Most recent blog entries

John Taylor's Annual Date of Gift Message

services@supportingadvancement.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Dear FundSvcs & Advance-L colleagues,

The following e-mail message, sent this time every year, has been verified and validated by attorneys and IRS representatives. A Canadian colleague has repeatedly confirmed the Canadian references.

As a reminder, the IRS released the 2009 allowable benefit levels, below which no receipt disclaimer is required, several months ago. You will find that information both in the FundSvcs & Advance-L archives as well as at the download site at www.FundSvcs.org. In fact you will find copies of what I consider all the relevant IRS forms and publications (some mentioned below) at the same site.

With that, here's the "traditional" Annual Date of Gift message, with a few updates:

Annual Date Of Gift Message

In the United States the IRS does not require any date of gift on acknowledgments/receipts. In Canada two dates are required: the date you received the gift and the date you printed the receipt. NOWHERE IS A "DATE OF GIFT" REQUIRED IN EITHER COUNTRY. In the most recent version of IRS Publication 1771, however, the IRS does suggest providing a "date received." My personal preference, however, remains "date processed." The acceptability of reflecting a processed date has been confirmed with the IRS.

We are often faced with the dilemma of donors sending in last minute end-of-year contributions and being frustrated when they get a receipt mentioning a "gift date" in January. I would be too. In fact, it is not the donee's responsibility to assign a date of gift. That responsibility clearly falls on the donor. Were you, as a donee, to state a gift date on a receipt you could, in theory, be required to produce evidence supporting that date during an IRS audit of one of your donors. Stating gift dates on receipts would necessitate your keeping envelopes with postmarks, for example, for the required IRS statute of limitations. That is why the only time I suggest mentioning a gift date is for gifts of securities IF you feel like providing a value for them (not required per IRS Publication 1771 as securities are gifts of property). However, if you choose to do so, make sure that you include a disclaimer advising the donor that the value - and date - are being used for internal purposes only and to seek official guidance from their tax advisor. My suggested receipt language for these instances is as follows:

"Thank you for your gift of X shares of Y stock, which we have valued for our internal purposes only at $Z as of MM/DD/YY. For tax purposes you will want to seek guidance from a tax professional in determining your deductible amount."

Duke University, during my nearly 15 years there, rarely received a complaint from a donor about showing a processed date and not a gift date. The phone calls literally went away 15 years ago when, for the first two weeks of January, Duke began including the following message on receipts in lieu of the normal fund, department, or school-based message and/or signature (I believe Duke no longer even needs to add this reminder):

"May we remind you that the date above reflects when we processed your gift, and does not imply the date your gift was made. While you should consult with your CPA or tax preparer to determine the tax consequences of your donation, the date you delivered or mailed your donation is generally recognized as the gift date. The determination of the
contribution date is entirely your decision. Should you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact me."

Don't get caught up trying to ascertain gift dates for your donors. But, since I am asked "When is a gift a gift?" every year, here are some common answers, and misconceptions:

The date on the check HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH REALITY. It's not a legal date of anything. Why some institutions find a need to record this date in their system is unclear (although many software packages include this field). Entering this date is a waste of time, IMHO, and certainly cannot be used to represent the date of gift, the date received, or the date processed. To save data input efforts, and to standardize gift processing, the only date I suggest you reflect for most gifts is the date the gift was entered on your system - which is usually automatically inserted - hence the phrase "processed date" recommendation I offer.

The customary "legal" date of gift for mailed contributions is the date of postmark. This, however, is not true for metered mail. Nor does a postmark reflect the legal date of gift for some other, non-cash, forms of gifts like credit card and stock donations. For credit cards, regardless of when or how the donor tells you to debit their account, the legal gift date is the date the charge hits their account. For stock, things get a bit more complicated. If the donor mails it in, the gift date is the later of the two USPS (not metered) postmarks for the certificate and stock power. If DTCed, it's the date of DTC and NOT THE DATE THE DONOR TOLD THEIR BROKER TO TRANSFER THE GIFT. For the gift to be consummated the stock MUST be registered in your name or in the control of you or your legal agent.

For items sent via third parties, like FedEx and UPS, the gift date is the date you sign for, or take into your possession, the package, not the date it was sent (a donor can recall items "mailed" this way until you have signed for it - thus the item is still in their control until control is yours).

From Crescendo regarding gifts by check: "These "check" rules apply despite the fact taxpayers could hypothetically stop payment on the check and negate the actual gift. One word of caution: postdated checks are not deductible when hand delivered or mailed. A postdated check is a promise to pay in the future and, thus, not deductible at time of delivery."

From Crescendo regarding credit card gifts: "Gifts by credit card are deductible in the year when the charges are made on the card owner's account."

From Crescendo regarding electronic delivery of stock gifts (dealing with a broker not acting on a transfer request when it is made): "Stocks are frequently transferred by electronic delivery. For instance, stocks are usually held in "street accounts" with financial services firms. While a taxpayer may irrevocably instruct his or her broker to
transfer the stock to charity, the gift is not complete until the stock is delivered to the charity's account. This means that the gift date for tax purposes may be days and possibly even weeks after the taxpayer's instructions to transfer. This poses a potential problem to last minute charitable contributions."

I hope everyone has a happy holiday season and few, if any, frustrated donors! Feel free to call/write if you have specific questions. A more "official" source than me for this topic is IRS publication 526 as well as IRS Publication 1771.

John Taylor
Associate Vice Chancellor, Advancement Services
North Carolina State University
Box 7474
Raleigh, NC 27695-7474
919.513.2954 (o)

919.816.5903 (c)
919.513.2406 (f)
johnhtaylor@ncsu.edu

Conference Musings - From the 2008 AASP Summit

services@supportingadvancement.com — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

AASP Keynote Session

The first Association of Advancement Services Professionals conference kicked off in Chicago with the opening keynote session. This session was certainly indicative of the exciting and in-depth sessions that followed throughout of the conference.

Sharon Burns, CIO for the MacArthur Foundation was responsible for delivering the keynote, to help us all think about the future, and what we need to do within our profession to both address the present and prepare for the future. A future that is rapidly changing and which we need to adapt to and understand quickly.

The Foundation is a large nonprofit, with over 5 billion dollars a year to disburse in grants, and one of their objectives is to utilize innovative approaches to information technology to accomplish their mission.

One of the questions that Sharon put forth: What is the role of the CIO in the inter-mediated world? What does a CIO need to be aware of and manage in a world where people can use various forms of technology outside the organization, and where they don’t have to go through the CIO?

Advancement Services Professionals 2.0 have to understand the current social networking trends and also be futurists in the use of these technologies. A first step for all of us would be to do an inventory of which social networking or cloud computing sites we are all on, and which ones we need to still understand.

We need to think about the difference between infinite touch points and the idea that what we say about our organizations ourselves, may no longer be as important as what others are saying about us. Social networking and the ensuing conversations have greatly changed the ways that all of these conversations develop and are spread through various media.

Everyone is producing content and nobody is responsible, but everyone is in control.

The challenge for the CIO is to understand all of this, understand how it relates, knowing what conversations are useful to participate in, and know how to guide others in your organizations. Read before you write and make sure you do all of your research.

Sharon then added the discussions of specific social networking sites and properties to the conversation.

Twitter. What are people saying about you together? Where do you run into people commenting on your non-profit in the virtual world? How can you integrate Twitter into your customer service?
Facebook/MySpace?Linkedin. Most people use and understand these. Look at an aggregator where you can post simultaneously to multiple social networking sites.

There are a lot of other sites and the best strategy is to try and understand how they work, and what some of the demographics of your constituents are, and how they relate to these sites.

Blogs look so 2004 now compared to some of the more “modern” ways of communicating on the Internet. The lesson that is reinforced is that we all need to understand and follow these trends and take advantage when there is a sea change in the way people are interacting.

Virtual Worlds. These have the possibility to replace the text based fabric with new and totally different ways of interacting. This is a new area of interaction, but one that is growing quickly. Maybe we done need to invest but once again we certainly need to understand.

More Trends

More communication, more access, more content, more mobile devices. Being connected is about being efficient in how we use all of this. We’re all being asked to do more with less. These new tools can help us manage our organizations more effectively.

Technology organizations need to be involved in this. We have programmers now, but with some of the new online tools we no longer need programmers and these positions may need to be re-deployed to areas where we need resources diverted to.

We need to build credibility, deliver service more than half way and welcome new expertise into our organizations.

The future of the CIO is to still provide some of the traditional services such as security, but to provide expertise and counsel on new services. It’s an and/or/both situation.

In the Web 2.0, 3.0 …x.0 world we need to be better learners than ever.

Reflections on Customer Services

services@supportingadvancement.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Reflections on Customer Service

What are some of the reasons providing customer service is challenging in Advancement Services and Development Services organizations?

We work in and provide support for a very complex technical and organizational environment.
We continually deal with the end results of complex organizational policies and procedures. One example is what can be receipted as a gift? These types of decisions have elements of ethics, organizational policies and procedures and information technology and systems implementations.
Many of our services are provided to a customer base that doesn’t typically understand fundraising let alone of the subtleties that are engaged in supporting it. For example; a donor calling in to inquire about their gift is only thinking about our organizational brand and expect the type of service that the brand conveys. They don’t care that they may be dealing with a sub-unit of the larger part. When you have a strong brand, it automatically conveys that everyone expects you to go the extra mile.
We are expected to be able to communicate with all individuals, internal and external, and at every level. Great communication skills are not always easy where the strengths that get the work done are very focused to volume or heads down processing activities. Communication skills are always something we need to work on.
Most of our work involves activities, standards and system that support linear thinking and management. The people we deal with are often very “non linear.” Our approach to many solutions or interactions may require that we think outside our linear boundaries.
Most of what we deal with is either broken or fixed. There are not a lot of in-between items. “I almost processed your gift. I almost did your list correctly. Coupled with complications in the technical and associated environments, and time determined deadlines, our ability to cope can be easily challenged.
Volume. It just seems to be increasing without end or mitigation. Our business is based on marketing and sales but this creates volume in more than just transactions. For example: as soon as someone sees a report they ask for the information in a slightly different way, and we often have to start all over.

What are Some Solutions?

The first is to have a strong realization that the most important part of our services are those that deal with our external customers, particularly those that have invested in our organizations. We are often the first and last contact point and we need to live and provide exemplary services.
Growth in resources provided to our areas is always a challenge. At a minimum, don’t forget to keep asking. If you don’t ask, nobody will know what you need. At the same time look for efficiencies. We used to be trained to handle each piece of paper once, are you managing your email the same way?
Training, training, training. Often a resource issue, but ask for what you need. Like any form of education, training can really move an organization forward. You may be told no, or maybe, but when you ask for specific training and plant the seed, someone will here eventually.
Build alliances. Follow up with people by phone, and ask them how well you provided them with customer service. Walk the extra mile and ask if there’s anything else you can do for them.
Ask why. If something doesn’t make sense, question what is being done. Very often you’ll find that systems and processes can be a function of history as opposed to a function of logical analysis. We often participate in “training by folklore” and this continues over time. The consequence is that systemic inefficiency is built into systems and processes, they end up being cobbled together and are hard to back out of.

Scenarios

Here are a few scenarios on customer service. You can go over these or others that you create at your next staff meeting to help see where you’re at and to come up with some new ideas for improvement.

1. It is 4:45 p.m. You are heads down on a project that is due at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

You’ve already committed yourself to another engagement and must leave the office by 5 p.m. Communication relating to this project was already sent via email to all Deans and Directors. A request from an Executive leader comes through asking you to do some number crunching and provide a report for each campus unit that relates to their totals for the current Campaign. The reports are due for a meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning and normally take 6-8 hours to complete.

What would you do if you found yourself in this situation, assuming that you cannot return to the office?

2. A call comes in on the Gift and Records Helpline.

The person on the phone states that they have been transferred 3 times and is very angry.

They are calling about a charge on their credit card in the amount of $1,000 that should have been $100. When you look up their giving record, you see the gift of $1,000 and tell them that it was designated to the Museum of Art. They become more irate because the gift was for the Medical School in memory of their father. They tell you that you are incompetent, this is the second time this has happened and that they know the VP of Development well.

How do you proceed?

3. You are a member of a desktop support team that provides support to 170+ staff members.

One of your fellow team members is out sick, and the other is heads down on a major software migration project leaving you alone to staff the help desk.

While trying to keep up with the steady incoming traffic of help desk tickets, you receive your first notice that a temporary staff person starts tomorrow and needs a workstation set up.

Just as you ponder how you will fit that into your schedule, moments later you find yourself on the phone with a person who is angry because the new computer that was given to them is missing the custom application they needs for their presentation tomorrow morning.

How do you handle this situation?

4. The crunch of the holiday season is all around you.

It is your turn to be "on call" in support of the online giving page. It is 10 a.m. on December 24th, and you've been keeping an eye on email because you know that the "early out, enjoy the holidays" email is coming...any moment.

Sure enough, at 10:30 a.m. the email comes faithfully - you'll be out at noon. But ... at 11:30 the Gift and Records Administration office receives a phone call from a donor who is very frustrated because she has been trying to donate online for the past 30 minutes and cannot seem to get the online giving form to work in her browser, but hasn't passed through any additional information as to the cause of the problem.

How do you handle this situation?

Positions Focusing on Customer Service

Another approach to customer service is to focus umbrella activities for customer service within a key individual in our organization.

The following job description for a person whose primary responsibility is to help manage these relationships.

Working title: Customer Services Coordinator and Data Integrity Support Specialist

Reports to: Assistant Vice President for Development Services

Maintains close working relationships with the other Directors of

Development Services

Supervises directly: N/A

Position Summary

The Customer Services Coordinator and Data Integrity Support Specialist for Development Services is responsible for providing a first point of contact and coordinated focal point for the receipt and delivery of service requests from the Office of University Development, the Development Community and other areas at the organization that are to be completed by Development Services.

In addition to the customer services responsibilities the position is responsible for providing assistance for data integrity projects related to databases used for Development activities at the organization.

Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities

50% Coordination of Customer Services Activities for Development Services

· Receive phone calls, emails and other requests from end users, log these requests, acknowledge that requests have been received and work directly with the Assistant Vice President for Development Services to assign these to Development Services staff.

· Respond back to requestors as to who was assigned their project, and communicate the appropriate timeline for completion. Track the progress of requests and follow up with Development Services staff and the requestor until projects are completed.

· Utilize the database with the logged requests to develop a knowledge base and continually improve this knowledge base over time based on the nature and frequency of requests. Help in the planning of training activities based on this information.

· Maintain information request forms both on the web and in hard copy. Continually enhance these over time to match what users are looking for and to help provide a more seamless and effective customer experience.

· Maintain public point of contact information on both the web and print media, maintain group email lists, phone messaging and call routing for Development Services. Ensure that there are proper and appropriate menu structures and messages for requestors of information to follow so that they can make their requests in a systematic and organized fashion.

· Assist with developing and distributing regular communications to the Development Community on upgraded service offerings such as new reports that have been developed, pending software upgrades and similar activities that can alter the productivity of our user community.

· Develop and run regular reports for the Assistant Vice President for Development Services on the key metrics of customer service for Development Services. These metrics will be part of a comprehensive regular monthly reporting package that will cover all services such as report requests completed, transactional volumes, pledge aging and more. Helps asses the Development Community’s support service needs through formal evaluation and both formal and informal communications.

· Help maintain key user documentation, forms, policies and procedures documents. Keep these updated and post to the Development Intranet and other web sites.

· Assist the Assistant Vice President for Development Services in managing timelines for some of the larger and more complex projects. This will require the ability to learn and work with project management software such as Microsoft Project.

· Be the primary expert on the software used for logging requests including working with the software providers to resolve issues and problems.

· Perform some “front line” support activities directly that can be handled over the phone or easily by email before passing them on to other staff.

40% Data Integrity Projects

· Assist with a wide variety of data integrity projects as required such as special analysis and research, tracing, requesting and running batch updates and similar projects. Collaborate with staff in the design of reports and reporting systems.

This may also include assisting the Gift and Records Administration area with data entry during times of peak volumes.

10% Administrative and Other Duties

· Perform other duties as required. These can include assistance with some of the regular administrative duties and similar responsibilities for Development Services.

Preferred Qualifications

· Desire to learn the mission, goals and objectives of both the organization, as well as those of the Office of University Development and work in ways that help us achieve these. Desire to enhance and improve the organization’s position as an international leader in Development.

· Strong customer service orientation and ability to perform the characteristic duties and responsibilities of the position to effectively meet the needs of prospects, donors and the organization community. Ability to anticipate requests and needs in advance and plan accordingly.

· Preferred experience in a development/fundraising organization in a higher education environment of a similar size and complexity to the organization. Knowledge of or willingness to learn university policies, procedures and best practices.

· Proven history of successful partnerships on multi-discipline teams. A strong interest and demonstrated track record of establishing and maintaining business relationships that facilitate effective business transactions. Sense of the complexities of a central/de-centralized environment and the need to be aware of the subtleties of working simultaneously with central and unit based Development staff. Negotiating skills and consensus builder.

· Effective time management, problem-solving and analytical skills. Ability to forecast timelines and consistently meet deadlines in a fast paced environment.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to transfer knowledge, train and explain concepts included in the characteristic duties and responsibilities of the position to people who may not understand the roles and responsibilities of Development Services.

· All Development Services staff will be expected to have a working knowledge of fundraising and financial data with the ability to understand differences between the two.

· Knowledge of/or ability to learn best practices in development, fundraising and community service as recommended by related umbrella organizations such as CASE, NACUBO and others. Desire to stay current on industry trends by monitoring various media, peer networking and professional development.

· Knowledgeable of concepts of public information and the Freedom of Information Act and an understanding of the repercussions if information is inaccurate or compromised.

· Working knowledge of terminology and concepts related to the Internet.

Education and Required Qualifications

· Bachelor’s or Associates degree or certificate ideally in information systems or equivalent combination of education and experience. Some background in financial and reporting would be a plus.

· Previous experience in a help desk or similar customer support role, or demonstrated equivalent ability to work in this role based on past employment history. Ability to be present, visible, patient, with a friendly presence and helpful attitude.

· Good technical experience. This would include client/server, web based technologies, systems integration concepts, network concepts and computer and information security. Ability to visualize a problem or situation and think abstractly to solve it.

· Ability to handle constantly changing flow of traffic; to remain productive during slow times, be able to multitask effectively during busy times, exercise patience and professionalism during stressful situations.

· Knowledge of the University’s computing environment, specifically the Organization’s fundraising activities computing environment is preferred or equivalent experience in an organization of similar size and complexity.

· Knowledge or ability to quickly learn the organization’s central IT service organizations and their service offerings.

· Strong working knowledge of Development/Fundraising software and good general concepts of how online engagement software is used to help manage and enhance relationships with constituents. Some familiarity with CRM software and tools will be an asset.

· Understanding of how applications deployed on the web are used and related issues with connectivity and other problems.

· General understanding or ability to learn data warehouse concepts, business intelligence, dash boarding techniques and information deployment strategies to end users. Some familiarity with tool sets typically used for reporting, data manipulation and data integration.

· Experience with Microsoft Office software including Microsoft Project, PowerPoint and Visio.

Ability to help train users both from a conceptual and holistic point of view centering around best practices but also in the hands on “how to” aspects of using applications.

The Devil is in the Details

services@supportingadvancement.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Customer service has a foundation that needs to be built on strong partnerships.

Motivation for success can/is/should be a key driver for customer service. Success on a personal level is important, but the more important component of success is to transmit the motivation to achieve it to the whole organization so everyone on the team can also be successful in providing customer service.

The environment we’re in is intensely competitive. We are selling ideas and issues which are practically intrinsic compared to organizations that are selling physical goods. If we don’t get it right, people will quickly move to another cause.

Basics of fundraising – these have not changed, but we should also consider what the basics of the fundraising business are in relation to customer service. Some of these basics that we need to be continually aware of are:

Personal Contacts with Prospects and Donors
Perfection in Communications
Accuracy and Timeliness
High Standards of Ethics
Accountability

All of these basics point to the need to deliver memorable customer service experiences that transcend those of our competitors.

Some of these services will revolve around:

Being a good member of the community.
Partnering with competitors to make the industry stronger.
Being relentless about asking why and making continual improvements.
Continuously seeking partnerships with both similar and complementary skill sets.
Including Government and other “non donor” funding bodies in our embodiment of what customer service means.
Service is about fiduciary responsibility so we must provide it while managing our budget constraints and giving our stakeholders the best value for their financial commitment in our programs.

What are some formative strategies on how we can initiate changes in our own customer service models?

As a manager – be trained by co-workers in some of the customer facing entry level positions in the organizations. As managers we end up often removed from many of the day-to-day activities that can really make a difference. It’s surprising what you might discover both about the organization and about yourself.
There is both an emotional and a physical commitment to services, and an appreciation of this relationship needs to be gained to truly understand services. For example: What are the constraints presented by a folding machine that may be causing our receipts to have a less than optimal appearance?
Buy-in is important at all levels of the organization. Service needs to be provided in a seamless manner and at the same time, the organization needs to have an appreciation of the teamwork that makes it happen from start to finish. Silos have no relation to customer service.
We need hire people that want to be in our business and want to do the type of work that we need done. It doesn’t make sense to invest heavily in dollars and energy bringing people along who are not as interested in our business as they need to be in order to succeed personally which helps the organization succeed.

Customer service is not without challenges. Economy, adherence to past branding, changing business models and much more make it more difficult to change course mid-stream, but some of these changes such as Internet enabled business models have helped us with new creative opportunities for service we never had even just a few years ago.

In conclusion, focus on what works and what supports your brand. People today don’t want a transaction, they want an experience, and your customer service activities need to provide the differential experience that keeps your customers coming back.

Whose job is it anyway?

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

A partnership approach is good, and if the Services staff provide comprehensive compelling services to help with email management, it helps garner resources, etc:

Some examples of value added services:

1. If possible, have your technical staff manage the software that is used for the mass emailing. This allows you to participate both in quality control (HTML verification) and in discussions around

managing touch points.

2. Provide comprehensive reporting back to users that integrate elements of click-through, bounce backs, demographics etc. This can be a strong incentive for users to work with you whenever they need to do emailing.

3. Be the most knowledgeable in your organization on understanding which services are the most effective for email appends and updating.

4. Initiate an email tracing program that integrates print pieces such as postcards into your receipting and acknowledgement processes.

5. Create training surrounding best practices for email into your technology or system training.

6. If you have a customer facing service desk, take requests for help from the online community such as updating information, expired passwords, and similar requests. Most gift processing

staff that have to interface with donors are be very good at helping people and it’s good way to get direct access to email and other information updates.

7. Be advisors on creative techniques for harvesting and growing your email lists such as contests on a web site.

8. Try to gain a comprehensive understanding of the ways the organization is collecting and using email addresses. You’ll find that some areas are still doing mass emails with tools such as Outlook which don’t allow you to do tracking. How and when does an email status get set to preferred?

9. Understand policy issues such as opt/in, privacy, spam and related.

It’s important for Advancement and Development Services to gain expertise in online media channels so we can steward, manage and provide good counsel to our user communities.

Brian Dowling

Assistant Vice President for Development Services

University of Michigan

Endowment Spending Policy Changes During Difficult Economic Times

services@supportingadvancement.com — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:00:00 GMT

If an organization has a reasonable endowment spending policy it should protect against shorter and mid-term market fluctuations.

As you can see below, the policy at the University of Michigan was adjusted to protect against these fluctuations. One might argue that this could be too conservative, but money typically "doubles" over a 10 year time horizon, so the policy is less conservative than it might appear to be.

"Distributions from Endowments occur quarterly based on the distribution percent set by the Regents. In June 2006, the Board of Regents approved a change to the University’s endowment spending rate policy and extended the moving average period from

12 quarters to 28 quarters, with implementation to be phased in over the next three years. Effective July 1, 2006, the spending rate moving average period will increase to 16 quarters and then increase by one quarter each subsequent quarter until the moving average period reaches seven years (28 quarters)."

It's not good if endowment income is viewed internally as the "budget plug" during difficult economic times, i.e. to increase spending or get in the habit of dipping off the top.

Adjustments the other way can create a lot of havoc with academic planning cycles which typically need to be longer term. In the current climate, how many research grants may be lost because of federal and state/provincial funding cutbacks? Endowment will end up being more heavily relied upon.

In addition to protecting endowments to ensure long term return, everyone should have talking points. Here's a link to the University of Michigan's Q&A on endowments.

http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/endow_qa.html1

Here's another link to the University of Michigan's reponse to Senator Grassley on endowment. It has some good information in it. The markets will eventually improve, and we'll likely be getting some of the same questions again.

http://www.umich.edu/pres/UMich-SFC_Response_Web.pdf

The salient points are that if changes are to be made, really think about the long term, what that strategy needs to be and how it should be implemented.

Data Management Strategy

services@supportingadvancement.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Data Management Strategy

An encompassing approach to data management is critical to an organization especially when this needs to cross organizational boundaries. Data is what gives us our strategic advantage and if we don’t have our “ducks in order” we will lose our competitive edge.

Data management that crosses organizational boundaries is particularly difficult in larger decentralized organizations where decision making, clear lines of accountability, budget distribution and other structural considerations make breaking down these barriers more difficult.

Other elements that complicate are how the data may actually be acquired. For example: over the web vs. other sources. From a decentralized perspective, are acquisition, application of data policy and updates being done in a consistent fashion so as to enhance organizational mission?

Data management has an implicit number of key performance indicators, but these may or may not be known about or monitored. Some examples:

Timing
Volume vs. Quality (80-20, 95-5 rules?)
Performance Metrics Related to Staffing and Resources
Cost of Acquisition and Maintenance
Growth in What Elements are Being Collected and Maintained
Limitations of Current Systems and Processes
How the Organization and Systems Have Changed Over Time in Relation to Data. i.e. Who has overall ownership for data projects and how has/does this need to change?

A holistic approach to data management is complex and may need to require a different approach such as decentralized maintenance to leverage resources. This is only one example.

The world has changed and some of the professional social networking communities are examples of how high quality data acquisition may be done without some of the conventional internal checks and balances. What are some of the new acquisition strategies and how do these need to be deployed in our organizations?

A good data management strategy helps to manage and solidify:

An Overarching Strategic Plan for Data Acquisition and Quality
Policies and Procedures (Both New and Revisions of Current)
Communication Strategy Surrounding Data Management
Data Performance Metrics
Prioritization of Projects
Education of User Communities
Building and Enhancing Data Focus Across Organizational Boundaries

We’ve been pretty good about managing prospects so we can get the related gifts. Most of us have a Leadership Gifts or Prospect Strategy Committee, but how often is this same high level of focus achieved in relation to data practices and management issues?

“State of the Art” data management needs to be one of the key strategic priorities for an organization. Without doing this, we quickly lose our competitive edge.

On the road again, it's good to be back on the road ....

services@supportingadvancement.com — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Ever travel, get to your hotel ready to do some work and spend the next 15 minutes trying to find a plug to charge up and work with all of your electronic devices?

In some cases, every available plug is taken up, and is located behind the bed, television, or some other immovable object that you can barely reach behind. Maybe these organizations are trying to save money on power consumption and making it up by charging for Internet access.

So here's a solutution in one hotel that seemed a bit novel. This is the power bar that rises out of the desk to form the power column that is convenient and is still able to prevent the theft of it from the hotel. What a great idea!

Now, this was a little more of an "upscale" property, a little newer than most, but was still a bargain through one of the online hotel booking web sites. The guest has instant piece of mind by knowing that computer, cell phone, iPod, GPS, portable recorder, digital camera can all be charged upon arrival back into the room.

I've noticed that plugs seem to be disappearing in some airports. Maybe it's just a perception from needing them more and more all the time, but someone from this hotel chain may want to talk to some airport managers about a solution like this. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step ...

Turn, turn, turn

services@supportingadvancement.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Turn, turn, turn

The world is in a constant state of change. The ocean never looks the same as it rises and falls, and as waves are churned by the currents that run beneath the surface. We are always changing and we know that the person we were yesterday is slightly different from the person we are today. The shy girl I was in eighth grade has been gone for quite awhile. Some of us face that year, that day, that moment when we are forced to step up in our canoe and send the rest of the people around us lurching for the sides to steady themselves. But we no longer have to grip the sides. No, we’ve changed.

The thought of it is exciting and also, sad. There is no other way to say it. The old is replaced by the new and then reduced to but a memory, like a flutter of butterfly wings among the windflowers that grow at the side of the road while you drive past, speeding by. Humans want to be immovable like a stone carving. We want to be solid and steady, but that is not the reality. We are made of muscle and bone and tissues. We must remain flexible. Change is inevitable, so what do you do when things change? Resistance is futile. You have to accept it. You have to move on.

And as we’re changing, we face past regrets. If only I had done this differently… I wish I had been a part of that… it would have been nice if I was more…

We have this drive for self-improvement. For the most part we want to do better, to be better. A key ingredient to our betterment is change. Change challenges us. If we don’t challenge ourselves, we never give ourselves the opportunity to grow. We become stagnant and apathetic. We get in a rut and the difference between a rut and a grave is only a few feet.

Brenda Salter McNeil said to 22,000 students at the 2006 Urbana convention: “I just want to stop by and remind you to be careful where you settle, because where you settle is where you’ll die. Your dreams will die, your aspirations will die, your vision will die. Your relationships, opportunities will die.”

What do we settle for?

Have you ever started going, started to strive for a difference, for a change and just gotten tired, stopped, and settled for whatever came along? You shouldn’t have settled. You should never settle. The moment we settle, we start to dig a rut for ourselves, and we continue to dig and dig and dig until we’re surrounded by mire.

In his novel, Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller writes: “We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word for you: Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be.”

When have you stayed when you should have left? What have you allowed to hold you back from seeking more education, from improving your business strategy, from growing closer with your family? Look for change, hunt it down. And when you find it, embrace it. Change is not easy and it’s not comfortable but it is necessary. And like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, the end result is beautiful.

What We Don't Measure

services@supportingadvancement.com — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

One of the tenets of great programs is that we measure everything we do and use these analytics and related tools to make improvements.

We all have campaign to date totals, year to date, this year vs. last year, fundraising by donor interest and designation and more.

Activity based metrics such as how many records have we updates, what is our average receipting times and similar are less common. It’s ironic that activity leads to investment, but we don’t have nearly the same amounts of focus that we do on bottom line numbers even though activity based metrics are just as important to “sell” our ideas. For example, a slipping addressable rate may be used to sell a board or governance body on the idea of using data tracing services to improve data quality.

There is a third group of performance elements we don’ t often measure which are probably just as important. These are seldom addressed in a systematic or organized format. There is typically little evidence of any kind of trend analysis over time. And yet, this third group can be very useful.

This third group is a combination of external environmental elements and outcome measurement that can be related to philanthropy.

One example would be using the correlation of the capital markets to fundraising. For those of you that haven’t done this exercise, you’ll often find this relationship is often very dependent. If the current drop in the capital markets continues, we should all be using this information to do some advance planning. Do we need to adjust goals? Do we need to have a communication with our donors? Do we need to have language already drafted on a strategy to communicate what our standard financial or market position currently is for our organization’s invested capital?

Another example is related to outcome measurements. How many of our constituents have we helped and how is this changing over time? Donors are expecting much more comprehensive on the value that we add to the social context and good stewardship means that we need to report these measures just like any of our financial totals. We need to have integrated systems in place that reduce the amount of manual effort and labor involved in compiling this information so it becomes an automatic part of our monthly financial reporting. We need to have systems in place that can deploy this type of information automatically on our web site without the need to manually format and recompile.

The foundation of all this type of reporting can be based on a data warehouse, where information from a wide and disparate number of sources can be combined effectively “outside” our fundraising systems in a way that leverages and creates a comprehensive picture of our organization.

If you’re not moving in this direction, it’s time …