunities unique to your event which will show case the sponsor.

This year this event earned more in sponsorship then prior years. Numbers of day participants grew thanks to targeted sign up discounts and social media engagement. Evening activities were well publicized and their numbers soared too.

So why in the wake of this success do I feel disenchanted and uneasy?

Driving to meet another client this morning I imagined myself the subject of a New Yorker cartoon. In the image, two doctors were wringing me out like a bloated washcloth. The spray from their efforts included beer koozies, window decals, keg cups and sundry other plastic give aways (read the made in china, fun for a night toys which fill rural landfills).

Starting to see the challenge?

Don't get me wrong the event was also a blast, the sponsors a delight and the clients talked all weekend about the impact of their experience. Still I can't shake the feeling this way of building community may not be for me.

Time to survey folks and record debriefs, maybe in the feedback I'll find a diamond that sways my vote the other way. For now I am pleased about the success and looking forward to spending the next few weeks working on a groupsite to facilitate social capital building in a rural community and facilitating the mapping of fundraising initiatives to support a community building program for youth facing the loss of a parent to cancer.

Namaste to the Interns

It's time to set the record straight about interns. I can't vouch for every intern. I can tell you in the eight years since I started my professional career I can count more outstanding interns then years of work experience on my resume.

If this were facebook I would @ tag each of them at this point in the post. It isn't and there is no need to perpetuate that facebook mania of "friending" everyone you have every heard mentioned.

The point I want to make is about the quality of work done by these young people, their tenacity and accountability, all in the name of tasting a profession of interest.

Two interns I worked with most recently created the event, Caution: Gingerbread Construction from scratch to raise money for On Belay.

Right now I am working with a women who is professionally accomplished and eager to pursue a career as a professional climbing guide. She is kicking butt and taking names to put on an ice climbing festival for over 200 people.

These women impacted their internships in profound ways at no direct cost to the organization's hosting them and in exchange they gained meaningful professional experience.

This is what internships are meant to be.

In the interest of "the feedback sandwich", I put the best stories first.

I have also been witness to interns who are brought into organizations with the promise of a quality educational experience, read internship and what they got was all together different.

Upon arrival the fresh intern is ask to perform all sorts of tasks which have nothing to do with their internships. The intern becomes the catch all for the crap other people don't have time or interest in doing. This is not an internship.

To illustrate my point I'll share a moment of my professional career that I am not proud, don't worry it ends well.

It was the summer of 2007, the week before I put on a Kayak Regatta for 35 donors to a small nonprofit. This Regatta was a-typical. Think traveling drummers, massage therapists, lobster bakes and island with no running water or electricity.
Logistically intense? Yeah you could say that.

I was at least a few Americano's into my day. My summer intern
(who later played violin at my wedding processional) and our organization's second summer intern popped their heads into my office to ask if they could help.

My brain was working overtime...donations logged, special dietary needs to report, where are those face paints...all swirling the moment the girls offered to help.

"Uhhhh. Ummm. Just take my dog for a walk ok!" And I shut my office door.


Click for unbearably cute dog photo


A few moments later there was a knock on my door, it was my intern.

"Can we talk?" she said.

I could tell from the look on her face I was out of line. She walked in and I asked her directly,

"OK, how bad was that? Honestly."

She smiled sweetly, paused.

"You know Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada...

"THAT BAD!" I exclaimed and started laughing, so did she.

"Yup." She said between giggles "And, just so you know Catherine is afraid of dogs."

I pulled $20 from my wallet, apologized for being a jerk and sent the girls to grab themselves a coffee and something sweet while I collected myself and thought of an appropriate way for them to support the event planning efforts.

I won't argue, there are unflattering, unappealing tasks in every job and they need to get done. My suggestion, lay that out ahead of time and tackle those tasks as a team.

Don't take interns for granted. Love them , appreciate them, treat them well.

To all the under appreciated interns out there, may the light within me honor the light with in you.

Attention Job Seekers.

No not me, I am still content running my business here in New Hampshire.
This is the second time in six months I've worked with an organization as part of a hiring team. In the summer of 2010 I managed the hiring of a part-time program staff person for a small nonprofit. Right now I am in the middle of the search process for an Executive Director, again for a small nonprofit.

When applications arrived this summer for a part-time program coordinator, my expectations were rooted by entry level nature of the position. I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of the candidates and simultaneously shocked at the number of applications which were assembled carelessly. I wrote off the amazement reminding myself, you are hiring for an entry level position. I won't leave you wondering, we hired an extraordinary young women who has mastered her job and then some in less then six months.

I am back to the hiring game. This time the stakes are higher. I am on a team working to fill the shoes of women who started her work with this institution doing part-time administrative duties and today she is now a power house fundraiser, manager and leader.

This hire is a year in the making. The group brainstormed, planned, convened ad hoc committees and in December the posting went out. Credit where it is due, we received many strong applications. In addition we received others that stopped me in my tracks, several applications arrived screaming for a reminder about simple measures which can make or break an application.

I am not a career coach or a veteran HR professional.

I have a background in visual arts drilled into my brain, an obsession with detail and the ability to find value and intrigue in a-typical candidates, so long as they present themselves well.
Here are a handful of tips I wrote down while reflecting on these two hiring processes, share them, use them personally or to help evaluate your next hire.

1) Don't try to be cute

I love the color pink, dresses and small bossy dogs. I am completely turned off by applications: on colored paper, which included clip art graphics, catchy slogans or cheesy fonts. Even if you are working with small children or animals a hiring committee expects professional applicants, be one.

2) Formatting Nightmares: Don't be one

Imagine twenty plus applications (resumes, cover letters, letters of reference) sitting in your inbox. Now imagine opening the documents to find these documents are a formatting disaster. Regardless of the content these candidates start out at a deficit or don't start the process at all.

What can you do?

Save as a PDF! It's simple and will ensure what you see on the screen is what the hiring team sees.
Use bold, underline or italicized text for emphasis when appropriate and if you use it be consistent.
(Ex: Bold one company you worked for....bold them all)
Only send what your asked for and offer access to further information if requested. A pile of attachments takes time to print and organize, if you weren't asked to provide them you are likely adding more work and frustrating someone.

3) Proof Read

No one is perfect. Second only to my mother, I am pretty sure I am the world's worst speller so I am especially attentive in grant writing, applications and professional writing to triple check for errors. Cook dinner for a trusted friend, babysit for a professor, bake cookies for a co-worker....bottom line make sure your eyes are not the only eyes to fall on these documents.


4) Right Resume, Right Time

This one may cause you to sigh deeply and stop reading...I'm not sure who perpetuated the idea that one resume works for every job but it doesn't in my world. Consider carefully the wording of the job you are applying to, highlight the skills you have that match that job specifically. Edit your resume so it presents the education and experience that will serve you well in the position for which you are applying.

5) Your time and mine

If you are applying for jobs that doesn't just mean sending out applications and going back to business as usual. After your applications go out, be attentive to your email and voice mail messages. If you know you will be away or unavailable, be proactive and include a note in your application with the details on when you will return or how to contact you while you are away. Return calls or emails within 24 hours, great general rule of business and critical in a hiring process.

6) First rule of sales: Know the product

Applying for a new job is about sales. You are selling yourself to a future employers with the promise of being a future sales person for their company or organization. You will find lots of information out there about how to present yourself and significantly less about the impotence of knowing the company or organization you would like to work for.
Do your research - check their website, look at staff profiles, check their social media sites for photos, comments and any other information that can provide insight into the culture, values and vision of the company.


7) Voice on the machine

Like many people many I only have one phone, a cell phone and I hold great disdain for cutesy voicemails messages. I outgrew my taste for entertaining voice mails in highs school. This isn't a judgment just fact, I spent untold hours of my youth recording creative, musical messages on my home answering machine. Be sure your contact information and associated replies are professional.


I'll sign off with a lucky seven. Happy hiring, good luck applying and feel free to add your own best practices in the comments section of this blog.

The true cost of "picking your brian"?

I am fortunate to love what I do for work. When I began working with nonprofits the lines of work and pleasure melded into a beautiful gray. I was in my early twenties and boundaries were by my definition, always fluid.

Sometime in my late twenties I woke to realize that you can love your work and still be paid well for what you do. This realization launched a somewhat painful process of training myself to define boundaries and recognized a phase my husband coined when I was giving to much away " You are not a nonprofit!".

After all of that learning I still find I contend with the challenge of giving away my work some what regularly. Let me set the scene for you...

I arrive a birthday for my friend's three year old son, say my hellos and begin making small talk with another guest I've never met before. We exchange typical pleasantries and then we get to work. I share the story of starting my consultanting business and watch the eyes across from me light up. I barely eek much more then consulting, fundraising and nonprofits before my new friend is on an exuberant tear about the capital campaign the community center is looking to embark on and how much they could benefit from someone with my skills and really don't have the funds to hire the support.

The next ten minutes are a bit of blur - founder challenges, budget issues and then we get to the
punch line...

"You know, we should get coffee. I'd love to pick your brain about some of these details, do you have a card on you?"

And suddenly years of training, boundary setting and relearning is challenged in a single moment of brunch and birthday cake.

After investing hours, I developed specific approach to handle these situations.

When asked about “picking my brain” I typically stop people mid sentence and tell them about a group of my colleagues (who are fabulous) who get together once a month or so to share ideas. Everyone comes to the event with something to share on the topic of that meeting (new idea, tool they want to learn, issue they are wrestling with etc). Each of the participants shares and is present to listen and give feedback.

Those who are in it for the wrong reasons have lots of excuses for why they can’t possibly make that work …that’s my cue to encourage them to be in touch when they have time and start their research on a few great websites for nonprofits.

People who are genuine and committed get excited about the idea and are willing to invest their time to help others and themselves. Even if they can’t make the group event I will take time with them because they passed my investment test.

How much time do you budget for "brainstorming"? How do you decide which projects are worth your time at no cost?

Being Epic

The planning for Epicman is underway, this will be the third year my friend's Will and Seth have embarked on an adventure most people find unfathomable. Shortly after watching a video clip from their newest "EpicFriend" Flip I got a holiday email detailing the 2010 adventures of another friend of mine.

Confession, I hate holiday letters written in the third person which detail accounts of people's lives you would know about if you spend time with them and you don't need to know about if you don't...

But I read on. I smiled through my cynicism after reading detailed accounts of all of the islands they paddled their kayaks to this summer and their plan for 2011. Why?

I gave up the Grinch after realizing the true value in Epicman. The brand "Epicman" is not about the jaw-dropping feat slated for 4/19/11 and it isn't about paddling to and island, it is about finding something that asked you to challenge yourself to be better then you thought you could be.

Maybe that crux is riding waves in the winter; climbing technical rock faces; 24 hours of sun salutations; an ultra-run.... or maybe that crux is finding the courage to get on your bike after an injury; trusting adaptive skis when you can't walk or just following that feeling you get when know you are about to do something extraordinary.

Whatever it is for you - go find it. Live it. Be Epic.

Travel induced food hoarding.

My alarm is set for eight hours from now. Our journey to Lima will happen in two flights. There are climbing plans to finalize, gear to double check, away messages to activate and my biggest concern is food.

Once upon a time airlines fed you while you traveled in their care. I learned from a savy childhood friend, on a surf trip to Mexico, if you tell them you are vegan you get great food. Turns out she was right; yogurt and granola, real cheese and crackers, cereal with soy milk...seriously!

Some years later my husband and I left Boston on separate flights to San Fransisco, to climb in Yosemite, I arrived first and headed straight for food. My flight left at the crack of dawn and it was sometime after three eastern time when we arrived, I had pretzels and ginger ale on the flight.

Apparently my meager in-flight offerings were luxurious, Erik arrived sweaty, eyes glazed, almost unable to speak, apparently he was offered only water on his seven plus hour Alaska Air flight.

I am convinced this experience changed me. I confess I have become a travel induced food hoarder.

The carry-on contents for tomorrow's departure include the following:

Spelt Bagels with tofu cream cheese (2)
Sweet and salty granola bards (4)
Individual hummus and cracker packs (4)
Organic fruit leathers (4)
Nectarines (3)
Baby Bella Cheeses (2)
Soy rice crisps (1 bag divided into two zip locks)
C Boost Smoothie 16 oz (1 for pre flight chugging)
Emergen-C packets (10)
Salted almonds (1/2 pound)

I can get through long layovers, delayed or canceled flights, crying children, obnoxious seat mates with the right sustenance. If you run your travel days on plastic cups of diet soda and mini bags of pretzels, try this once but caution it is habit forming.