12 Days of Gratitude: Day 5 - Thank the panel that rejected your grant

Thank an organization that rejected your proposal

Every organization has at one point in time experienced the disappointment of a rejection letter for a grant application that took tireless hours to write.  Now, while you may be trying to find new ways to replace these funds, there’s one last step that you may want to consider.

Write a genuine thank you letter to the officers or review panel of the foundation that rejected your application. Why?

Quite a bit of work goes into the review process, and as grants become more and more competitive, the amount of applications foundations receive increases steadily as well.  And you never know the amount of heartfelt debate that may have taken place among the review panel before the final decision was made.

Even more, if you ask them why they rejected your application, you’d be surprised at the insight you receive that you can take into consideration when you apply again there, or at any other organization in the future.   

Could you imagine getting a thank you note from someone just saying, “Thanks for considering us and for learning our story?”   It probably doesn’t happen that often.

Upcoming Seminars: Case Statements and Recruiting Ambassadors

Almost everyone now in the non-profit and education fields focus on raising money.  It makes sense.   For years, most of us depended on government grants or funds.  But now we have come to a point where this mindset is just not sustainable anymore.  Government funds to organizations and education are being cut, despite the fact that money is needed to fund all the great work our schools and non-profits are doing.  We are at a crossroads where we can either continue to depend on funds that are dwindling or take a new direction towards long-term sustainability that begins with inspiring people to help.  At first this might seem scary or risky, but rest assured this does NOT mean asking for money or anything else for that matter.   You only need to inspire people to want to help by showing them all the great work that you do.  This is where the case statement comes in, and it is the first part of the formula for effective community engagement.   

Story + Direction + Relationship = Effective Community Engagement

The purpose of the case statement is to articulate the essence of your organization in a compelling, concise and consistent manner.  It’s the gathering place for your official story, and it’s a helpful tool for staff, board members, donors and volunteers in raising awareness of your organization.  Finally, our format is strategically designed to answer all the questions a prospective supporter would have before deciding he/she would want to learn more.  

I was wondering if any of you have taken a stab at developing your own professional case statement.  I’d love to see what you came up with.  If you’re stuck, don’t feel bad, because it took me six months to develop the alinea case statement, and it takes us a full 10 hours to develop one for our clients.  And that’s after doing about 100 of them over the past seven years.

I have also received some questions about how you go about developing “ambassadors” for your organization.  Guess what?  The answer is the same one.  It all starts with being able to inspire people to want to help.  

In this blog, I thought I’d highlight two seminars that cover both these topics.

Upcoming Seminars – Case Statements and Recruiting Ambassadors

First, I will be facilitating a FREE workshop sponsored by PNC Bank and Reilly, Penner & Benton accounting firm on Wednesday, November 2^nd, 7:30-9am in Milwaukee (details at www.alineaconnect.com).  During this workshop, we will walk through how to develop a professional case statement.  If you’ve already started your case statement, but you need to take it to the next level, or if you haven’t started one yet, you won’t want to miss this opportunity.  If you’re not in town, join us via skype or other technology.  

Second, I will be facilitating a workshop for the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee titled “Engaging Volunteers in What You Do,” where you will learn about giving the inspiration and direction necessary to fully engage volunteers in your organization?  We’ll focus on using your story to recruit and retain more volunteers, inspire ambassadors for your organization and develop support for volunteers within your organization.   This seminar costs $40-60 and will be held on Thursday, November 10, 9-11:30am at the Volunteer Center of Milwaukee.  (details at www.alineaconnect.com).

Part II: #1 Fundraising Tool: Your Professional Case Statement

Writing Your Mission, Vision and Unique Approach

In my previous post, How to Build the 10 Sections of Your Case Statement, I discussed with you why it is so important for your story to be clearly articulated by as many people as possible in order to cultivate the relationships you need in order to attract resources.  With a compelling and concise case statement to put in the hands of as many people as possible, you will be on the path of attracting resources in places you might never even expect.  So many of my clients have been surprised by the resources they have attracted once they learned to tell their story.  If you haven’t already, check out my blog, Making Relationship Fundraising Work for your Non-Profit or School, for more inspiration!

I also discussed the keys to grabbing your reader’s attention in the beginning of your document with a “Did you know?” section that also emphasizes the need for the work your school or organization does.  Now it is time to discuss the next 3 sections of your case statement:

1. Your mission and how you achieve your mission  
2. Your vision for the future 
3. Your unique approach

Let’s get started!

Section #2 – Mission and how you achieve your mission

Your mission should be short and sweet and clearly describe why your nonprofit exists.  It is extremely important though that your mission statement never says you do more than three things. As much as we would like, people will never be able to remember more.  You should also use language that everyone can understand.  The language we use within our field could sound completely foreign to someone outside of it. 

Next, following your mission statement should be no more than three bullets that describe how you achieve your mission.  Here are some examples from our clients’ case statements to give you a better idea.

Example – Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association www.wccaa.org     

The Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association (WCCAA) collaborates with government, individuals, agencies and companies to increase access to quality early care and education for all families.  We achieve our mission in three ways:

• WCCAA influences public policy to increase standards, quality and access to early care and education for all families.
• WCCAA provides professional development on early care and education to strengthen best practices and increase quality.
• WCCAA supports its members via access to a network of center administrators.

Example – Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship  www.ceoofme.biz

The Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship (CTE) empowers young people ages 9-24 to see themselves as the CEO of Me as they experience personal and professional growth through programs and coaching related to financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

We accomplish our mission through:

•  Personal and professional enrichment experiences that allow young people to see themselves in a variety of roles and build personal character traits like self-discipline, business etiquette and perseverance.
• Entrepreneurship and financial literacy programs that teach young people how to launch small businesses, manage and invest money and develop critical thinking skills.
• Individualized coaching to prepare young people for success as entrepreneurs and professionals in contemporary business settings. 

Example – BHK Child Development Board – www.bhkfirst.org

BHK Child Development Board serves children and families through innovation, collaboration and comprehensive services that set high standards of excellence.

We accomplish our mission through:

• Bay

  Child Development and Education Programs for Children that are research-based best practices taking place in a caring and nurturing environment in order to build a solid foundation for each child's success. 

• Programs for Families that transform ordinary interactions with their child into extraordinary learning experiences!

• Health and Wellness Programs that  help families, staff and health professionals overcome barriers that prevent families and children from receiving needed health services.

Example – Red Cedar Environmental Institute 

Through a hands-on learning community focused on understanding the Earth’s systems, Red Cedar Environmental Institute provides middle school students with an academic experience tailored to inspire and challenge every single student.

How we achieve our mission:

• Engaged students – We tailor our curriculum to students who learn better through hands-on projects and scientific inquiry.  No matter a student’s starting point, they will be challenged accordingly and be free to maximize their progress according to their ability.

• Project-based learning – Projects related to natural resources in the Chetek area will act as the vehicle to learn core subjects like math, reading and language arts as well as 21^st Century skills of collaboration, problem solving and communication.

• Earth’s systems – Focusing on the natural resources of the Chetek area inspires projects that will benefit our local community and allowing students to deeply research projects empowers them to make their own conclusion. 

Section #3 – Vision for the Future

People are much more inspired by your vision for what the world looks like because of your nonprofit that what you actually do.  Your work is important, but often nonprofits lose sight of what their ultimate goal is.  Your vision for the future should paint a colorful picture of the impact you hope your organization will have.  Ideally, your stakeholders (people and organizations that are impacted by your organization) should contribute to this vision.  If they do, they will feel like they have ownership of helping make it happen. 

Here are some examples of compelling vision statements:

Example – Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association  www.wccaa.org

All children are prepared for personal and educational success

• WCCAA is a global model for collaboration to influence public policy and professional development to impact best practices for early care and education.

• WCCAA inspires a family-friendly philosophy empowering early care and education centers to care for children and assist businesses to achieve goals through secure and productive employees.

Example – St. Marcus Lutheran School & Church www.stmarcus.org

St. Marcus is a nationally recognized leader in urban educational reform and a welcoming and inviting force of transformation for the Milwaukee Community.

Example – CAPITA Productions, Inc.  www.capitalproductions.org

Through world-wide support of its endowment and scholarship fund, CAPITA offers unlimited opportunities for people seeking to grow as performers and as members of diverse communities.  

CAPITA’s unique inclusive approach to uniting communities through meaningful theatre experiences is a model adopted by communities around the world.

Through its quality productions, mentoring and touring opportunities, CAPITA is a pipeline of talented performers for professional performing arts companies around the world.  

Section #4 – Unique Approach

Funders don’t like duplication.  If your nonprofit is addressing a similar issue as others, it will be very important to distinguish your organization from others.  What is special about your approach to the same issue?  For example, St. Marcus Lutheran School emphasizes a “no-excuses” philosophy, and if a child is not succeeding it means that St. Marcus is not succeeding.  They don’t care what the background of the child is, and once that student enters the building their focus is on educating that child.  Bottom line, they focus on the students inside the building.  Mt. Lebanon Lutheran School requires that its teachers and staff appreciate how poverty impacts the students they service, and offers programs to families in order to increase the likelihood that students receive support at home.  They focus on students inside the school but also try to impact the support they receive at home for their education. 

Here are some other examples of how our clients describe their unique approach.

Example – Shiocton International Learning Academy www.silacharter.com

Our learning model takes personalized learning to a whole new level.  There are three key components of our model that ensure students are maximizing their learning: 

• Project-based learning allows students to explore areas of personal interest deeply and use a variety of learning styles to master core subjects key abilities.  Community partnerships provide mentors and opportunities to take learning out of the classroom to engages students and offer opportunities to apply knowledge to real-life scenarios.
• Additional support is offered immediately when it becomes apparent that students lack a particular skill.  For example, a short-term seminar may be used to teach a specific skill.  Or a web-based computer program, partnered with standardized testing, will identify remaining knowledge gaps to be used to further tailor learning for that student.
•  Accountability:  Five-year student achievement goals are included on our website.  Progress toward achievement goals will be published on the website and updated annually. 

Example – House of Love  www.house-of-love.org

Loving Family Environment + Personal Development Plans = Successful Independent Living:

• A safe and loving family environment full of positive encouragement, clear expectations and immediate feedback allow our youth to gain confidence and preparation for adulthood.
• Self sufficiency is achieved through individual personal development plans and rigorous support services in the areas of

o   life skills

o   education

o   holistic health

Take some time to review your Mission, Vision and Unique Approach to make sure they fit within these guidelines and are agreed upon with your board.   Once again, all sections should be compelling, concise and communicate the essence of your organization.  Please feel free to contact me for advice or even share your work here!  I’d love to learn more about your organization!

In my next post I will be discussing the final sections of your case statement.  You are well on your way to begin relationship fundraising!

Making Relationship Fund-raising Work for Your Nonprofit or School

What's Relationship Fund-raising?

I want to take you on a journey to a new mindset about fund-raising and relationships. It's a mindset where the issue is never a lack of resources or competition for a limited amount of dollars. It's a mindset about abundance vs. scarcity. In fact, this mindset is about the ability to attract resources rather than chase or beg for them. Let me show you.

What Relationship Fund-raising "is" and "is not"

It's not about asking for money . . . at least not yet.

Relationship fund-raising is about welcoming people into your organization and inspiring them with your mission and how your work improves the futures of children or strengthens families for example.

One day, a woman showed up at our client's location – a school that serves low-income families in the inner city. This older woman arrived dressed in very messy clothes (she had been volunteering earlier that day). Apparently, no one was expecting her. It turned out that she was there to do a site visit for a foundation to which the school had applied. The principal graciously took the woman on a tour, allowing her to experience their unique approach to educating at-risk children. She didn't have many questions, but she was apparently blown away. She went home and told her husband, who happened to be the Vice President of a bank, about her experience, and then asked him to make a $5,000 donation to the school in lieu of giving her a birthday gift.

It’s not something you do only when you’re at the office or participating in a work event.

Relationship Fundraising is about seeing every moment of every day as an opportunity to “tell your story,” make a connection, build a relationship and identify opportunities that could result in resources for your school or organization.

This happens to us all the time. One of my team members was working out at Curves. She struck up a conversation (she’s an amazing relationship person) with a woman who had founded and volunteered for at least two separate nonprofit organizations. After being inspired by the woman’s passion for these causes, the conversation turned to what our company does. She excitedly said, “We need you!” In the past four years of knowing this amazing and generous woman, she has introduced us to countless organizations that have benefited by our services. It all started at Curves.

It's not about generating a "hit list" of people that have capacity to make a large donation.

Relationship Fundraising is about taking a genuine interested in people and recognizing that "you just never know." Listen to people talk about their interests rather than pushing your organization's story out.

At a recent seminar we asked attendees to think about people they had not connected with recently, that have similar values and might be interested in the work they do at their school or nonprofit. It didn’t matter if they could afford or want to give a donation. We just asked them to think about people that would find the work they do interesting and impressive. Right after that seminar we were asked to present the same seminar to 30 board members of three schools. When we arrived to present our seminar, one of the school's development people ran up to me and excitedly told me she took action on one of the people on her list (she had attended our seminar) – a man who had sponsored an event the year before for $500. She called him and said thank you again for his generous gift and invited him to tour the school. He was pleased to be asked and during the tour expressed his interest in the computer lab. By the end of the tour (which happened on the same day as our presentation), he shared that he was a financial planner and had a client that looked to him for ideas on charities that she might want to support. He thought this older woman would really be interested in making a donation to the school that could be as much as $18,000.

Next Time – How to Get Started

I hope I’ve convinced you that there’s plenty of money out there for good programs and schools. But it’s your job to welcome people in, inspire them with your story and vision for the future, be clear about what you need and how people can help and then genuinely and strategically cultivate relationships over time. The results will amaze you!

Next time, I’ll tell you how to get started, or email me for our handout titled The 10 Steps to Strategic Relationship Cultivation or the 7 Steps to Designing a Compelling Tour.

Also, share your success stories with us by commenting on my blog!

Does Cutting the Budget for Education Create Opportunity?

Like many people, I was initially shocked, disappointed and even angered at the news that almost $1 billion was going to be cut from Wisconsin's education system. Isn't it hypocritical to argue that investing in our future is important, and then turn around and drastically reduce resources for schools?

As a school leader, aren't you sick of somebody offering you a budget only then to find you must cut good teachers, services for children with special needs, professional development for your staff and even the light bulb needed for your Interactive Smartboard to engage your students in the classroom? No wonder schools feel helpless.

After my initial reaction to the news about the budget, I realized that this in fact is a real opportunity to foster a new mindset about how WE can build the BEST education system in the world. When our politicians have failed at providing any leadership on budget policy we can kiss goodbye any notion of obtaining government funding for our schools. If we want better schools and a better education system for our children, we must attract the funding from somewhere else.

So who is responsible?

There's a realignment going on right now, and it's time we embrace it. Schools are now responsible for their own long-term sustainability. While this may seem like a steep expectation for an already stressed system, it is necessary if you don't want others dictating your school's budget. When schools are 100% dependent on government dollars for their existence, they are in a very vulnerable position. They're not in control of their future.

Do you believe me when I say there's plenty of money out there? The solution to this predicament is not a question of money. Schools need to know how to attract resources.

Attracting resources does not mean fund-raising though.

My team at alinea believes that the formula for sustainability for schools comes down to effective community engagement, which in no way means just pushing information and requests for money out into the community. Community engagement really is all about inviting and welcoming the community in, which may seem very scary for some schools. So what's the formula for effective community engagement?

Story + Direction + Relationships

• Story - Your story must inspire people to want to help. It should be compelling and concise so that it is consistently told by lots of people who act as your ambassadors. Your story must also be driven by a vision of what the future looks like because of your school. What will be the future of the child who attends your school's program?

• Direction - You must be able to articulate clear and measurable goals that will drive you to your vision. Your staff, families, board members and volunteers must be able to answer the question, "What does your school need and how can people help?"

• Relationships – The first step to fostering strategic relationships is reaching out and inviting people in to witness your mission. By this, I don't mean taking people on a tour of your school and pointing out the obvious (here's our cafeteria, here's our music room.) You need to develop a compelling tour so people may experience what's unique and special about your school. The next step then is to be strategic about how you develop a relationship with each of these individuals over time.

If you implement this formula you will attract the right resources. Implementing this process will not be easy, but it will enable schools to survive and thrive in the future.

I'd love to know what you think. Do you agree? Do you have a vision for your school? How has the latest budget affected your school and what challenges do you think you will face as you strive to achieve your vision?