When the joy is absent from giving.

As someone who owns a fundraising consulting firm, has managed many capital campaigns and annual appeals,trained hundreds of volunteers and as a donor to many worthy organizations in my community I firmly subscribe to the old adage about the "joy of giving"! I teach it, I write about it, it's in my proposals and in this particular case I really do think giving, when done properly, is fantastic - A true joy!

However there is a form of giving that I am forced to participate in that lacks any real joy. This is that neato solicitation from my clients!

Yes those wonderful clients who you've taught so well, trained on building a case, trained on the proper ask, trained on the proper timing of the ask-who invite you to lunch (that I ultimately pay for)and somewhere between the lobster bisque and the healthy fish of the day they slide a "really neat sponsorship" "worthy raffle" "great anniversary book" "incredible golf tournament flag sponsorship" "high profile advertisement in informative directory" "lunch sponsor at their event which they refuse to let me speak at" giving opportunity!

This solicitation, of course, comes with almost no explanation, no discussion of what the money is being used for, no pitch on the case. No head fake in my direction to pretend that I might be interested in the actual project. Just that sorta half smile, slightly awkward yet expectant slide across the table of the important information!

I know this comes off as another half rant/complaint and it is meant to! I am after all whining rather vigorously. However I do believe there is a lesson here. A lesson for me as a fundraising professional, a lesson for me as a business owner and an important lesson for my clients. Never take your relationships for granted. It doesn't matter how much you've done for a client, or they've done for you, how much you as the school or church have done for the donor-how many favors, extra effort or special exceptions you may have made.

At the end of the day giving is a deeply personal and emotional experience. When someone signs that check they want to feel good, they want to feel appreciated, they want to feel that their gift was needed. Appreciate your donors (all of them, even those that "should" give) always make your case, always approach the ask as if this were a first time solicitation.

As I said NO to a major sponsorship today it was as if a small light popped on in the deep recesses of my fundraising/business/emotional brain. "No mas!" Do it right, ask properly or "No mas!"

If it's hot where you are-this is my current desktop.

I am more of a Fall/Winter person. I find that this amazing image, taken in Norway I do believe cools me off just a bit. Enjoy!

The Bishops often say it better.

STEWARDSHIP OF TREASURE

"Within a total stewardship context, parishes and dioceses
should not hesitate to use the best available ethically
sound fund-raising practices to ask the Catholic people to
make financial contributions that are planned, proportionate,
and sacrificial. Provided that the basic approach
is consistent with the theology and practice of stewardship,
the principles and techniques of professional fund
raising can be extremely helpful to the overall stewardship
and development efforts of the parish or diocese."

Bishop's Pastoral on Stewardship 10th Anniversary Edition

The 10th Anniversary of the Bishop's Pastoral on Stewardship really advanced the discussion on Stewardship. It took the orginal letter outlined in the first edition ten years earlier and added practical and meaningful steps to assist parishes in approaching this important effort in thier parishes.

The seven steps outlined by the Bishops are:

1.) Personal Witness
2.) Committment of Leadership
3.) Evangelization and Outreach
4.) Communication and Education
5.) Gifts of time and talent (volunteers)
6.) Stewardship of Treasure
7.) Accountability

This edition of the Bishop's pastoral is an essential tool for all parishes that are seriously considering Stewardship, making a serious effort at developing a strategic plan or considering a major fundraising program such as a capital campaign.

I strongly urge everyone to take an hour and review this important document. (This includes you kind and dedicated souls that work for Cunneen!)

http://www.usccb.org/stewardship/disciplesresponse.pdf

Relevant? He's charging what??

Tough economy, increased competition, hard to differentiate yourself. I get it-its not easy doing business today.

Every business owner, salesperson, self employed professional or consultant has to wake up each morning and ask themselves "Am I as relevant today as I was yesterday?"-"How can I be more relevant tomorrow?"

It is very easy in today's fast moving economy to lose your relevance, to see your approach to business go from being innovative and cutting edge to old fashioned and boring. It isn't difficult to go from market leader to tired old dinosaur. To go from bestseller to bargain rack.

Rarely a day goes by where I am not jarred into a moment of fear as 100 images of the various aspects of my business scroll by each one with a "relevant-yes/no" query box popping up.

Cunneen has certainly made its share of strategic blunders over the past twenty seven years but one thing it has never failed to do is innovate! We fail grandly on occasion but we do innovate, we do change, we do improve-we maintain our relevance! Our firm is MORE relevant today to our Catholic clients than we have been at anytime over the past decade. I promise in the next year or two to become an even more essential tool-even more relevant to our clients, to their needs.

We work very hard at innovation, we work very hard to be relevant-to craft products and services that meet and exceed our clients needs, to be ahead of the "need curve" for our clients. We also believe, strongly, that we should be well compensated for this effort.

Maintaining healthy and robust fees permits the company to pay well, to reward excellent performance to invest in new technology, to maintain excellence among our staff and to provide the quality of services that our clients not only expect but deserve.

Reducing fee's, while potentially making the sales process a bit easier would invariably erode quality. An erosion of quality would lead to a decrease in faith in our business, in the consulting field, in stewardship. A decrease in faith in our business would lead to fewer parishes and non-profits hiring Cunneen or any other firm to assist with their fundraising efforts.

The industry, not just fundraising consulting, but any industry, all industries, suffer when price competition becomes de rigueur. Compete on quality, compete on service, compete on relevance, compete on technology, compete on delivery, but once a market starts down that steep slope of competing on "the low cost" or "lowest fee" its a very quick descent into oblivion.

I am not sure if this post is a plea, a whine, a lecture or merely an observation (likely a combination of all four) but it was certainly on my mind this afternoon.

The Cunneen Company makes many promises-we deliver on most of them. We will never promise to provide the best product at the lowest price. We wont even promise to provide the worst product at the lowest price. Our clients and our profession deserve better.

The payoff!

Our profession, fundraising consulting, is a very rewarding one. We get to work with committed volunteers on interesting projects-many of which help and/or benefit our communities! As a firm that works closely with the Catholic Church and as a lifelong Catholic I get the additional benefit of getting a chance to participate in my faith in ways that have a direct, tangible impact.

However, there have been few projects that I have been more committed to than the capital campaign at my former high school Hamden Hall. This campaign to build a new athletic center is something my brother and I, as well as our firm took a personal interest in. Not so much because of our committment to athletics, I think sports are fun, but tend not to take it much further than that-but because Hamden Hall itself had such a meaningful impact on my life, my brother's and now our children.

Giving back has never felt so good.

Following please find a link to our groundbreaking. I was given the oppurtunity to speak at this event and it was a real special moment.

http://www.hamdenhall.org/ground_breaking.asp

Electronic Giving-How big a deal is it in the typical Catholic parish?

Well in my opinion the answer is: bigger then any "trend" to sweep giving in a long time but not quite as big as everyone would like to believe.

I believe, quite firmly, that every Catholic parish in the nation will have some form of electronic giving in place within five years. The future for the envelope companies that fail to adapt is bleak. However, just like the envelope, electronic giving does not and will not solve every giving problem in a parish.

Sure it improves the frequency of giving, raises the average gift, improves consistency of giving, insulates the parish against the ups and downs of bad weather, seasonal fluctuations in attendance and other factors which currently impact Mass attendance and thus giving.

My earlier post touted the importance of dissociating Mass attendance from giving; electronic giving is an important part of this process.

My concerns however lie in the current belief that by merely introducing electronic giving that financial support in parishes will dramatically improve. It will go up, it will meet the demands of your donors for new methods of giving-but it will not effect the fundamental principals of what motivates donors to give generously.

The parish must still articulate a clear case for giving, must still challenge donors to give robustly, must still encourage increased gifts on a regular basis, must still be good Stewards of the financial resources and present this stewardship in an open and transparent manner.

The parish must still "ASK"! Donors must still be challenged! The mere act of introducing electronic giving does not mean the parish is practicing good Stewardship of Treasure. Introducing electronic giving creates a great vessel for gifts, a new way to give, a convenient way to give, and a great way to introduce the concepts of Intentional Giving (giving of your first fruits) but it DOES NOT replace the core activities that all successful parishes employ annually.

Cunneen offers the most robust electronic giving program in the nation for Catholic Parishes. Our program called Intentional Giving marries the principles of good stewardship to a robust and cost effective electronic giving solution. While it is the strongest electronic giving solution found anywhere in the United States -long term financial success requires more!

Duluth!

Pictures to come soon. Just wanted to post that the views from the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Duluth, MN are the most amazing ive seen in all the many Development offices that I have visited over the years.

Quite simply it was spectacular! An amazing explosion of the most vivid blue waters of Lake Superior from high atop a hill!

Separating Mass attendance from Giving!

Attending Mass and providing financial support to the church are unrelated! Or at least they should be.

For generations our Catholic Churches have insisted that the only way to provide financial support was to attend (utilize envelopes or place money in the basket). While this worked pretty well when Mass attendance was 75% or even 50% of the registered households-it is really burdening the parishes now that Mass attendance hovers around 25%-35%.

While the physical act of placing an offering in the basket is deeply routed in Catholic tradition and for many is an important and expected part of the Mass -dependence on this method for virtually all of a parish's financial support is a recipe for disaster.

Today's Catholic Church has a real challenge when it comes to filling the pews and increasing Mass attendance. This challenge is actually far greater and far more difficult to address than decreasing offertories. Parishes should task their evangelization committee's with developing ways to fill the pews, welcome new families, provide activities for the children, before and after Mass fellowship etc. The finance council should rightfully claim responsibility for giving-separate it from actually attending Mass and begin to take steps to make it EASIER TO GIVE to the local church.

Electronic giving, monthly giving programs, a parish annual report (mailed or emailed to the homes of donors) are all ways to begin to develop a sophisticated and effective giving program at the local parish.

Our Catholic Parishes must:
1.) articulate their case for giving (being church isnt good enough)
2.) develop methods to communicate this case to potential donors
3.) provide easy and accessible ways for donors to give
4.) be accountable

More to follow on electronic giving....

Major Gifts-An up hill battle?

I have recently been asked to speak at the Connecticut Fundraising Day in the Fall. My topic is major gifts-from concept to gift or something along those lines. My initial thought was to deliver a standard - good stewardship, cultivate, ask, follow up, and thank a million times-type speech. However after a recent conversation with my wife I am re-thinking the entire approach.

When discussing a major gift challenge that one of my clients is currently facing she remaked "you guys face an uphill battle in your business"! Upon a bit of probing she elaborated that in her opinion only 10% of the people that we KNOW would even consider a major gift-to ANY organization (major in this case was $10,000 or greater).

Is that true? Only 10% of the people in our entire reference group-most of whom would be considered major gift prospects for all but the wealthiest of charities. Is the universe of major gifts prospects really limited to 10% of the affluent? What percentage of the truly wealthy? And is the precentage even measurable for the middle class?

While I am a bit skeptical of the 10% figure it has given me pause. Would/Do? my friends make major gifts? Is there really just a fraction of a fraction of people willing to make major gifts to qualified organizations. This warrants further investigation and likely a shift in topics for my fall presentation

And so it begins!

My first blogpost! Is that one word? As someone who spends a fair bit of time writing articles, letters, proposals, case brochures I must confess to being somewhat puzzled by the entire blog posting concept-what does one write here?

The answer of course:

"You will write if you write without thinking of the result in terms of a result, but think of the writing in terms of discovery, which is to say that creation must take place between the pen and the paper, not before in a thought or afterwards in a recasting. It will come if it is there and if you will let it come, and if you have anything you will get a sudden creative recognition." Gertrude Stein


I hope, over time, to explore some interesting ideas, business challenges, discussions of my profession - fundraising and development consulting and perhaps in a moment of madness explore some of my thoughts on politics, the Catholic Church, and life in general.

To the people reading this (hi Cheryl!) I humbly thank you for pretending that I have something important to say!

John