Music Forward Foundation’s Post

Annual Giving March: Week Two There are two types of Impact Stories that your organization needs to tell. 1) Reporting on the Past 2) Sharing what will happen in the Future You crafted your reporting on the past impact story for your impact piece. Now it is time to start work to share what will happen in the future. This begins with gathering stories. Grab a notebook and sit in a high traffic area of your organization. Just observe. What is happening? Jot down notes of interactions that you see. Bring those notes back and see how these observations align with your annual giving fundraising goal for the year. Maybe you are raising funds for a specific program, maybe you need a new piece of equipment, or maybe you are raising funds for operations- whatever the case, look at your potential story ideas. How do they align? Here is your story formula: The Community has a Problem, Your Organization has the Solution, but Donor Dollars are needed to Implement. Problem, Solution, Implementation The next step is to take the story notes and your fundraising goal to work on your spring appeal. Have a great week and stay tuned for appeal writing tips. #AMPO #annualgiving #fundraising #fundraisingappeals https://lnkd.in/gcDzXjz4

Training for the future and today. Good job

Annual Giving February Week 4: You have been working on your impact piece for quite some time now. And this is the week- it should do into the mail this week or next week. CONGRATULATIONS! You did it! You created a quality piece to tell your donors about the impact of their giving. Now we are going to start a week of transition. We are moving into a key strategic time of the year. Here's your next step: The list... You ran a donor list for your impact piece. This list includes information on people's previous year's giving and their cumulative lifetime giving. This list is gold! Use this list to figure out the top 10% of donors. First you need to determine how many donors you can have conversations with this year- maybe it's 10- maybe it's 20... whatever the number that is great. Now look at the list and figure out the best people to fill those slots - look at the list- who were your biggest givers last year? who are your largest givers over lifetime? These are the people that you are going to get to know better this year. (Don't worry we will work together on how to do this) Here is how to use your impact piece to activate your program: 1) Hand deliver impact piece to the people you identified above. 2) Call and alert the people you identified above that the impact piece is on the way. 3) Check in with these donors to make sure that the giving numbers stated on the impact piece match their records for giving. You are doing great! Let me know how it is going. Have a great week. Amy #annualgiving #fundraising #AMPO #philanthropy

Wondering what you should be doing to keep your annual giving program on track? Check out the video below for actionable knowledge.

Let's talk about metrics. The end of Q1 is quickly approaching. It is time to start thinking about how you are going to measure the success of your annual giving program. If you only report on the total dollars raised, you are only sharing a lagging indicator. What I mean by that, is that you are reporting on your program. Total dollars raised doesn't give you a chance to invite participation from your supervisor, or your board of directors. I would invite you to consider sharing a leading metric indicator. One that will give you a chance to invite participation from your supervisor or your board of directors. The recommended leading indicator is your decency quotient. This metric allows you to look at the largest givers to your organization and to understand how dependent you are on their funding. Here's how you gather this information. Look at your top 5-10 donors from the past 5 years. Once you have this data ask yourself these questions: - How have these partners changed? Maybe they have been really consistent, or maybe they have been very diverse - whatever the case, ask yourself this - What would you do if you learned that you weren't getting this funding again? - What is your current relationship with this funding partners? Could it be better? - What did you learn that you can activate on - maybe you have some relationship building to do - maybe you need to do some prospecting for the future. Whatever the case, it becomes easier to activate on it once you understand what is happening. Here is a formula to help you discover your dependency quotient: Sum of your top 5-10 contributions ___________________________________ = Dependency Quotient Organization Expenses Next week we will talk about how you activate on this knowledge. This is a research week. Dig deep and see what you can discover about these funding partners. Let me know what you are discovering. I'd love to hear how this is working for you. #AMPO #annualgiving #fundraising #Q1

Tomorrow, on March 6th, the Batten Alumni Advisory Board will launch its “Spring Challenge” to fundraise money for the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy's students whom pursue unpaid or underfunded internships in the public sector. This year, our goal is to raise $35,000 to support the Batten School’s future policy leaders. Your donation can: (1) Allow students to pursue internships that align with their passions in policy. (2) Alleviate any financial barriers that prevent today's student leaders from becoming tomorrow’s public servants. (3) Pay forward a metro swipe to work, a networking lunch, or a tank of gas to commute. As the Board's Philanthropy Co-Chair and also having experienced unpaid internships, I know these donations can very much be the margin of success for these students’ careers. The impact compounds far past just funding the internship, as that experience then leverages other opportunities down the road. Join us in raising money for the future policy leaders at the Batten School and help leave a lasting impact in these students careers by making your gift today! #GivingDay #UVA #Batten #PublicSector #Internships

Check out the latest video below.

Our latest newsletter is now out! Click below to catch up on our Practice and charity news and to see Lee's article about the importance of a Digital Legacy. #relationship #service #trust

Annual Giving: March Week One Fundraising and Story are intertwined. You can't have a good annual giving fundraising program without story. Here is the formula you should use to think about story. - The Community has a Problem - Your Organization has a Solution - The only way to Implement is with Donor Gifts Community Problem- Organization Solution- Donor Gifts to implement. To identify the Community Problem that your organization addresses- look to the vision statement. Chances are pretty good that the problem your organization is solving is the opposite of your vision. Your Organization Solution is the programs you run to address the problem. Now you need to combine this into a story. To begin this process, you need to grab a notebook and go sit in a high traffic area of your organization. Use the notebook to write down what you observe. These notes are going to form the foundation of your story. You will use the story two ways: 1) To Report: this is what you did in your impact piece. You reported back to donors about the impact their gifts made: you offered proof that your organization implemented a solution towards solving a community problem. 2) Discuss the Future: this is showing what could happen, in the future, with additional gifts to the organization. Maybe you can start a new program, expand a current offering, or maybe you just need to keep doing what you are doing. Think about your notes. Think about the impact your organization is making. The Future Impact Story is going to become the foundation of your annual giving case for support. It will power your appeal letters. Let me know what you learn about your organization. I would love to hear about the notes you took. We are digging deep. This is important work. Stick with it, getting a good story will make a huge difference in your annual giving program.