Not looking to present a grim view here, neither morbid, but do you have a will? Statistics show that many of us don’t – in fact at least half of us. Statistics suggest that as much as 65% of us don’t. Whether we do or not, it’s probably unlikely that we’ve considered what will happen with our digital assets. The idea of planning for the digital afterlife doesn’t seem to have caught on yet – much like conventional estate planning hasn’t. We don’t like to consider mortality. What do you want your Facebook profile to say about you? Do you want your Twitter account left behind? It gets a lot more complicated if you have domain names, a web site and other online assets such as a storefront where you may be earning an income. Like most aspects of creativity – and life, digital storage and the online world is fraught with legalities and other pitfalls (think about how many different passwords you have) and the transference of all this over even when we’re capable and able is challenging. Just try to navigate through...

Allison Lewis Lodhi, CFRE, Vice President, Consulting, Pursuant Ketchum “The Next Generation of Thanks” Tuesday, May 22, 2012; 1 p.m. (Eastern) / 10 a.m. (Pacific) Cost:  FREE for ADRP members (covered in your annual membership fee); $75 for non-members   Session Description: Tomorrow’s donors will likely give more and sooner than their parents did. They’ll also have much higher expectations of the organizations they support. What are the differences between Gen Y, Gen X and older generations as donors? What does the next generation need in order to keep giving? And, how can you leverage this information to build lifelong relationships with donors of all giving levels? Join our discussion on the next generation of thanks to find out. Bio: A listener and strategist, Allison Lewis Lodhi, CFRE, excels at identifying organizational opportunities, implementing strategic initiatives and maximizing resources. These talents inform her consulting approach as a Pursuant Ketchum vice president where she evaluates...

Studies suggest that individuals receive 3,000+ marketing messages a day. It costs typically 5 times as much to acquire a new donor as to retain or renew a donor. Studies suggest that donor acquisition has dropped over the last number of years and that renewals and lifetime value of donors is flattening. (Average Annual Gift/Attrition Rate = Long Term Value.) How do we build relationships more effectively to increase lifetime value? Constituent expectations have and continue to change. Netflix – a multi-channel approach to consumer movies (discounted by any mistakes they’ve made), nevertheless, the expectations of multi-channel delivery of goods and services, “easy deliver” is the expected norm and not the expected exception. Giving by your channel of choice is critical to improving engagement. Think about the message delivery through your various channels and how donors are perceiving that message, colored by the particular channel. Look at the shift to mobile – what’s your strategy? 2 billion videos...

Why do we wake up around some leaders – and sleep around others? Which bosses create stress around them? Fear and micro management as a motivator – makes it easier to “play it safe” for the employee. The boss tightens up the management and tells the employee to work harder. The employee withdraws. Manager B. Give more responsibility than the position demands. Add a creative task and add into the job as a differential activity. You still have to get your regular work done. Employee is more motivated and takes on the project as their own and runs with it. Manager B has worked at moving beyond their own intelligence and is able to amplify the intelligence of those around them. There is a lot of latent intelligence in organizations that’s not always noticed or utilized. Many of us have had jobs where we’re overworked but underutilized (and secretly bored.) Manager B would be considered to be a multiplier. How to we magnify intelligence around us? Not by micro managing, talking a lot, criticizing, being closed...

Meetings. Organizations have evolved over time but may have evolved wrong way. Can you do more work with meetings or are you doing less? Is the idea of meetings behind its time? What do we need to do to reinvent them for the current age? • Meetings diffuse responsibility. (The bystander effect, gives people a hiding place,) • Meetings cause delays. (Ragu hates dads – think about how many meetings they needed before crafting a response to the bad publicity.) • Meetings create compromise. (Makes you invisible so the risky decisions don’t get seen, causes you to write fundraising letters that don’t get read.) Meetings used to take place to make decisions, but the modern meeting needs to resolve the decision, not be the originator of the decision. In the new model there needs to be fewer checks and balances and more resolution. Meeting used to be the best communication tool. This is currently an expensive option - we now have asynchronous communication – parallel streams rather than discreet steams....

What drives you? Passion, need, change, transforming lives, amazing stories, making a difference, finding the cause you identify with, becoming a leader, picking the one action at a time every day that enables something to happen that hasn’t happened before or needs to happen next. How do we be entrepreneurial and utilize new technology and techniques to share ideas and information to connect with donors? How do we cross link across continents, cultures and different world views to engage people to invest in our cause. The world is both smaller and larger and can be a passionate and joyous reminder when we’re successful. Scott Harrison is the founder and president of charity:water. You don’t often get the chance to hear the in-person story from a visionary like Scott. What lessons does he have and what can we take home from the short time we spend at a session with him?

A small part of  the story of his personal journey and story to the water and story to charity:water. Stories worth telling. Of...

Blackbaud announces its intentions (subject to regulatory approval) for acquiring Convio. As with other industries, mergers and acquisitions are continually taking place and the non-profit sector is no exception. So what would some of the speculation be for this particular merger and how might it affect us on a day to day basis? What are some of the questions we might want to think about asking our vendors? What alternatives will emerge? What should we be concerned about going forward? News release on the Blackbaud site. As with most press releases the language is fairly standard, “no forward looking statements”, and the usual disclaimers. The capital markets do not appear to be displeased and Blackbaud’s share prices have remained in the same range as they have been over the last few months. Convio is having to deal with some negative publicity in terms of  legal investigation as is often the case when a company is being acquired. More headlines on Convio. The New York Times...

After the high volume season ends, its actually a good time to reassess what went well and what didn’t. Were you able to handle the volumes? What were some of the glitches you encountered? Where can you make improvements?A simple productivity trick is to check some of your forms and see where you can re-design. Forms tend to age, but we keep using them because we’re used to them. Outdated forms can actually cause a lot of inefficiency in our organizations. Start with your gift processing and bio update forms or others that are used by a lot of people. A simple tweak can really help to expedite processing. Move on to your report and information request forms.Some general tips and tricks for forms:

Do you need the form in the first place? Sometimes a process was needed at one time due to a particular circumstance and may no longer be required. There may be alternatives to the business process that are more efficient. If the form is used for data entry, are the fields in the form in the order that they’re...

Business continuity is a little like ambulance chasing - once the accident has happened, it's obviously too late to stop it - the #1 priority is to quickly save the patient. When we're busy, we don't often have time to think of business continuity or disaster planning, but consider, if something did happen, would you be ready?

How quickly can you recover from a severe business disruption? Does your user community have (high/medium/low) expectaions of immediate service continuity? It's not just about I.T. What about your paper files? Facilities? Other assets? How do you create an adequate business continuity plan as part of your job when you're already doing more with less? Death by 1,000 cuts. What's your plan for smaller disruptions such as the loss of a key staff member? The hidden and unknown....

"Up to 50% of managers have no confidence in the numbers that are given to them." - From a recent study done in the U.K. Spreadsheets are a minefield of internal control issues around information. If Excel is your primary tool for analytics, you may be in trouble. Just ask yourself the question: how many spreadsheets does your organization own? If you're using a stand alone report writer, you may have a little more automation, but more likely you have complex business logic imbedded in many of your reports. When the logic changes, you have a lot of maintenance to do. You'll end up with control issues similar to that of using spreadsheets. Business intelligence should align itself with the strategic objectives of a business, and when the foundation of your reporting and information is a data warehouse, you can leverage your data in ways that have a measureable impact on the success of your business, not of which alone is increased efficiency in your reporting environment....

An ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tool is often an essential software component for building and populating your data warehouse. However, you should carefully consider the implications of adding one of these tools to your tool set, and you may wish to look at some alternatives first. You can purchase fully functional Microsoft SQL Server Developer Editions which have almost all of the functionality of the full blown Enterprise edition of SQL Server including SSIS (a pretty robust ETL tool) and a set of data mining tools that work with Analysis Services and Office 2007/2010. All of these can be run on a workstation and if you only have 1 or two people who need to utilize these tools, this is a pretty affordable way to get your feet wet. The SQL environment is integrated through the management studio - you can do a lot, with a lot of tools, at a very minimal cost. It's a good way to experiment with the ETL component and see if it's really the way you want to go. I've been involved in a number of data warehouse projects in the past where there was no ETL tool and a lot of this was done through SQL scripts and batch jobs to run the scripts. Not the most elegant solution but one that works and can get you up and running. ...

Velocity of Major Gifts on the rise in May Dollar amounts lagging 2010 Major Gifts activity in Canada is plotting a course of wider distribution, as an increasing numbers of second and third level nonprofits announce largest gifts ever. Pretty exciting for the nonprofit, their community and don't forget, the donor. For the second month in a row, my survey found 17 major gifts in the range of $25,000 to $249,999, evidence that supports the upward growth trend I talked about in March. May 2011 was the first month this year to record 4 major gifts of $10 million or more in the same month. The largest gift went to the University of Alberta from Allan Markin, $15 million in addition to his previous gift of $5 million to support the Alberta Project promoting Active Living & Healthy Eating in Schools. Markin's gift is the 62nd public announcement of a major gift of $20 million or more in Canadian history. While the velocity in the number of major gifts in total of $25,000 or more continues to rise the...

One effective way to increase your annual fund revenue is by taking advantage of HEP’s latest in matching gift tools. We have made it even easier by offering fiscal year end discounts (10%) for all new orders received by June 30, 2011 on the following products. Identify your donors. Automatch™ electronically screens your database for match-eligible donors while updating your database with the latest in matching gift policies. An Automatch subscription allows you to mine existing donors, lybunts and non-donors to determine match eligibility and it will update you organizational records with fresh match policy information as well. At the end of the screening, you’ll have hundreds if not thousands of newly identified match eligible donors. Connect your donors. Ematch Donor Link™ allows your donors to search for their employer’s matching gift guidelines, directly from YOUR web site. Watch eMatch in action! Many software companies are also adding an additional Ematch link to their online giving form directly....

April Commentary on Major Gifts in the USA by Terry Burton As we begin the 2nd quarter of 2011 there are more signs that the American economy is continuing its upward climb. Consumer confidence, the intrepid intangible that attempts to measure what people are thinking, edged up a little higher. One report has charitable giving in the USA up over 8% in the first three months of 2011. Check out the survey results below, especially the dollar amount of the donations from the NAMESAKE Donors, the people who made the orginal gift that named the property. This is a trend that is not only growing in frequency but also in the dollar amount. In Utah, the Huntsman Cancer Institute recieved yet another donation from Jon and Karen Huntsman, who have contributed around $300 million to the institute since 1995. How cool is that? 9 - The number of $100 million + philanthropic gifts in the USA this year 50 - The number of additional millions of dollars a university president had expected for naming rights...

Major Gifts in Canada - April 2011 Survey Results April 1st to 15th, 2011 by Terry Burton Innovation, a hot button for Canadians making major gifts. This follows the trend that began about five to six years ago. Just look to the $15 million gift to the University of British Columbia - Djavad Mowafagian Centre for Brain Health. The second largest publicly announced gift in 2011. $22 million gift last month to Simon Fraser University's Beedie School Business remains #1. The gift from Ryan and Keith Beedie was the 59th philanthropic gift of $20 million + in Canadian history and the 28th of those 59 that have been made since 2007. At UBC, they have is a new facility that combines the hope of medical and scientific breakthroughs where the results will be made available to the medical community around the world. Canada is a quite leader in a number of medical disciplines including open heart surgery and leading edge cardiology treatments in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Brain Health research at the...

Major Gifts in Canada March 1st to 15th, 2011 by Terry Burton Leadership. One of those mighty intangibles, the essence of one's actions speaking louder than any words possibly could. Leadership in the form of a significant rant, to the Nature Conservancy of Canada from one of the country's elite funders, the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. For the research community, the intriguing part of the story is the long term inclination of this foundation to support environmental causes. According to recent reports, over $100 million in funding since the 1980's. How cool is that? Our survey results for the first half of March 2011 reveal other examples of philanthropic leadership. Some large in dollar amounts, others of modest means. All make a difference. Just west of Calgary you will find another example of leadership in action. The newly created KO Centre for the Arts is being established. This is the third time in less than six months that an Alberta family has set aside their family home as part of a legacy gift for others....

February was a blur of major gifts activity as the pace of the economic recovery showed more signs of trending upwards. The $22 million gift in the first half of the month to Simon Fraser University that named the Beedie School of Business in recognition of the generosity of Ryan and Keith Beedie to the university. In 2nd spot was the $13 million pledge from Rio Tinto Alcan to Pathways to Education Canada. Congratulations to both organizations. You have helped to raise the bar of philanthropy for all Canadian nonprofits. Here is the market activity we tracked in the 2nd half of February, members have access to the full collection of research for February and each of the previous Monthly Major Gift Reports. Good luck in March, hope to be able to write about your success in the next edition. Terry Burton Researcher / Author / Public Speaker Dig In Research http://diginresearch.biz Montreal, Quebec - Rio Tinto Alcan made a five year pledge to Pathways to Education Canada to support significant expansion of their programs throughout the province of Quebec, programs that help high school students make a successful transition into higher education $13 million...

What are the top most important dollar totals you need to be tracking in your program in order to help measure your overall fundraising performance? Note that you may use different terms here in your own organization but think instead about the concepts - secondarily, there are a lot of additional statistics you'll be tracking. 1. Commitments - All new pledges and outright gifts (no pledge payments). This is the hardest look at the organization since it’s just the new money and the total should be growing each year. 2. Cash and GIK (All cash/stock/gik received during the year including pledge payments.) This is the cash in the door. Since many organizations are self funding, this is the important annual barometer of how you're doing. It's important not to lose sight of longer term performance when you're focusing on cash, even if you tend to have an annual program. A sub category - what's restricted and unrestricted or undesignated?...

As Apple shares take a major plunge after the announcement of Steve Job's medical leave, it's hard not to think about an individual whose vision has helped to change the way we access and interact with information, systems and people - significantly. Many of us would aspire to the same levels of creativity and energy that it takes to shape the future. The speculation on how this future relates to Apple will be running rampant as the news plays out and the spin doctors do their best to sell different outcomes. Eventually, everything will stabalize and we'll go back to the regularity of cyclical releases and innovations that we'll all be comfortable with - and will purchase. So what is the market cap of innovation in our organizations? Advancement/Development Services/Operations staff are all very good at problem solving,...

Here is the December 2010 Major Gifts Report for your convenience;

Currently working on my year in review titled the REPORT on Major Gifts & Emerging Trends, 2nd edition

best regards

Terry Burton Dig In Research http://diginresearch.biz

USA Major Gifts December 2010

New Haven, Connecticut - Yale names Edward P. Evans Hall at new School of Management on new campus of business school, largest gift ever to School of Management  $50 million

Raleigh, North Carolina - North Carolina State University name the Poole College of Management in recognition of a recent gift from Lonnie C. Poole Jr. and his wife, Carol Johnson Poole $42 million

Billings, Montana - Swiss born Hansjorg Wyss, who now resides in Philadelphia, closed an agreement to preserve over 1,000 acres of pristine timber land in Montana. Wyss' largest single gift was a $125 million donation two years ago to create a bio-engineering institute at Harvard $31 million

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