The 2011 alinea Holiday Giving Guide

During this busy time of year, while you are enjoying family and friends and counting your blessings, you might be planning year-end gifts to charities as well.  

We wanted to take this time to make you aware of all the amazing schools and nonprofits we have worked with that could benefit by your donation.  

Enjoy skimming our list and click on the link to learn more about any that interest or inspire you.  Feel free to contact me if you would like to receive a case statement for any of them or schedule a tour. 

Deb and the alinea team wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

Schools and Education 

A2Accelerated AcademicsCharter and Jackson Elementary School Jackson Elementary School promotes high expectations, personal responsibility, independence and life-long learning.  Students develop academic aptitude, social skills, creative talent and their personal best.

A² (Accelerated Academics) Charter Elementary School utilizes state of the art technology and innovative curriculum to promote creative, imaginative and critical thinking through personalized small group and project-based experiences. Students are self directed, embrace challenges and are intellectually curious, willing to lead and accepting of others and themselves.

 

As part of the Sheboygan Area School District, Jackson and A² embrace all students, providing a comprehensive education model that ensures that each child is educated based on their unique skills and talents.

BHK Child Development Board To ensure quality early childhood education and family support by creating positive community involvement and by raising and distributing funds to support excellence and innovation in education.

Christ the King Palm Coast Christ the King is committed to serving, children, family, and community. Though there have been many blessings and successes so far, there are also big dreams for the future!

Oostburg Christian School The mission of Oostburg Christian School is to provide distinctly Christian, quality education, which will equip God's children to function as Christians in society, church, and home.

  

The Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship 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.

Divine Savior Lutheran Academy Divine Savior Academy will continuously integrate the wisdom of God's Word with the best pedagogical practices to offer a holistic education that allows her students to grow in mind, body, and soul. DSA's faculty will continue to grow professionally by means of seminars, workshops, and advanced studies in order to provide the students of our church and community a challenging, developmentally appropriate and balanced curriculum.

Janus College Preparatory and Arts Academies (JCPAA) is a not-for-profit  organization designed to prepare students for a post-secondary education and a career. 

  

KingsAcademy Mission: To motivate, educate and elevate all students to become productive citizens through a curriculum that promotes academic excellence.

Lutheran Urban MissionInitiative (LUMIN) is setting a new standard for effective, Christ-centered, results oriented urban education in Milwaukee. Under God's provision, we have developed a network of Lutheran schools that shares resources and expertise to create safe, high-quality Lutheran schools focused on educational success, leadership development and spiritual growth. 

Mt. Lebanon  Empowering students to excel in their academic life, Inspiring students to act as Christians, Equipping families to walk the path to heaven

NE WI Montessori Charter School   is a parent- and teacher-initiated, community-supported school offering authentic Montessori education beyond the already existing private schools which serve ages 3 through kindergarten. The school enrolls students in grades 1-6.  

Red Cedar Environmental Institute To give students the opportunity to take ownership of their education by developing 21^st Century skills in a challenging, comprehensive, project-based learning environment with a focus on the Earth system.   

Roosevelt I.D.E.A. School (Instructional Differentiation for Education Achievement) School values the unique strengths and talents of each child.  We are committed to creating a path of instruction best suited to meet individual student needs.  We accomplish this by setting high expectations for each student, offering diverse learning materials, encouraging student ownership of learning, providing opportunities to community resources, fostering character development, engaging learning opportunities, every child finds success in the classrooms, sense of belonging, contributing members/role in community, and a nurturing environment.

SCCHS Sheboygan County Christian High School partners with parents to help students develop the Biblical understanding, tools and proper heart necessary to serve God in his world. 

Sheboygan Christian School partners with families and the community to provide an excellent education rooted in Biblical truth. Our students grow in their knowledge of God and His creation and respond in service to Him.

Shiocton International Leadership Academy empowers students in grades 6-11 to become confident, caring and engaged citizens of the world.   

St. Marcus Lutheran School and Church  We seek to make the compassionate love of God visible and tangible through our church, school and community outreach programs, by reaching out and inviting everyone to celebrate God’s love, strengthen their faith, lead positive lives and share their gifts with others. 

St. Patrick Parish School, being faithful to the Gospel of Jesus, provides a strong academic foundation while teaching the beliefs and traditions of our faith. 

Wauwatosa School of the Trades prepares students for success in college and a career in the trades professions.  Students in grades 11 and 12 experience a rigorous college prep curriculum while learning the technical skills needed to pursue a lucrative career in the trades.  Students who thrive at our school are self motivated and have an intense interest in building.  They are serious about pursuing a career in the trades or seek an innovative hands-on approach to learning as they prepare for college.

 

At-Risk Youth

Above the Clouds, Inc Incorporated in 2001, Above the Clouds, Inc. is a non-profit, faith-based, free, creative arts program, which originated to reach disadvantaged children ages 5-17 years old in the Milwaukee area who would otherwise not have the means, or opportunity to participate in such programs.

House of Love Youth Homes, Inc. is a Christian-based organization, which prepares youth to lead self-sufficient lives by providing the loving family environment that is missing in their lives. We do this through our group homes and independent living support programs. 

Kingdom Princess Society  Our mission is to assist daughters of God who've moved their permanent residence from the World  to the Kingdom in order to firmly establish their dignity, destiny and duty as Princesses.

 

New Beginings are PossibleChristian Youth Center provides urban youth exposed to at-risk conditions in Milwaukee with a Biblically-based moral foundation needed to make healthy choices to become contributing members of the community.

Servant Manor Our vision is achieved through our mission to improve family reunification and permanency rates, utilize the least restrictive environmental treatment approach, deliver youth behavioral treatment in residential and non-residential settings, and offer family support services.  To this extend we have created partnerships with leading community care providers, social services agencies, businesses, foundations, parents, mentors, and religious leaders who enable us to produce concrete results in the lives of our children and their families.

 Tessa’s Black Entertainment and Youth Center (TBEY) strengthens youth and young adults through exposure to the arts and opportunities for creative expression.  Youth and young adults ages 6-19 receive professional arts instruction, enjoy performances and exhibits, and receive tutoring, mentoring and coaching to achieve academically and pursue their interest in the arts.

Arts and Culture

Community Arts and Funk Festival In addition to offering a lively, end of the summer cultural and artistic experience in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, the Community Arts & Funk Festival will offer its guests a multi-media artistic visual experience of music and original art in a festival setting. 

Cream City Baseball  The Cream City Baseball Foundation, Inc. is dedicated to preserving and promoting the game of base ball as it was played in its formative years of the 19^th century.  This interactive style brings the game to life for the kids, families and communities we invite to share and participate in the unique experience of a vintage base ball game. 

Older Adults 

Interfaith Older Adult Programs  Since 1975, Interfaith has established many other programs focusing on quality services, social opportunities, and valuable resources to enhance the welfare of older adults and family caregivers who support them. Our Mission: Linking older adults with a caring community.  

Community 

The Alma Center  works to motivate peaceful change through education in intimate relationships, family and community. The Alma Center provides gender specific training, education and mentorship to men who have a history of perpetrating violence or abuse toward their partner. 

 

Nehemiah rebuilds walls of our community one brick at a time through personal transformation. Like a caterpillar that surrounds itself by a cocoon and emerges as a completely different insect, shedding its old skin, individuals emerge from the difficult internal work required to address root causes of self-limiting behavior, shedding their self- limiting beliefs and able to better respond to their environment.  We achieve our mission by combining personal transformation with these four ministries: Prison After-Care support; Housing; Summer Learning Camp; Low-Cost Incubator Space.  

Sheboygan Neighborhood Pride  is a community resource empowering citizens to work together to improve their neighborhoods, reduce crime and enhance the quality of life in the community.

Foundations and Associations

National Christian Foundation is the largest Christian grant-making foundation in the world. Our innovative, tax-smart solutions help you simplify your giving, multiply your impact, and glorify God. Since 1982, we have received over $4 billion in contributions and made over $3 billion in grants to thousands of churches, ministries, and non-profits.

WCCAAWisconsin Childcare Administrators Association To Support Each Other As Child Care Administrators in Providing Quality Programming for Wisconsin's Families.

An Angel at the SOS Center

Just after sharing the last story about SOS Center, I received yet another testimonial from Jodi. I’ve written over and over about the power of telling your story in a compelling manner, and shared many of my clients’ successes.   I was was so pleased with her testimonial, I just had to share this email  These are her exact words, and her testimonial speaks about the power of this new mindset.  

Hello Everyone ~

Just wanted to share a story of an angel at the SOS Center.  I met with a member of Faith Lutheran in Germantown yesterday.  She had volunteered at Faith to organize an activity between them and us to get some volunteers to the Center.  She lives in Milwaukee and has been an educator for over 20 years, most of them in MPS.  She is currently on the MPS Response to Intervention Service and Support Team.  We spent most of the hour and a half talking about her experiences in MPS and she reaffirmed that what we are doing at the Center is a huge support to MPS schools and students. 

At the end of our tour she happened to leave at the same time as the repairman. (The furnace in the upstairs back was at 43 degrees on Wednesday morning).  She had heard my conversation with him that it wasn't major and he fixed it right away.  She stopped him at his van and paid our bill!  It is not even so much the $90.82 she saved us, but the fact that she thinks enough of the SOS Center and what we are doing here to do that for us!!  I called her a few minutes later to thank her immediately.

This is exactly what alinea is talking about!!  We've learned to tell our story in a more compelling manner and I learned about her and her interests first and I never asked her for anything!  She is going to organize a day to get a group from Faith here to volunteer, and use her contacts to try and get us some After School tutors through MPS!

This is a wonderful testament to all of us and the work we are doing at the Center.  We are so blessed!  Thank you all for continuing to work and support the SOS Center, it is worth it!

Peace and Grace,   

Jodi Kessel Lyon
Executive Director
SOS Center, Inc.

The SOS Center - Finding the Sustainability to Continue to Touch Lives

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Today I am sharing with you the story of one of my clients, the SOS Center, a non-profit that has worked in the community of Milwaukee for 30 years.  

The SOS Center of Milwaukee 

For nearly 30 years, SOS Center has been empowering children and adults to overcome poverty through their education programs. 

Thirty percent of households in the surrounding area earn less than $15,000 a year.  Neighborhood students are part of the MPS school district, where overall proficiency/advanced rates reach only 62% in reading at the 8^th grade level and only 50% in Math in 8^th grade.

Through its GED Preparation Classes, After School Homework Program, Adult Basic Education, Youth Summer Camp, English as a Second Language and Sewing Classes, the SOS Center touches the lives of each child and adult they connect with and support. 

Just ask Darlene, who dropped out of school in the 10^th grade and by the age of 16 was pregnant and married. After raising two children as well as grandchildren and working as a housekeeper for over 20 years, she signed up for free GED classes at the SOS Center at the age of 52.  Though she felt at times she felt like giving up, she completed her GED, and scored a rare perfect 800 on her Reading Test, where only a score of 410 was required to pass.

But as with any non-profit organization, the key to continuing to touch the lives of people like Darlene is financial sustainability.  With this understanding, Jodi Kessel Lyon, the Executive Director of the SOS Center, signed up for Deb Lukovich’s alinea seminar, “Learn the Secret to Sustainability.” After attending, Jodi learned that the key to financial sustainability was relationship fundraising and that her board members needed to adopt this new mindset. She knew her board and staff needed to find a better way of telling the story of SOS Center’s hard and dedicated work.

“While we knew we were doing good work, we were stuck on how to share our story,” Jodi said. “We would meet someone and be so focused on ‘we need money.’ We needed to build relationships, but struggled with the conversations we needed to have. We didn’t know how to get there.”

After selling this idea to her board, alinea was hired to work with SOS Center on strategic relationship cultivation as well as to create a compelling professional case statement to use to inspire people with their story. As soon as the case statement was created and presented to the board, Jodi already saw a renewed sense of engagement among them. 

“I think they’re getting it.  In August, one of the board members immediately contacted an old family friend and brought her in as a new board member. One of our committed board members felt uncomfortable asking for anything.  After she learned how to talk about SOS Center, she was able to get donations and now feels very comfortable talking about the Center.  Her husband became involved and after he learned how to tell our story, solicited a number of auction items for our fundraiser,” continued Jodi.

Jodi saw by September that board members were more engaged in identifying relationships and positive where they hadn’t ever been before.  “Shemagne from alinea kept us on task and truly got to know us. We even found the process fun.  Everyone came up with contacts they had, thinking outside the box.  The more they talked the more excited they got. One idea led to another. Being this engaged in the positive at a board meeting hadn’t happened in a year,” Jodi exclaimed. “This was exciting!”

With a renewed passion from her board and a new approach of telling stories, Jodi feels excited and knows that SOS Center is on the right track.  While SOS will always be fundraising, in the future Jodi plans to find more sustainable fundraising to get beyond a critical point to allow SOS to concentrate more on programming. In 2012, SOS Center would like to expand the Adult Basic Education Program, recruit more board members and volunteers as well as secure resources for ongoing capital improvements.

“After working with alinea, we learned that we need the knowledge, and the commitment. We need the tools and skills,” Jodi said.  “And we need to keep a relationship with alinea because this is just a tip of the iceberg of what we are capable of!”

How to Attract and Keep AWESOME Volunteers!

Are You Treating Your Volunteers Like MAJOR DONORS?

You should be!  A little inspiration and genuine relationship building goes a long way!

Does any of the following sound familiar to you?

 “After I learned about a XYZ organization, I called right away to find out how I could volunteer.  I left a voicemail for someone, but I never got a call back.”

“While I was at an event, I met someone who worked for XYZ organization.  I was really impressed, but when I asked how I could help, the person wasn’t sure.” 

“I was really excited about volunteering for XYZ organization, but I thought I would get to do more than stuff envelopes.”

How about these comments?

“We don’t have enough volunteers.”

“We have lots of volunteers, but they don’t want to do what we need them to do.”

“I can’t believe that when volunteers sign up to do something that they show up late or not at all.”

If this is what’s happening in your organization, you are not seeing people as the potential gold mine they could be for your organization. 

If you’ve read my other blog postings, you will be familiar with my philosophy of long-term sustainability for nonprofits and schools being dependent on effective community engagement.  Sustainability is not just about dollars, but also about people, partnerships, materials, internships and other kinds of resources. 

That means the process of attracting and keeping volunteers is just like the process of attracting and building financial donations.  The formula for effective community engagement = Story + Direction + Relationships. 

Let’s apply this same formula to volunteers and see what it looks like.

Step #1 – Story – You need to be able to tell your story in a way that inspires people to want to help.

Step #2 – Direction – You need to be able to answer the question, “What are your top three priorities, what do you need to achieve them, and how can people help?”

Step #3 – Relationships – You need to build a genuine and mutually beneficial relationship with each individual volunteer.    

8 Steps to attracting and keeping awesome volunteers (Part I)

1. Get out of the office.  If you’re hoping to recruit the best volunteers from the comfort of your office, you’ve got it all wrong.  Begin to see that every moment of every day is an opportunity to share your organization’s story, make a connection and identify an opportunity to bring volunteer talent to your organization.  

For example, one day our client was paging through M Magazine when he came upon an article about a local TV reporter and her quote, “I love Jesus and laughing children.” 

Our client immediately felt a connection and wrote her a personal letter suggesting that they both had this in common.  This principal of a school asked the TV reporter in his letter if she would be willing to tour his school.  After coming on a tour and becoming inspired about what this school was doing for children, the TV reporter did a two-part TV story on its students and has been volunteering ever since. 

2. Imagine that every possible volunteer could make a donation of $10,000.  You just never know. 

One of my favorite people is Pat Molter!  She’s helped start two nonprofit organizations and is one of the best outreach people I’ve ever met because she treats volunteers like they are the most critical part of the organization.

In fact, my team member Shemagne met Pat while working out at a local Curves.  She immediately became genuinely interested in Shemagne’s life and what she did for a living.

Then she went on to inspire Shemagne with the stories of about three oganizations doing amazing things in Milwaukee.

Pat recently shared this story with me.  House of Love, her organization serving teen girls in foster care who need a group home environment, had just purchased a four apartment building that has now become a transition program for teen girls who become 18 and age out of the foster care system. 

After they purchased it, they found out that they needed to replace the roof in addition to making many, many repairs.  The apartment building had previously been inhabited by drug users as well as a hoarder.  “It was just disgusting,” Pat remarked. 

On this particular day, Pat was cleaning inside while an older group of  men volunteers were busy building shelves in the garage.  Pat is very adamant about always taking the time to meet with the volunteers to share the House of Love story and ensure they understand how important they are to the success of the organization.  Well, Pat was feeling pretty disgusted after cleaning the inside of the apartment building and just wanted to go home and shower.  But one of the organization’s staff people reminded her that she needed to go talk to the volunteers first. Pat went out to greet the group of volunteers, share the House of Love story and shared her appreciation for their contribution before returning home to shower.

Two weeks later, Pat got a call from one of the gentlemen.  He told her, “I haven’t been able to sleep for two weeks, until finally I received a message from God that I was to help House of Love.”  Pat got excited thinking, “Maybe this means a $1,000 donation,” which would be a major gift.  But to her surprise, her jaw dropped when he told her, “Pat, God has even given me an amount - $50,000.” 

As you can see, the House of Love story really resonated with this man and his wife, who had been abandoned themselves as children. 

  

3. Be genuinely interested in people (without an agenda).  People volunteer and make donations to organizations because it fills a need for them.  While some people feel they have been blessed and compelled to give back to the community, for others, a specific issues they have personally been impacted by are what resonate.  In addition, others are looking for an organization that currently needs their talents.  In order to attract the volunteer that is a match for your organization, you need to know a lot about the other person. 

When I was asked to run for president of The Park People, I immediately knew that they were a match for my talents, and that I would really blossom professionally through this experience.  However, I wasn't sure if they were ready for me.  Before I allowed them to vote me into this position, I laid out my philosophy, plans and my expectations of them in the process I was about to take them through.  Only after their agreement did I accept the challenge. 

In my position as President of the organization, I actively sought out new people to sit on the board.  I wasn’t as interested in their resume as I was in their desire to use specific skills and talents, and how they saw themselves contributing.  The first thing I did was ask them to talk about themselves.  Then I shared The Park People story, our plans for the future and how their specific talents, skills and desires fit into achieving our goals. 

If I thought they would have a meaningful experience AND would contribute toward achieving the organization’s goals, then I would recommend to the board that we consider voting them on as a board member. 

4. It’s not about asking . . . for anything.  It’s about being clear about your priorities, what is needed to achieve them and how people can help.  The purpose of sharing your story is to inspire people to want to help.  But if you stop there, the person doesn’t know how to help, so they may walk away and you lost an opportunity.  Your story needs to also lay out your organization’s top priorities, what needs to happen to achieve them and how they can help. 

Did you know that there are more people volunteering than ever right now?  Some people are looking for an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution.  Others are looking for ways to keep their skills fresh or learn new skills that could lead to a change in career.  And many college age students and young professionals are looking for a chance to develop their leadership skills.  If volunteers can clearly match their skills to your opportunities, the relationship will prove mutually beneficial.

Let me know how your organization recruits and retains volunteers, what you have found successful and if you have you tried any of the above steps. I always love hearing about different ways organizations work with volunteers to creatively engage their communities.

    

How to Recruit Ambassadors for Your Organization in 5 Steps

I thought today I’d talk about what it means to be an ambassador for your organization and how you inspire people to play that role for you.

The dictionary provides some insight into how important the role of ambassador is to an organization.  Here are a couple entries from the Miriam-Webster online dictionary:

“an official envoy; especially: a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign

government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or

sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment

a: an authorized representative or messenger b: an unofficial representative

ambassadors of goodwill>”

Consequently, the recruitment of people who you would like to be an ambassador for your organization should be viewed as a very important process.  Every staff person should be expected to act as an ambassador for your organization assuming they have been provided the proper training to do so.  Likewise, the number one role of your board members is to be an ambassador by tirelessly promoting the organization in the community at the very least.

By the way, this is where the case statement fits in.  Once you have recruited enthusiastic ambassadors, you want them to share your organization’s story in a way that is compelling, concise and consistent so that all that promotion results in increased awareness and building a brand.

So, here are the steps to recruiting and putting your ambassadors to work:

Step #1 – Inspire people with your story.

Shemagne, who is my VP of Relationship Strategy is a walking billboard for Alverno College.  Why? 

§  Passion.  The most important reason is because she feels that her education at Alverno changed her life and therefore her future possibilities.  Shemagne starts by sharing her own story about how Alverno changed her life.  People are really moved by what moves someone else.

§  Story.  But the second reason is that Alverno is so clear on its unique educational philosophy that all their students talk their language when they’re talking to anyone about Alverno.  So, first comes inspiration, then comes the communication tool to empower people to promote the organization.  

§  Vision.  The fourth piece is having your story be driven by a vision for the future.  While the day-to-day work of your organization is very important, it’s not what inspires people.  People are inspired by what the world looks like because of your work; what a child’s future looks like because of your work. 

Step #2 – Be able to answer the question, “What do you need?”

I cannot believe how many times I witness this scenario.  I’ll be at an event and be part of a conversation between the director of an organization or principal of a school and someone who expresses interest in what they’re doing.  In fact, the prospective supporter even asks, “What do you need, or what are your top priorities?”  My jaw just drops when the organization leader responds, “We’re doing okay,” or “We need money.”  The conversation just kind of ends there.  Wow!  What a lost opportunity.  Don’t do that. 

If everyone on staff and at least your board members doesn’t know how to answer the question, “What do you need and how can I help?” then you are leaving so many opportunities on the table.  Let me share a story to illustrate the point.  I was the co-founding board member of a charter school in Milwaukee’s inner city.  After three years of planning, we were ready to open the doors in about three months.  My board colleague and I decided that it was the right time to bring one of our relationships to the table.  This was a very influential and busy person in the community.  We invited him to a compelling tour of the school and then sat down for lunch.  He quickly got to the point and asked the founder, “what are your top three priorities?”  We were prepared for that question.  The founder went on to answer, “We can’t open our doors in three months without a new HVAC system, and that will cost $75,000.  Our gym is disgusting and cleaning and painting will cost $20,000.”  She was about to go on to the third priority when the guest stopped her and said, “Consider those two things done,” and he arrived the next day with a check for $75,000.  That is the power of story and being clear about where you’re going, what you need and how people can help.  

Step #3 – Cultivate the relationship

Recruiting ambassadors or raising money isn’t about asking for anything.  You can do that and you will get donations, but the really magical stuff happens when the process is more genuine and organic.  When you inspire people and then you’re clear about what you need and how people can help, then people choose what resonates with them and in turn what piece they want to own. 

After inspiring and clarity comes cultivating.  But I don’t mean cultivating with an agenda.  I mean genuinely being interested in people and what they care about.  Now, this is a radical notion.  I’m not talking about generating a list of people with lots of money and then figuring out how to get to them.  We sometimes do that, but that’s not where the magic happens.  I’m talking about doing something really innovative – listening to people talk about themselves. 

So, how does this happen?  To illustrate the point, I’m going to share a true story about what this DOESN’T look like but is what you’ll see in organizations. I was facilitating a workshop, and we were doing a role play.  The attendees were to pretend they were at a family wedding or other event, and someone asked them about what they do.  In this case, the attendee of my workshop shared that they shared something about the organization they worked for.  So far so good.  Then she shared that the person she was talking with very solemnly shared the story of her relative that was dealing with this disease.  Instead of asking questions about how this disease affected her family member and her family, the organization’s staff person went on to promote the programs and other information about the organization.  I hope you can see the absolute missed opportunity.  This person was actually impacted be the issue the organization works on. 

Here’s what you do instead.  When you are at an event, plan to have a couple high quality conversations instead of gathering the business cards of as many people as possible.  This is where quality over quantity is absolutely true.  When you introduce yourself to someone, be the first to ask about them.  Go beyond the usual, “What do you do,” and ask something like “Where did you take your last vacation,” or “What are your hobbies?”  Now, just listen, ask more clarifying questions, listen, ask more questions, and listen.  Something will probably speak to you and you will feel connected to the other person.  At some point this person will ask you something.  Now’s your chance to share the work you’re passionate about.  But just share your elevator speech (10 to 60 seconds).  Now say, “What do you think?”  Let them respond.  You will be amazed at how people will immediately share a story about how this issue has impacted someone they know.  Don’t go on to talk about statistics or programs.  Ask them more about the experience and talk to them like a human being, not a prospective donor. 

If they express a lot of interest, you may want to share the top priorities of the organization and what is needed to make those happen.  If they’re really interested, you may want to ask if they see themselves getting involved, and if yes, offering to schedule a tour or special time to share success stories.  You may want to ask them who else they think should know about the work of your organization and if they would be willing to connect you to them. 

Let’s say they respond favorably but offer that they are very involved with another organization.  Please do not see this as rejection.  There’s no such thing as rejection in this work.  You have just had the opportunity to promote your organization, and if you did it well they will likely share that with someone else who may be interested. 

From now on, you will continue to stay in touch and build this relationship by sharing success stories and being clear about what the organization needs and how people can help.  If you do this well, people will choose how they want to make a difference. 

Step #4 – Empower people with tools and track these relationships

When it’s clear that this person is very inspired by the work of your organization and wants to help, they can be an effective ambassador.  You will want to provide them with a tool though so they are helping you build awareness and a brand.  Providing your volunteers with your case statement makes them feel important and empowers them to confidently share your story.  Even most board members, based on my informal surveys, often don’t feel confident sharing the story in the community, but they won’t admit it.  The case statement helps them talk about the organization. 

Also providing sessions on relationship cultivation vs. asking helps people to feel more comfortable.  Most people, even board members, are not comfortable asking people for money or other items.  When you can help them change their mindset and see that their role is to share something they’re passionate about and be clear about the vision and what’s needed to get there, they often do a complete turnaround.  Executive directors have shared this with me over and over again.  How they had a board member that had many connections but was adamant that they would not approach them.  After seeing their role in a different way, they often become the biggest fundraisers. 

Make it easy for your ambassadors to bring opportunities to you.  If they were able to inspire someone over the weekend, provide a way for them to share what happened with you via email and then talk with them about what to do next.  

Step #5 – Value the relationship with your ambassadors

You can never say thank you enough times to your volunteers!  I don’t care if you’ve got volunteers that don’t show up when they say they will or start something and then don’t finish.  If you’re not happy with your volunteers, it’s the organization’s fault, not that of the volunteers. 

People intend to volunteer because it helps them feel valued as a contributor to the world.  Finding the right place to contribute their energy, talents and connections is difficult, and there should be a class or a process on how to help people find the right place to make their meaningful contributions.  If you don’t turn out to be the right place, you didn’t do something right. 

In most cases, if board members or volunteers are not doing what you think they should do, it’s because of a lack of direction.  Volunteers usually have a job, a family, a busy life, and they need almost a shopping list of specific ways you want them to contribute.  It’s not their job to figure out how they can help you.  I didn’t say this was easy, but if you want to build a huge pool of ambassadors, you need to understand that it’s your job to cultivate the relationship, not the volunteers. 

I know a woman who does this better than I’ve ever seen.  Pat has been involved in starting multiple nonprofits and she’s the consummate relationship person.  In fact, she met Shemagne at Curves four years ago, and her organization has been a client of ours ever since.  Pat always prioritizes the volunteers.  In fact, recently she found herself really tired at the end of a day where she and a group of volunteers was cleaning up the four-plex the organization purchased to use as a transition home for young women who have aged out of the foster care system.  This place was really disgusting, and by the end of the day the only thing Pat wanted to do was take a shower.  But one of the staff people reminded her that she needed to talk to the volunteers before she went home.  She shrugged her shoulders and admitted, “of course.”  She went on to inspire five men in their 50’s and 60’s about her organization.  Then she went home.

Two weeks later, she got a call from one of these gentlemen, who said, “I haven’t been able to sleep in two weeks.  Until last night, when I realized I just have to do something for this organization.  Pat was thinking, “Great, a $1,000 donation would be awesome right now!”  The man shared that he event felt compelled to make a donation of a certain dollar amount.”  He came to see Pat with a $50,000 donation.  Pat later learned that he and his wife had felt abandoned during their child hood and they saw their contribution to this organization as a way of helping young people who may be feeling the same way.  That’s one of the most powerful stories I’ve heard. 

If you follow all these steps you too can inspire people with your story, recruit ambassadors and engage your community in ways you haven’t before.  And once this happens, always remember to tell them thank you again and again!

Let me know if you’ve got stories to share about what happens when you inspire people about your organization!