From the Mountain top

CJP Advisors, Newsletter #2

May 2, 2024

Hello beautiful philanthropy world!

I’m on my way to Los Angeles, after two great weeks in Austin, Texas. Purpose for all this fun? Time with family and friends, plus a couple of exciting philanthropy meetings. I begin this newsletter with a couple of tips for nonprofits and fundraisers, ending with advice for well-intentioned donors who might be feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders. 

Let's talk Asses and Pachyderms 🐘 🫏

How will the 2024 United States presidential election season affect nonprofit fundraising? You might think the noise of a presidential race would drown out your nonprofit’s pleas for support. Studies show that election years are a great time to fundraise. 🥳 🇺🇲 US donors open their wallets wider during election cycles, especially politically active millennials.

Findings from the Blackbaud Institute, CCS Fundraising, reveal that in most election years, donors give more to their philanthropies of choice. It was also revealed that a particular group of donors gave more than any of the other group in the studies. Who was this generous-minded group of donors? 

• Politically-minded and politically active donors between the ages of 25 and 34. 

• Giving was highest to charities with missions close to hot-button election issues.

• This was true for charities whose issues aligned with either positive or negative political ideology of the winning candidate.

Election year fundraising tips: 

• Begin making phone calls and meeting with your donors now.

• Target new millennial donors to grow your donor base! They are itching to make a difference and many suddenly have some level of income for the first time in their lives.

• Keep tabs on global and local events—they can sway generosity.

• And most importantly, be genuine in your “Ask.” Enough with the weatherman-like urgency.

Nonprofit Website Tip of the Month: 

Please prominently and regularly display your nonprofit EIN number on your website!

The EIN number is the “Employer Identification Number” assigned by the IRS at the time of the charity's approval of formation. Think of it as your charity’s social security number. Providing it to donors makes it much easier for them to verify you are a legitimate charity and the number is often required for many financial transactions.

These days, donors can easily make large online donations when the mood strikes them by electronically transferring gifts from stock, a Donor Advised Fund, an IRA or a Qualified Charitable Distribution to their charity of choice. They can make these sizable gifts only if they have the correct EIN number for your charitable organization. 

Statistically speaking, gifts from these sources are 

many times larger 

than gifts from cash.

Actions to take immediately, and correctly display your EIN number:

• On your DONATE page

• Wherever you list your contact information

• On all printable materials and collateral that asks for donations.

From the Mountaintop - A Donor’s Focus Statement

This month I am visiting my mother in Texas. She received 25 appeals within the first two days of my visit. Was it a floodgate triggered by some special event? Nope. She said this is constant. 

She received three book marks, nickels, dimes, a silver fifty cent piece and three crisp dollar bills, a promise of a “free” copy of the Episcopal Church’s Musician’s Handbook, and offers of high quality insulated tote bags from Ocean Conservancy. And the calendars, oh my, the calendars. In this day of cell phones, Really??  Admittedly the one urging “Save the donkeys,” was very cute. 

Besides being a staggering waste of paper and postage, messages were hopelessly repetitious. For all you donors out there feeling bludgeoned by this paper-mill pursuit of your dollars, I’m sharing the tips I shared with my own mother.

First, Aggressively Reduce this Mess

Take the time to get yourself removed from these nonprofit mailing lists. It takes a little effort but is probably worthwhile: 

1. Send an index card in the return envelope with a, “Please remove me from your mailing address.” Include your mailing address you want removed and be sure to affix enough postage to the return envelope.

2. Email the charity with a request to “Please remove me from your mailing and email address.”  Include your mailing address and email address. 

3. Scan the return form letter and look for an “Opt-out” option of all communications. Check that box and return that form!

4. Sign up for the United States Postal Service (USPS) Do Not Mail List, which allows you to register your name and address to stop receiving mail from charities and other organizations. You can register online or by phone.

Second, take time to create your “Donor’s Focus”

We often read the charity’s Mission Statement before we decide to make a donation. I challenge donors to write their own mission statement by creating a “Donor’s Focus” statement. (I have a work sheet for this exercise. See my email at the bottom of this newsletter if you would like me to send it to you.)

Why should you bother to create your own statement of Donor Focus? Well, I have a secret to tell you…

You cannot solve every problem.

Sorry if that distresses you, but it's the truth.

You are one human being.

Not even MacKenzie Scott can solve all the world’s problems.

Neither can you, so give yourself a break.

There has always been the conflict between helping as many as possible, versus helping a few, generously and deeply. This is why defining your focus is so important. The fact is, we fundraisers and nonprofit experts attend classes and conferences just to figure out how to convince you to open your wallet. Knowing this, it is your job to get and stay focused. This is not cold and insensitive. This is what I call staying true to you and becoming a more effective donor. 💰💰💰💰💰

Exercises for Creating Your “Donor’s Focus” Statement.

1. Narrow your Lane. Pretend someone asks you, “If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?” How would you answer? Explore your answers, then refine these ideas over the next few days and weeks.

   • Would you target your support locally, regionally or globally?

   • Would you focus on humans, animals, the environment or something else?

   • Write down your answers. Don’t criticize yourself. Keep writing. 

   • Who, what, and why do you want to help in this way?

   • What would you like the result of your support to be?

Take a week or a month to deeply explore your responses to this question.

2. Draft your Donor's Focus Statement. Now that you have done all this writing, take another week or two to distill all this work into a sentence or two. The goal is to end up with your clarifying statement of Donor’s Focus. It might take you a few times. Keep working. Read it out loud to yourself. Put it down for a day and then read it out loud the next morning. How does it sound? Keep working.

When you think you are close, read your Donor’s Focus to a close friend. Ask them, did they understand your goal? It is fine if the goal is not achievable in your lifetime. That is up to you. But is your goal well-defined? Once you feel satisfied, move on to step 3.

3. Research the charities working within your Donor’s Focus

Before you give a single gift, make a list of charities whose missions and accomplishments align with what you have discovered about yourself, during your exercise to Narrow Your Lane.

Once you have found a short list of charities that align with your goals, think about what you might accomplish with each of those charities if you were to begin your own long-term giving campaign.

• What are you capable of giving this year? $25 a year? $100 a year? $2,500 a year?

• Now, think about that gift every year for 10 years. 20 years. Based on what you can learn from their website, what kind of change could you make possible for them over this amount of time? 

You are one human being.

And now, you are beginning to realize the change you could affect in one small but very meaningful way.

You could make a small and real change happen with your Donor’s Focus.

4. Decide the one-to-three charities you want to focus on. 

• Put a calendar reminder on your phone or whatever calendar you use, to make your gift again, annually.

• Retain the communications you receive from these charities. 

• Over the next year, think about how they communicated with you. Did they answer your questions (did you reach out to them with questions?)

• Did they quickly thank you for your gift? It is important to evaluate nonprofits. I’ll talk about evaluation in future newsletters.

I have served as a director at three nonprofit organizations. I can verifiably say, if I had a donor reach out to me to tell me how they wanted to receive their communications, and ask me a question they hoped I could answer, trust me, I would be grateful. I would listen and I would answer this donor. And, if I had a donor give me $25 for 10 years, I would take that donor over another donor who gave me one donation of $500. 

I LOVE long-term relationships. 🥰🥰

Because long-term relationships are mutual and have the chance to grow with one another. This goes for philanthropy as well. 🌍💝🌎🫶🌏💗

Final take away.

If you take up the “Donor’s Focus” challenge and a charity asks you for a donation, you have full right to say, “Thank you for doing what you do to make the world a better place. I applaud you for your efforts and appreciate you telling me about your services. That is not my focus of my own charitable giving, but I will keep it in mind to tell a few friends about you.”

If you are a donor who received this email from your charity of choice, congratulations! 

I have created a “Donor’s Focus” worksheet and would be happy to send directly to you. (No charge; it is something I did for my mother.) I won't keep you on my email list unless you request. For the “Donor’s Focus” worksheet or any more questions I can be reached at cjohnson@cjpadvisors.com. 

As with all my recommendations, review these tools to make sure they are right for you and get the necessary approvals from your board and leadership before implementing!

Keep making the world wonderful!

-Courtney

Your biggest advocate 

If you are a donor who received this email from your charity of choice, congratulations! 

I have created a “Donor’s Focus” worksheet and would be happy to send directly to you. (No charge; it is something I did for my mother.)

For the “Donor’s Focus” worksheet or any more questions I can be reached at cjohnson@cjpadvisors.com.