My spring break in San Diego with 4,500 fundraisers and 35,000 sailors

Big love all of you who joined me for lunch this past Monday in San Diego during the 45th annual international Association of Fundraising Professionals conference. Really appreciated Nicci, Jack, Mike, Jay, Robert, Susan, Cheryl, Tod, Sue, Jim, Jay, Sean, Richard, George, Kari, Eleanor, Joy, Colleen and the rest the gang for taking a little break to enjoy a alfresco dinning experience together.

Was particularly flattered to have the lovely Kristel Komakhuk (above left) and her sister make a point of joining us all the way from Anchorage, Alaska! Apparently, she's not the only member of the staff at the First Alaskans Institute who regularly reads this blog. I'm sure they can all agree, that if the Kristel is any indication of the next generation of nonprofit leaders, we can stop worrying about the much predicted "leadership gap" right now.

I'm still decompressing after my five day stay stint inside the San Diego Convention Center (though an afternoon trip to the day spa at the Del Coronado after the last session sure helped). Like all big conferences, this one was full of low and high points. The later included several provocative workshops, making connections with many individuals and affinity groups, and moving plenary speeches by Jane Goodall and Sir Bob Geldof (who I must say ranks among the "most sexy men in philanthropy.") I took plenty of notes, so more details on this and other thoughts in the weeks to come. Do stay tuned.

Please join me for lunch this Monday, March 31, at the AFP convention

Would you perhaps be attending next week's Association of Fundraising Professional annual convention in San Diego? If so, I'd love to connect up with you for lunch this Monday, March 31.

According to Yelp San Diego, the best fish tacos in town are only a few blocks away at the Tin Fish Gaslamp cafe, which has a full lunch menu and offers plenty of outdoor seating as well. If that sounds tasty to you, let's plan to meet-up at the Convention Center's main entrance at 11:20 am. Please drop me an email at gayle[at]gayleroberts.com to confirm, and include your cell phone number, so I can give you a call on Sunday to coordinate the exact meet-up location.

Hope to see you soon!

How to produce your next fundraising event and remain smiling

Hey kids, the Giving Carnival has rolled into town again. Let's all go! Hosted by Roger Carr of the Everyday Giving Blog, this month's collection of participants offer valuable of tips on how to produce successful fundraising events.

Creating and sustaining a fund development culture in your organization

How do you promote and sustain a fundraising culture inside your organization, while coping with external pressures, program needs, budget limitations and an overworked staff? Are you a development professional or an Executive Director who has to manage and allocate resources to different areas of your nonprofit? If you so, and you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, please join me Tuesday, March 25th from 3 - 5 p.m. at the San Francisco Foundation Center for an important FAB workshop titled, "Creating and Sustaining a Fund Development Culture in Your Organization."

DER's Fundraisers Anxiety Busters (FAB) workshops are quarterly, peer support workshops for intermediate and seasoned fundraisers, and nonprofit staff and volunteers with development responsibilities (3 or more years experience requested), to share fundraising strategies and tactics, meet challenges and solve problems. This month's guest experts will be Lucy Barnett, the Director of Development for Sutter VNA Hospice in Santa Rosa, and Regina Neu, a Fundraising Counsel and University Professor, who has spent over 25 years working in the nonprofit sector.

I’ll be co-facilitating this event with fellow DER board member Michael Magnaye, Development Director at the SW Community Health Center, who will be taking over future FAB facilitation duties in 2008.

Seating is limited, so for more information or to register, please visit the DER website today.

Donor communications and stewardship strategies workshop

Your year-end fundraising campaigns is working and the checks are beginning to coming in. Now what do you do? How do you find the time to effectively engage your donors to strengthen their relationship with your nonprofit? What communications strategies will increase their interest in your agency? What are effective stewardship activities that encourage gift renewal and increased support?

If you live in the Bay Area you can get answers to these and other questions Wednesday, November 14th from 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. at the Development Executive Roundtable FAB workshop I'll be facilitating at the San Francisco Foundation Center.

FAB ("Fundraisers Anxiety Busters") is a free, peer support network for intermediate and seasoned fundraisers, and nonprofit staff and volunteers with development responsibilities, to share fundraising strategies and tactics, meet challenges, and solve problems. I'm happy to announce our two November guest experts will be Dean Zaldue-Hilkene, Manager of Annual Giving at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Barbara Hirst, most recently the Associate Director of Development Major Gifts at California State University East Bay.

These events always fill up. So for more information or to register, please visit the DER website today.

San Francisco Bay Area corporate philanthropy trends roundtable

Looking for an opportunity to meet some of San Francisco's leading corporate grantmakers? Then join me for lunch, Friday, November 9th, noon - 2:00 p.m., as DER, The Foundation Center and San Francisco Business Times co-host our annual Meet the Corporate Grantmakers roundtable. Last year's gathering inspired one of my favorite blog posts; I'm sure this one won't disappoint either.

In 2006, the San Francisco Business Times reports that the greater San Francisco Bay Area’s top corporate philanthropists increased their Bay Area giving to about $140 million. The panel plans to address current trends in how Bay Area corporations are selecting the organizations they support, showcase local corporations who were recently recognized at the San Francisco Business Times Corporate Philanthropy Summit in July, and shine the spotlight on a new corporate donor in the region. Panelist include:

• Randy Chun, Regional Vice President, Wells Fargo
• Larry Goldzband, Manager, Charitable Contributions, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
• Rey Ocañas, SVP, Community Relations Executive, Wachovia Bank
• Sylvia Samano, Vice President, External Affairs-Bay Area, AT&T California

Please visit the DER website for more information and to register online.

Making your case in controversial situations

How should you respond to hostile or "challenging" questions when you’re representing your organization? How can you improve your “quotability” with the press? What’s the best way to take a stand when opinions differ?

For answers and other questions, please join me next Friday, October 12, noon - 1:30 p.m., for the Development Executive Roundtable (DER) monthly luncheon presentation. Our guest presenter, Melinda Henning, will offer two templates for organizing your thoughts as well as her best tips for managing stress in controversial settings. Note, this month we'll be meeting at Oakland's Preservation Park. Please visit the DER website for more information and to register online.

How to ask for a gift: Successful face-to-face solicitation workshop

Let's face it, many fundraisers, board members and volunteers love to do everything in fundraising except ask for money. Usually it is because they have simply never learned how to actually make an ask. The fear of asking for a gift from a complete stranger--or worse from a close friend--is legitimate. After all, if not handled properly it can put those involved in an uncomfortable position.

If you've ever had fears asking for money--and I know I have--please join me next Friday for what maybe the most important training you'll attend all year. How to Ask for a Gift: Successful Face-to-Face Solicitation is co-sponsored by the Development Executive Roundtable (DER) and will feature national Fundraising Consultant Philip Byrdsong. This luncheon event will be held August 10, noon - 1:30 pm at the San Francisco Foundation Center.

Learn how to prepare for the donor visit, anticipate and meet donor objections. Overcome your own fears, and learn how to ask a potential donor for money. Build your confidence by learning techniques that work. This is one session you'll want to invite your board chair, campaign chair and volunteers to attend with you.

Philip is probably the most value-based Fund Development Consultant I know. With over a decade of experience in the field, he is an active member of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, Northern California Planned Giving Council, National Center for Black Philanthropy and DER, as well as Disabled American Veterans. He has raised funds for United Way, California Peace Action, Central American Resource Center, A Better Chance, NAACP, East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Committee, International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers, and others.

If you've been a good boy or girl this year, don't wait for X-mas to be rewarded. Learn how to ask for gifts all year around. For more information and to register, simply visit the DER website.

Partnering with board members in the end of year push

Successful fundraising requires engaged leadership at both the staff and board level. Are you looking for strategies to create a more effective partnership between these two groups at your nonprofit? If so, join me for a free Development Executives Roundtable Fundraisers Anxiety Buster (FAB!) workshop entitled Partering with Board Members in the End of the Year Push, which I'll be facilitating at the San Francisco Foundation Center on Aug 8, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Together we’ll clarify expectations, address obstacles, identify resources and discuss effective strategies that you can use in creating successful partnerships between staff and boards. Learn what you need to have in place to inspire your these two critical groups, and insure a successful end of the year fundraising campaign. Strengthen your own network with others doing similar work.

FAB is a free, peer support network for intermediate and seasoned fundraisers, and nonprofit staff and volunteers with development responsibilities (3 or more years experience requested), to share fundraising strategies and tactics, meet challenges, and solve problems. Peer leaders with expertise in each session's topic will help address issues identified by the group. Light refreshments will be served.

Peer Leaders
Julie M. Ver Steeg, CFRE is Associate Managing Director of Brakeley Briscoe, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s leading specialists in fundraising consulting and nonprofit management. She has over 25 years experience in nonprofit fundraising and management, including significant experience in capital campaigns, development assessment studies, major gift strategies, annual fund development, membership programs and volunteer and staff training.

George Clark is the Chief Development Officer of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which promotes the independence, equality and self-reliance of people who are blind or visually impaired. George is also the current President of the Development Executives Roundtable. Like Julie, he has several decades of experience in the field.

To Register
Please email fab[at]dersf[dot]org. Attendance is limited to 25 participants, so please register soon!

Getting the greatest possible impact from your annual report

An important fundraising tool is the annual report. Does your organization produce one? If so, has it been effective effective in leveraging larger gifts? If you'd like to work with your organization to produce its first annual report, or improve on last year's efforts, please join me this Friday, July 13, noon -1:30 pm, for DER's monthly San Francisco luncheon.

Mission Minded founding partners Jennie Winton and Zach Hochstadt will lead a discussion about creating annual reports that get results. Learn more about how to select and work with consultants, important design basics and critical questions to ask before you begin. Whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring professional designers and writers, Jennie and Zach will help you determine what’s important in creating an annual report that builds your reputation, drives donations and reports on what’s most important inside your organization.

For more information and to register, simply visit the DER website.

Urban gorilla army lets loose on San Francisco

I thought getting men to march against rape in high heels was quite a sight. But that was nothing compared to today's spectacle of four-hundred people who, dressed as gorillas, ran in the first-annual San Francisco Great Gorilla Run to raise funds for mountain and low land gorillas threatened in the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. Give that man a big banana!

Fundraising in the 21st Century: Bananas, popsicles and cookies, oh my!

Permission marketing guru Seth Godin is fond of saying that when it comes to succeeding at marketing, we must all learn to "flip the funnel." Traditional advertisers, according to Godin, spend all their efforts creating a big funnel to draw in people, which results in a constant need to spend more money to attract more people. But what if we gave our fans the power to speak up on our behalf? What if we gave our donors the tools needed to solicit new donors? In his recent ebook of the same name Godin reduces it to this simple equation:

• Turn strangers into friends;
• Turn friends into donors;
• And then ... do the most important job:
• Turn your donors into fundraisers.

Internet evangelists will tell you that this is the revolutionary idea behind Philanthropy 2.0. But don't believe it for a second. There is nothing revolutionary about this. Any experienced fundraiser knows that volunteers have always been, and always will be, the key to any successful fundraising effort. While new technologies may allow us to scale in ways not imaginable in the past, the fundamentals haven't changed.

But if you haven't started leveraging the new technologies available, now maybe the time to consider it, for the earlier adopters have already established successful beachheads. Take for an example my friend Anna's AIDS/LifeCycle 6 web page. She's currently half way through a 545 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, raising money on behalf of those infected and affected with HIV/AIDS.

On her customized web page you will find her own personal story, along with photos, about why she supports this nonprofit and why you should too. There are multiple links to where you can learn more about this cause, or with a click of a button, make a secure donation online. Her page displays a running total of the amount she has raised so far. You can also leave Anna a public message, or listen to a podcasts she has recorded from the road. (Be sure to listen to episode #1 to understand the title of this post).

AIDS/LifeCycle provided Anna the tools to construct this page, and she did the rest. So far she has raised over $5,800 on her own. Anna, like the record 2,300 volunteers from 10 countries and 43 states who are currently riding down the coast of California, is not a professional fundraiser. But collectively they have raised a record $11 million this year -- surpassing last year's total by nearly $3 million.

For their part, AIDS/LifeCycle simply contracted with one of the many web-based fundraising application service providers, and let their riders do the rest. The May/June issue of Advancing Philanthropy special section on Fundraising Technology listed nearly 100 from which to choose.

So has your nonprofit taken this step yet? Perhaps you are waiting for your group to grow to a certain size or develop a signature event? But while you're waiting, life, and your donors, will pass you by. Think of it like dating. If you pause first to loose that 25 pounds, you'll find yourself languishing a long time for Mr. or Ms. Right. You need to just jump in and start dating. Next year, the two of you can join AIDS/LifeCycle 7 and work off those pounds together.

Similarly, by giving your donors the tools they need today to advocate on your behalf, you'll find your nonprofit becoming healthier and stronger in the years to come.

The manifesto of abundance

Hung out last night with my friend Maritza and her friends from the Abundance League. Special guests included two gentleman from Oaxaca Mexico, who shared with us how their families have come together to recover the traditional craft of tapestry making using local plant materials and sustainable practices. The resulting rugs and other items are worthy of hanging in museums.

So who is the Abundance League you may ask? Thank you for asking.

"We believe that abundance flows from helping each other. That mutual cooperation, collaboration, and interdependence lead to health, happiness, beauty, freedom, love, peace and truth.

That scarcity is created by anything that keeps us from helping each other. That anything blocking increasing levels of cooperation, collaboration, and interdependence cheats humanity of its full potential. That emotions, beliefs, behaviors, and social divisions that keep us from helping each other lead to poverty.

That the purpose of our lives is to be of service to each other. That it is our responsibility as individuals to understand our unique abilities and passions, design a life of service that uses these to the best advantage of others, and find like-minded collaborators to advance our service projects. That it is not only our responsibility, but a powerful source of purpose, meaning, and joy to do the work we were meant to do.

That it is our responsibility to improve the quality of our lives and others. That we should not expect someone else to do this for us. A better world is our responsibility and counts on our every action. That creating a better world is actually easy, counts on many little actions in our daily lives, and is something we can do now starting with those in our local community.

That we have everything we need to create a better life and better world within and around us. That if we act on our most deeply held dreams for humanity with humility, inclusiveness, determination, faith, generosity, honesty, and good intention, the universe will aid you in your quest. That simple actions added up will not only result in a better life for ourselves, but a positive shift in world affairs. That this is not only our responsibility, but a powerful source of pleasure, satisfaction, and belonging."

What to get on the Peace Train with me?

Avoiding the flaws that doom your grant proposals to the reject pile

Bay Area readers who missed Susan Fox and Cheryl Clark's excellent presentation this past April on the top 10 flaws that doom your grant request to the reject pile now have another chance hear them live. Please join them Friday June 8, noon - 1:30 p.m., at Oakland's Preservation Park for the Development Executives Roundtable monthly luncheon. Learn proven techniques for transforming ugly duckling proposals into beautiful swans.

This event is co-sponsored with the CBO Center. For more information and to register, simply visit the DER website.

Remembering the past, recovering the future, and living for today

"What does giving mean? Who is the giver and who is the receiver? How can giving become a spiritual practices? How do we take care of all beings?" These are the questions that opened up Tuesday's excellent panel presentation Caring for Community And Self: Giving as Spiritual Practice, sponsored by San Francisco's Horizons Foundation.

Inside Wells Fargo's Penthouse suite, far above the San Francisco skyline, those in attendance were treated not only to lunch, but words and wisdom from Zen Buddhist Priest H. Ryumon Gutierrez Bladoquin, Episcopal Minister David Norgard, Jewish Rabbi Camille Shira Angel, and Muslim Community Leader Urusa Fahim. I was happy to learn the workshop was organized by my friend Rajat Dutta, and moderated by my mentor Lisa Hoffman.

The common theme throughout the day's discussion is the fact generosity is seen by many spiritual traditions as how we nurture our community and ourselves. Acts of giving create compassion, connection, and have the power to change people, relationships and cultures. Those who give and those who receive are transformed, whether the gift involves food, service or money. Hearts open and lives expand when the welfare of others is valued. Key teachings include:

• Buddhism
  Generosity is the heart of the Buddha's teachings. It is more than a kind gesture: it is an embodiment of wisdom. It liberates the mind and heart. Dana is a Pali word meaning "generosity" or "the act of giving." Dana is the first of the ten paramitas, or qualities of character to be cultivated in our lifetime (or lifetimes). The Buddha emphasized dana because it is a gateway to compassion and wisdom.
  
  
• Christianity
  The earliest disciples of Jesus recall him saying that "Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving" and this insight has resonated with his followers ever since then. Believing that all that we have is a gift from God, Christians understand that their own spiritual growth is partly a function of their stewardship of what they have been given -- responding with gratitude and generosity being the ideal.
  
  
• Islam
  Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and is compulsory for every Muslim. It is necessary to give Zakat in order to fulfill the basic obligations of being a Muslim. Zakat is a tax of 2.5% paid on the savings and capital for the year.
  
  
• Judaism
  For many, tzedakah is considered the highest moral obligation of the Jewish people. Tzedakah sets a "just base" for giving since you're given the opportunity to help provide for the poor. Tzedakah can also be understood as a more broad "philanthropic" mission -- to make the world a better place/repair the world/help people in need.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Can you imagine contemporary philanthropy practices based on the above principles? What would it look like? As social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and fundraisers alike call for the "end of charity," urging market-based solutions and measurable outcomes in return for their financial investments, is there any hope that the principles of generosity and compassion that have been at the core of giving for many millennia have any chance of surviving?

Creating dialogue fearlessly: Media relations overview

Tickets are still available for next Friday's DER luncheon, featuring nonprofit public relations expert David Perry. I'll be at the front door assisting with registration. Would be great to see you there.

David is one of the first people whom I met when I moved to San Francisco nearly 10 years ago, and I'm grateful to call him a friend. He's is a firm believer in the philosophy that there are only two forces in the world -- fear and open communication. He mirrors this concept by fostering dialogue between his clients, the media and the community at large. For his efforts, his firm was named the Exceptional For-Profit Arts Related Business by the Business Arts Council in 2006 for its stellar work with nonprofit arts clients including the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Asian American Theater Company and others.

David's presentation will provide you a guide to basic public relations, including examples and instruction in the use of standard tools (news release and pitch writing, database management, media relationship building) and how to set up a basic campaign for your organization that will get the attention you need.

Friday, May 11, 2007
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Location: Lighthouse for the Blind
214 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco
Cost/Registration: DER members = $12, non-members = $20
Reserving your space by Wednesday at the DER website.
Lunch is included in your fee.