Fundraising? A Good Cause Is No Longer Enough

Please Don't Ask Me to Give to Your Cause, Unless….

The following is an open letter from Kristen Parrinello. She is writing to her friends, family, colleagues and anyone else who may ask her donate to their chosen charity. We thought she raised some good points, and so we’ve asked to post the letter to our blog for our readers to consider.

Kristen Parrinello (@InvisibleWork) is a student of effective non-profit management and is preparing for her next round of fundraising.


Dear Fellow Fundraiser,

Thank you for your commitment in time and energy to raising money for your cause. Social media and technology have given non-profits direct access to volunteer fundraisers, which have allowed them to reach out to larger audiences. However, I have been asked to donate over a dozen times this year, and I bet you have been asked many times, too. All these requests make me wonder, do you know what the non-profit is doing with the money you are raising for it?

In return for my financial assistance, I would like to help you become a more educated fundraiser and donor. When made with the right organization, donations are social investments. And, indeed, donations are most effective and create the greatest impact, when those investments are given to the right people with the right plan that will implement the plan well.

Organizations that are, at a minimum, business-like, potentially can make the greatest impact. Non-profits that strive beyond business basics, measure their impact and have proven their success, merit investment. Before committing to fundraising for a cause or donating, I invite you take a deeper look into the organization by visiting charity evaluator and social investment guidance sites and asking some questions of the non-profit’s effectiveness measurement and success.

Generally, we respond to two forms of information: qualitative (heart-wrenching stories of success) and quantitative (numbers that prove success by examining the social change, otherwise known as outcome metrics). While stories round out the picture of what an organization accomplishes, to many, the numbers prove that change is occurring. Of course, no set of metrics is perfect and no story can determine the effectiveness of an organization.

In the non-profit world, there has been an increasing focus on outcome metrics over the past few years. Unfortunately, the detail of the information and intensity of this conversation can get overwhelming. I've listed some information I hope you will look into when researching an organization.


Sites to visit:

Charity Navigator (@CharityNav) is a good place to start, but theirs is not the ultimate set of metrics of effectiveness, which they address on their website. Why? Many in the non-profit world believe that their strict standard is unfair, as it measures a non-profit’s impact by examining financial ratios based on the information given by the organization in their IRS tax form 990. All information should be taken in context for each non-profit mission, business model and the organization’s stage (start-up versus mature). Charity Navigator is working on creating new metrics that are more individually based, rather than their current overall sweeping methodology.

GiveWell, which was started by two former hedge-fund analysts, closely analyzes non-profit effectiveness by reviewing a non-profit’s internal monitoring reports as well as independent, academic evidence of effectiveness. Unlike Charity Navigator, GiveWell dives deep into each organizations individual information, puts it into context and then bases their recommendations from their detailed findings. However, due to the intense nature of their work, GiveWell covers a lesser number of organizations as compared to the large gamut Charity Navigator includes in their ratings.

New Philanthropy Capital helps potential donors research the effectiveness of their cause with their Good Giving Principles.

The Alliance for Effective Social Investing, posted their “Guide to Effective Social Investing”, an in-depth piece that explains social investing well.


Questions to ask:

How does your non-profit measure its success? What outcomes do they use to track their change?

With the way your non-profit measures its impact, how successful is it? It’s easier to measure success by looking at the goals the organization set out to complete and compare that to the outcomes that are accomplished.

Does your non-profit have their financials audited by a third-party? As a donor, you can request a copy of those financials and their IRS tax form 990, which is a public document. Some charity evaluators get their information from the 990, which should be taken into context, and many evaluators don’t have the capacity to do this. Numerous 990s are listed with GuideStar, a site that can provide data for your sleuthing.

What is the non-profit doing to move from working off only donations to a business model with a consistent revenue stream or how are they bringing in money as an alternative to donations? Many non-profits are cleverly finding ways to wean themselves off of donations to making money on their own by developing a social enterprise. Goodwill has been doing it for decades, as they create a business that supports the funding of their mission.


To dive deeper:

There are people, specifically bloggers, who advocate for more useful measures of non-profit effectiveness to help donors to make the best decisions. Some of the more passionate and outspoken bloggers in this arena are Sean Stannard-Stockton (@tactphil) of Tactical Philanthropy and Elie Hassenfeld and Holden Karnofsky of GiveWell.

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania is a good site to visit to find more detailed information on sector-specific analysis and tools, and field-building resources.

The next time you ask me to help financially, I will be curious of your research on your cause. I believe in the power of non-profits to make a positive impact in the world and I hope as we better educate ourselves, that impact will be more significant. Please help me invest my money well.

Thanks,
Kristen

Kristen Parrinello (@InvisibleWork) is a student of effective non-profit management and is preparing for her next round of fundraising.

3 Reasons Why You’re Finding It Hard to Find And Keep Volunteers - And What To Do About It

Volunteer rates are down, but more people are talking about the importance of volunteering. There’s a disconnect. Here’s why, and what you can do about it.

Outside there’s an audible hum, and it’s increasing in volume by the minute. People are talking about the things that matter, the causes that move them, the communities they love. They are talking about the need to get more active, more involved. Apparently society has decided to give back like never before, and they have decided to do it through volunteering.

Or.....have they?

Non-profit executives and volunteer managers will tell you a different story. From their perspective, fewer people are showing up and fewer still are willing to make the necessary commitments. Not only that, but the volunteers seem more selfish. The question has become, “What am I getting out of the experience of volunteering?” rather than “What am I giving?” And the widespread popularity of Corporate Volunteering programs only multiply these frustrations.

The thing is, it’s true. People are very interested in volunteering, yet less willing to make long-term time commitments. They are socially aware, yet seem concerned with program outcomes and personal fulfillment rather than the value of “doing the right thing.” Oddly, (despite the fact that many volunteer managers struggle with recruiting new volunteers) volunteer rates are, in fact, steadily increasing. People are far more active and informed than ever before. Each week hundreds of corporations are looking to formalize a volunteering program and mobilize employees in their communities.

So where’s the disconnect? If more people care, and more people are actually volunteering, why are non-profit execs so frustrated? Why does it seem tougher to find and keep volunteers today than it did just two or three decades ago?

A Paradigm Shift

A major paradigm shift has taken place over the last 10 years. This shift has made recruiting and retaining volunteers more difficult - although it has nothing to do with the general interest or willingness to commit to making a difference.

SHIFT ONE: From card catalogs to wifi. We have been Googleized. We now live in a world where everything and everyone are within reach all the time. When I want to see something I’ve never seen, learn something I don’t know, or meet someone for the very first time, I can. And within about .06 seconds. The speed is amazing, but the real power lies within the potential for connection. Through social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter I have discovered experts and thought leaders in my field, connected with them, and expanded conversations. Nothing is off-limits to me. No experience is too far away, no culture too removed. My expectations are high because the world is my oyster.

IMPACT: As a culture we expect real and immediate connections. Googlelized volunteers will not appreciate being assigned to stacking boxes. They will not value sweeping up after. When you hand them printed material to walk out with, expect to see it in the recycling bin by the door. Not good enough. Not anymore.

Today’s expectation is for direct connections with outcomes and with people. My interest is captivated by the opportunity to give a goat to a village in Kenya because I can learn about the area, it’s history, the people living there - even the names of the family who received my goat. Giving to an amorphous cause to fight hunger is simply not the same. I can’t make it part of my own story. The same is true for volunteering.

In order to underscore the importance of this shift, I’ve included the following video about Social Media and it’s implications for everyday life. A special thanks to Heidi Massey for sending this along to me (We’ve never met, but we are fast “social media” friends - Heidi's blog).





SHIFT 2: From finding the right job to becoming the right brand. We are now in an era where we seek to create a personal brand, rather than find a good job. This trend has been burgeoning for decades and has reached a point where few people expect to work at one company until retirement. We are now free to choose from an array of experiences. From interviewing for an interesting position, to stepping up as an entrepreneur, we can create the life we want - the life we dream of. A good job is no longer synonymous with a sense of security. Instead, options equal security. Instead of retirement at the age of sixty, we expect to have an increasingly valuable brand, with specialized possibilities to choose from. Forget retirement, we’re just getting started.

IMPACT: Very few people can or want to make long-term commitments. This is not something to fight against - it is simply the new reality. Non-profits who continue to ask for long-term commitments of a few months, let alone a year, will continue to experience disappointment. The “good” of the cause or the quality of the program will not make a difference. Unless the volunteer happens to have a pre-existing vested interest in the organization, the lifestyle of this new paradigm will allow only disdain for long-term commitment.

SHIFT 3: From commodity to experience. Not too long ago, we were all farmers, extracting the commodities we needed from the earth. Then came the Industrial Revolution and the factories that enabled us to transform those raw commodities into goods to sell. Over the past century the gross domestic product of most developed nations switched from primarily manufacturing goods to that of offering services. Recently, we’ve personalized these services to an even greater extreme. We are becoming an economy of experience.

A perfect example of this is coffee. Beginning as a commodity, coffee is simply a bean taken from the earth. From there, coffee is transformed into a good, sold in stores. It becomes a service when you receive it from your favorite coffee shop in the morning. But if you want to take coffee to the next step, you need to go to that great Third Place. Starbucks. At Starbucks, you’re not just buying coffee, you’re buying the coffee experience- right down to cushy chairs, cool music, modern decor, and free wifi. Starbucks barely sells coffee. Mostly, they sell experience. And most of us are more than willing to pay for it.

Joseph Pine does an exceptional job of presenting these insights in a talk he delivered at TED.



IMPACT: Volunteering needs to be an “experience first” event. Sure, people will show up to paint a wall if that’s what’s needed, and the invitation is clear and urgent. But if you want to keep those volunteers, and attract even more, then the focus must be on the experience of the volunteer, not the task that they are performing. We all know when we are a means to an end. And most of us are cool with that if we believe in the cause. But in most cases, people must be provided an experience in which they can personalize their volunteer work, and internalize their motivations for being there. (For more explanation on motivation and volunteering read this blog post: Want Good Volunteers?)

Shifting gears

People are googleized, branded and experiential. If those of us who recruit and manage volunteers are going to be successful, we’ve got to account for these changes. Here are some initial thoughts that might encourage the necessary adjustments:

1. Create regular and easy opportunities to volunteer. And I mean really easy. No police checks. No lengthy registration forms. No liability forms. No prior-to event sign up. Instead, find an event that can be held once a month, if not weekly. Make it easy for groups, families as well as individuals to attend. Most organizations I’ve worked with cannot even imagine how this is possible. It is. It just takes a little work, and some imagination. Mostly, it takes a willingness to admit that the thing not working now, aren’t going to start working anytime soon. Like it or not, change is required.
2. Instead of using volunteers as a means to an end, use the tasks volunteers perform as the means to an end. It is the experience volunteers have and not the tasks they perform that is the point. Focus on the experience, and you’ll discover the commitment and productivity of your volunteers grow.
3. Ensure that the experience involves close proximity between your community or cause and your volunteers. This is an essential part of volunteers internalizing the experience and discovering very personal and compelling reasons to invest in your organization.
4. Only spend time on people who are worth spending time with. (Trust me. Sometimes the seemingly selfish moves are the best for everyone in the long run.) If people come back, and they demonstrate a keen interest in what you’re doing as an organization, then they are the prime candidates for your efforts.

Chris Jarvis
Senior Consultant, Realized Worth, Toronto, Canada 416-567-2004
Email me; chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
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Want Good Volunteers? Dump The Altruistic, Find The Self-Interested (Part 2 of 2)

Selflessness and altruism make for bad volunteers. Without self-interest, volunteers easily opt out of commitments and objectify those they are trying to help.


Good: just not good enough

When people show up to volunteer for the first time there are multiple reasons behind that decision. Almost certainly, those reasons are extrinsic. A motivation is extrinsic when it exists outside of the person - like an athlete who feels compelled to run harder when he hears the crowd cheer him on. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation exists within us - like when that athlete runs harder because of the pleasure the sport brings. (For more on extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation read Part 1 of this series). When it comes to volunteering, it’s not that extrinsic motivation isn’t good - it’s just not good enough.

Extrinsic motivations aren’t good enough because they don’t last. On the other hand, when our motivation is intrinsic, personal, and tied to our identity, it becomes a priority. If we want people to volunteer with us over the long haul, then we must leave behind the glorified altruistic, for genuine self-interest.

But wait, isn’t volunteering is about giving back? Isn’t it about appreciating how much we have, and helping someone who doesn’t have so much? Volunteering is selfless, isn’t it? Doing good, solving problems, making the world a better place?

It’s Us. Helping Them.

Right?

Well, that’s certainly where we all start. But there comes a point when our good intentions toward others threaten to transform them from people into objects.


My true value

Sunday Suppers in Halifax were held each week in the gym of St Andrews United Church. Our guests were men, women and children experiencing the full spectrum of poverty. Most were dealing with addictions and mental illnesses, many were homeless. We served approximately 150 meals to these families each Sunday. The meals were organized so that over the course of a year thousands of people could experience volunteering. People could show up on a whim without any prior commitment, preparation or experience. I simply oriented them with a 15-minute introduction before serving the meal.

Now, I knew that out of the 50 to 70 volunteers, only a handful would know anything about the issues of poverty, homelessness, addiction or mental illness. I also knew that they sincerely wanted to help in some way. Most of them had intended to serve at Sunday Suppers for some time, but their busy lives had kept them away. That is, until today.

Today, these people had managed to set aside other commitments in order to show up. They were ready to make a difference, feed the hungry, solve a problem. So, I introduced myself and gave a quick sketch of how the meal would operate. Then, I took a few minutes to address our volunteers’ expectations:

“The poor are not a problem to be solved, and we are not going to make a dent in the issues of hunger here today.”

All eyes blinked, clearly asking, “Yes? So what, in fact, are we planning to accomplish by handing out all this food?”

I continued, “We are here to remember who we are; where our true value lies. We have been bombarded all week by messages that try to persuade us that our value is found in the labels on our clothes, the model of our car, the square footage of our house, the letters in our degree, and the tonnage of our consumption. We are driven to buy more, sell more, make more, consume more.”

Many heads nodded in silent, exhausted agreement.

“But none of these things make us valuable. Not any more than the complete lack of these things make our guests - the men, women and children waiting to receive this meal - less valuable.

Rather, we each possess an innate value that transcends these trappings and the frenzied activities of our lives.”

The group had become quiet. Some looked at the floor, others exchanged knowing glances.

“In fact, as a volunteer at this meal, your highest contribution is simply being here. Now don’t get me wrong, we need people to run the meals, wash the dishes and clean the floors,’ I said as I smiled and elbowed the guy next to me. ‘But the most amazing gift you have to offer is the simple message “You are worth it”. By showing up here today for just a couple hours, you’re telling our guests, “You are worth some of my life.”

While you were pressured all week to do more, gain more, become more, these men and women were being told to get off the street, get away from the door, go find a job. Two hours of your life this Sunday afternoon is priceless. Because today we remember together who we are. We remind each other where our true value lies. And we lift each other up in a celebration of life, community and hope.”

The orientation would conclude with a brief prayer of gratitude. Then, we would walk out together to spend time with our guests...and to remember, if only for a few moments, our mutually innate value.


Where our true value lies

At Sunday Suppers, the time volunteers spent among the guests was essential. It was when the line between “us and them” became sufficiently blurred. Who is serving and who is being served? Who really gives, and who receives? Unless we become personally engaged with those we are serving, we will find ourselves working to fix them. Our goal will focus on enabling them to look, act, and talk like “us.” Sure, we want these things for good reasons. Poverty is not a ‘culture’ to be preserved and cherished. It is, rather, a societal class that exists because of systemic injustice and apathy. But there is a defining difference between viewing poverty as an issue to be addressed, and objectifying those affected by poverty by viewing them as a problem to be fixed.

When we are motivated to help someone else we naturally consider what good we can do, what resources we have to offer, and how we can actively be a part of some kind of solution. We want to ‘fix’ something, develop a solution to the problem. We want to make life better. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as that’s the starting point. If we stay there, with those notions of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ we will almost certainly begin to objectify people.

Self-interest, not altruism is what makes for a great volunteer. Help your volunteers discover the personal reasons they have for being there. Doing so will ensure their commitment and keep them from objectifying those they are working with.

Chris Jarvis
Senior Consultant, Realized Worth, Toronto, Canada 416-567-2004
Email me; chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
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Want Good Volunteers? Forget The Altruistic, Find The Self-Interested (Part 1 of 2)

Many argue that volunteer rates are falling. They complain that people today (usually young people) won’t make commitments to a cause. The problem, people tell me, is that volunteers want to know what’s in it for them. Yep, it’s true. But self-interest isn’t the problem. It’s the solution.

(Photo left: Barack Obama explaining the importance of self-interest)


Why we do what we do

People volunteer for every imaginable reason.

“I have so much, I just want to give back.” or, “We wanted to be part of the solution.” or, “There are people out there who need our help.” Or so on. And so forth.

Some are prompted by an advertisement on the subway. Others are invited to volunteer by friends or family. It may be that they were urged to get more active in the community by our religious leaders. Or possibly, someone took President Obama’s message of activism to heart.

All good reasons. Just not good enough.

The best reason for volunteering is always self-interest.

I know, I know. You think I am drunk-blogging. Hold on, I’ll explain.

“Self-interested volunteering” seems generally at odds with everything we’ve come to believe about volunteering. Right? “Self-interested volunteers.” Isn’t that an oxy-moron? What about altruism and the greater good?

In Realized Worth training sessions we raise this controversial point and discuss two reasons why self-interest is an essential aspect of an outstanding volunteer experience. Both reasons have to do with motivation.

First, as my partner Angela Parker will tell you with great conviction, “We all do what we want.” Meaning, there is always some kind of motivation and pay-off for the choices we make. When it comes to motivation, the discussion can get pretty complicated. Very rarely (if at all) will someone make a choice with singular motivation. Usually there are multiple motivators, each compelling the other. (Test this by evaluating why you chose the particulars of your lunch yesterday.)


The Ins and Outs of Motivation

For simplicity’s sake, I would suggest that we experience two kinds of motivation: one; extrinsic and two; intrinsic. When people volunteer for the first time, they are usually motivated extrinsically. (Such as a desire to “give back.”) Extrinsic motivators exist outside of an individual. They are not intimate. And while extrinsic motivations are important, they are not deeply rooted in our personality. More precisely, they are not essential factors in our journey to become who we are.

In nearly two decades now of managing volunteers, extrinsic motivators are almost always the reason volunteers offer for showing up. And honestly, that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with extrinsic motivation. But as time went on, and my volunteers came back, we would invariably have the following conversation:

“Hey Chris, can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Sure,” I’d say.

“Well, it’s just that I’m feeling a little guilty about something.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, I love volunteering and everything, but I think I’m coming for the wrong reasons.”

“Okay...” I’d answer, trying to look like I didn’t know what they were going to say next.

“Um, yeah. I mean, at first I wanted to help out, you know - make a difference. But now, I think I’m getting more out of it than they are. I just don’t know if I am helping anyone here, but I keep coming back because I’m getting a lot out of it. Is that bad?”

“Nope, that’s not bad. That’s how it’s supposed to work.” I’d say, mentally adding this volunteer to the list in my mind labeled, “Valuable.”

It is essential that people begin to discover their intrinsic motivations for volunteering. Why? Because when the things we do connect to who we are, we become personally invested. Our own identity works itself out in conjunction with volunteering. As we reach out to others, we begin to take a journey inward. We begin to discover and express our truer self.

If we remain motivated by exterior voices trying to convince us that we must help, or it is our duty, we will unfortunately remain personally detached from the work itself. In fact, extrinsic motivators such as rewards, incentives, or public recognition at a year-end celebration, may have a negative effect in the long run. In a 1974 study by Green & Lepper, children were rewarded and reinforced for drawing with felt-tip pens. The surprising result? The children showed little to no interest in playing with the pens later on. It seems that the extrinsic motivation of verbal reward replaced any intrinsic motivation, thereby diminishing the innate enjoyment of the activity.

Creating the right kind of space in a volunteer program for people to discover their intrinsic motivation is essential. This is probably the single most important factor in the recruitment and retainment of volunteers. This kind of space is highly valuable for the volunteer manager because it allows for the possibility of meeting volunteers at their highest level of contribution.

There’s another reason why self-interest is essential aspect of an outstanding employee volunteer program. (Actually there are a whole bunch of reasons!) In our next blog post, we’ll talk about how volunteering fosters objectification. It may, in fact, inoculate people against the desire to participate in social action.

Chris Jarvis
Senior Consultant, Realized Worth, Toronto, Canada 416-567-2004
Email me; chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
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Follow me on Twitter @RealizedWorth
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