Posted in Board Development, Motivation, Nonprofit, Organizational Success on June 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In this terrific post on Nonprofit Times, author John Davidoff helps us identify whether an organization is mission-driven or mission-challenged. As he states, “The energy of a mission-driven organization is palpable.”
I agree with each of his assessments. What’s your take?
What else would you add?
Posted in Inspirational Stories, Motivation, Recommended Reading on March 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Many grant writers and the organizations they work for are struggling to recover from the economic downtown and resulting changes in nonprofit giving. Many groups are discouraged and disheartened. But abundance doesn’t come to those who dwell on its scarcity. It comes to those that believe, “This too shall pass”.
I believe that abundance is coming. The strongest organizations have used this “downturn” as an opportunity to think more strategically, diversify their funding base, connect more deeply with supporters, and prepare for the new boom. They have remained steadfast in their faith that abundance is coming, and that they must be ready for it, not sitting idly, waiting for something to change.
I think Joel Osteen would agree. Last night I completed reading his new book, It’s Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God’s Favor
Those of you who know me personally know I’m never idle. I always have several balls in the air. Strategic planning, grant writing, marketing, mentoring, training, creative writing, publishing … and that’s just the professional side of things. I dream big dreams. And while I was reading this book, I felt step-by-step closer to seeing these bold dreams become reality. I found the talent I needed to move both my training and publishing divisions ahead. I had new prospects contact me about doing large projects for them that build on not only what I do today but what I did in the past, bringing my business full circle. And I have been filled with inspirational messages, dreams that God put in my heart as Joel would say. I feel as if I’m growing in a new direction, and I have been given the tools I need to make good on God’s faith in me.
And I believe much of that has comes from my own deep faith; knowing that I have (or will have) all that I need to succeed if I keep a bold dream in my heart and end each day with a prayer of gratitude and hope.
I hope you will read It’s Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God’s Favor
Posted in Empathy and Compassion, Grant Writers, Motivation, Nonprofit, Understanding Donors on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Compassion is … an open-hearted empathy for the suffering of others and the wish to free them from it … it is the human quality that allows us to reach out across differences in race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality, connecting with each other. It is a direct antidote to prejudice and aggression, promoting peace in ourselves and in the world.”
This quote, from The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology
We spend too much time doing things by rote, by routine, by habit. When we focus instead on the moment and the little joys that are present in it, we find a more peaceful, restful place – one where we feel purposeful and fulfilled.
How do we help our donors find that place of fulfillment? Help them to pause and live in the moment every now and again. Talk with them about what’s most important to them. Help them find a way to live out essential elements of their lives in a more deliberate, meaningful way through their connection to you.
The more authentic we are, and the more deliberately we live our lives, the more likely we are to embody compassion – both for ourselves and for others. We bypass regret, insecurity, fear and anxiety. Instead we find happiness.
Every donor should feel joy when they make a connection to your organization. That joy comes from compassionate intention.
Be open to it. We may be there to help others, but in order to achieve the goals we’ve set forth, we need to admit our vulnerabilities and accept love and compassion from the outside.
By accepting this love and compassion, we give our donors an opportunity to experience the joy that comes from heartfelt giving.
Posted in Empathy and Compassion, Grant Writers, Motivation, Nonprofit, Transparency & Accountability, Understanding Donors on November 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
As grant writers, we are one of the first individuals to make contact with a potential donor, and often, we are one of the individuals involved in maintaining a relationship with that donor. But what qualities do we need to cultivate to ensure a lasting relationship with any given donor?
In his book, The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship
Although Gouldson offer these in the context of maintaining romantic relationships, they are equally relevant to establishing and maintaining relationships with our donors. Benefits? Renewed involvement, revived enthusiasm, a stronger sense of partnership and commitment, greater capacity for solving problems effectively, mutual understanding, and a more durable bond. Worth exploring? I think so!
Chemistry
Let’s start with chemistry. Chemistry is that connection, that spark, that makes you feel like you were meant to know a person your whole life. In the work environment, there are people we find easy to work with, that we think can understand us like no one else. And, of course, there are others that we just don’t click with, that we can honestly say will never completely “get” us.
The same can be true of donors. Some donors give from their heart, they connect with our organization and our mission on a deeper level, one that only a few can truly understand. They have the same passion as our founder, and they help out in every way they can.
Other donors give in the moment, or in memory of another, or out of a sense of gratitude or guilt. It is important to understand how our donors are connecting with us and make sure we involve them appropriately.
Respect
Respect is a difficult thing to define or to teach, but somehow we know what it looks and feels like, don’t we? It’s in the way we listen to one another, the way we speak with one another, the way we consider each other when we’re apart. How do you show respect for your donors? What do you do to earn your donors’ respect? How do you keep it?
Enjoyment
We all know what it’s like to lose interest in something. We just don’t enjoy it anymore. It could be food. Or a job. Or an activity we do with friends. Or maybe the friends themselves. What happens when the enjoyment goes out of something? We let it go from our lives, right? Well, how do you promote enjoyment in your work environment and with your donors? They need to like being around you if you want to keep them involved.
Acceptance
Acceptance is a little easier to define. It’s the way you feel when someone loves you for who you are, strengths and weaknesses, good days and bad days, despite not liking you and some of your behaviors sometimes, right? Well, how does your organization maintain that balance – let people see some of your weaknesses; no one is perfect. Issues of integrity, accountability, and transparency come into play here. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes it is in our moments of vulnerability that we forge the strongest bonds.
Trust
Trust is a biggie. Like acceptance, trust requires counting on someone outside of yourself. It requires vulnerability and openness. It comes from honesty. It comes from good listening. It comes from following through on what you promise. It comes from a deep emotional place that connects people. And it’s easy to lose. What are you doing to build trust, and maintain it?
Empathy
And finally, empathy. Probably the foundation of all the others. It is critical that we understand where our donors are coming from, what they are thinking, what’s important to them, why they have entrusted us with their time, talent, or treasure. It is also critical that we understand the deepest, most unexpressed needs of our work’s beneficiaries. For without empathy, we cannot deliver programs and services in an environment of trust and respect and acceptance. We cannot connect with the people that need us most. We cannot forge bonds built on chemistry and enjoyment. And we cannot live up to our maximum potential as we make our mark on the world.
The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship
Posted in Developing a Needs Statement, Empathy and Compassion, Fundraising Success, Motivation, Nonprofit, Organizational Success, Recommended Reading, Understanding Donors on August 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“Companies prosper when they tap into a power that every one of us already has – the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people.” ~Dev Patnaik
An insightful quote from the author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
“When people in an organization develop a shared and intuitive vibe for what’s going on in the world, they’re able to see new opportunities faster than their competitors, long before that information is explicit enough to read about in The Wall Street Journal.” (~DP) “When companies have an empathic connection with the people they serve, they’re able to adjust to changing markets more effectively. They stay focused on what really matters. Empathy makes you nimble.” (~DP) Isolation can have disastrous effects because our organizations rely on the outside world, to demonstrate an impact, for support, for talent.
These days we rely a little too much on “objective” quantitative data. This fact-based approach to business has not always led us in the right direction. As someone who came from the market research industry, I know that numbers can be massaged to say whatever we want them to. As a grant writer, we consistently pull the statistics that support our case and disregard the others.
Without a complimentary, qualitative, in-the-trenches understanding of our work and the impact it can have, we lose touch with our beneficiaries. We can segment our databases continuously and yet still miss the real motivations behind donor giving. Make it a point to get out there and talk to both you beneficiaries and funders. Become one of them and discover the real strengths and weaknesses of your business model. “The simplest way to have empathy for other people is to be just like them.” (~DP)
One of the reasons storytelling has a greater impact than numbers is because it taps into our emotions, our sense of compassion, our empathic understanding. Dev Pataik illustrates how mirror neurons in our brain help us pick up on information about other people. “They do more than help you learn; they help you experience other people’s lives (as if they were your own).” (~DP)
Mirror neurons, alone, aren’t enough though. What creates a more lasting impression is their connection with memory and emotion. Think about it, aren’t your strongest memories those associated with intense emotion? They are the ones that don’t fade into the background as other experiences filter in. They are the ones that connect us with people and with the organizations that helped them in their time of need. They are the ones that motivate us to act in favor of others who may be going through the same experience.
So, “the key to developing real empathy (for your cause) is to trigger an emotional response by engaging in firsthand human contact.” (~DP) Create an engaging, emotional experience for your volunteers, your staff, your board, your beneficiaries, and your funders, and you will likely find greater loyalty.
Curiosity can be your ally as you develop a sense of empathy within your organization’s culture. “When you are curious about other people, and want to understand what their lives are like and what they value, you’ll inevitably find that you have a better ideas of how to connect with them.” (~DP) Fundraising experts all say that to be most successful, you need to view the process as building relationships, not asking for money.
We all find it easier to connect with someone we have something in common with, but curiosity can help us understand all people, whether we lead very similar lives or quite different ones. To create an “Open Empathy Organization”, every member of your organization must have a firsthand sense of what people need, how your organization addresses those needs, and (most importantly) how what they do as individuals adds or subtracts value. “When faced with the impact that they can create, people realize that their rules for what makes a job good – how long the hours should be, how much vacation time is offered, what the salary looks like – are actually far less important than discovering who the people are that need them to do great work.” (~DP)
Of course, understanding people and uncovering opportunities based on that understanding is only the first step of the process, the second critical component is caring. A real sense of caring for someone is what compels us to act in the best interests of those we serve.
Integrating first-hand experience, empathy, and caring into your organization’s culture will take time, but often, doing so can lead to a fundamental shift in thinking about how the world works. New knowledge and intuitive problem solving may invalidate current thinking.
You can reframe your world in one of three ways. “First, you can step out of your own perspective and see the world as it sees itself … Second, you can see the world in a way that’s completely different from anyone else … Finally, (you can) reframe the way you solve a problem.” (~DP) The first way, you step into someone else’s shoes. Live your life in a wheelchair for several weeks, for instance, to understand the challenges of that experience. The second way, you read between the lines to see what’s beneath the surface. The third way, you approach problem solving from a completely different point of view, making a once impossible problem easy to address.
“Creating connections between people is perhaps the greatest growth opportunity of all …The more we retreat into our own worlds, the less we thrive. The more we reach out, the healthier we become.” (~DP) Is your organization retreating into its own world or reaching out to connect with others?
NOTE:
In his book, Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
Posted in Board Development, Grant Writers, Motivation, Nonprofit, Organizational Success, Recommended Reading, Strategic planning, Understanding Donors on July 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I recently read Get Motivated! Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate Your Success with Motivational DNA by Tamara Lowe, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. Like other tools to understand ourselves and others, Tamara Lowe’s Motivational DNA matrix is potentially transformative, on both a personal and a professional level.
In the book, four laws of motivation are laid out: 1) everyone is motivated differently; 2) each individual has a unique and distinct motivational type; 3) what motivates one person can de-motivate another; and 4) no one motivational type is better than any other. Each motivational type has its advantages and disadvantages. Understanding these types can significantly impact the way you interact with your staff, volunteers, board members, and donors. It can also significantly impact your approach to creating an environment of success as a grant writer.
Each of us reflects a bit of each motivational type, but we also have a dominant combination. The basic dynamics of each motivational profile are a combination of the following:
Drives: The internal forces that mobilize a person to act.
Needs: The core requirements that you must have to feel fulfilled.
Awards: The preferred ways you desire to be recognized for achievement.
It may seem straightforward, but I encourage you to take the online quiz, because my actual results were slightly different than what I thought they’d be. I expected to be a CVI (Connections, Variety, Internal), and I turned out to be a PVI (Production, Variety, Internal). Try it out and let me know!
1. Directors – Motivational Type PSI (Producer, Stability, Internal)
Driven by results, need a stable environment (not likely to challenge the status quo), are rewarded by less tangible awards such as private recognition, internal feeling that the work is worth doing, etc.
Have any volunteers, staff, board members, or donors that match this profile?
2. Visionary – Motivational Type PVI (Producer, Variety, Internal
Driven by results, thrive on variety and are likely to shake things up, are rewarded by less tangible awards such as private recognition, internal feeling that the work is worth doing, etc.
If you are a consultant, working with multiple clients, does this fit you?
3. The Chief – Motivational Type PSE (Producer, Stability, External)
Driven by results, need a stable environment (not likely to challenge the status quo), rewarded by tangible awards such as public recognition, higher pay, etc.
Some corporate CEOs probably fit this type.
4. The Champion – Motivational Type PVE (Producer, Variety, External)
Driven by results, thrive on variety and are likely to shake things up, rewarded by tangible awards such as public recognition, higher pay or status, etc.
Many entrepreneurial CEOs probably fit this type.
5. The Supporter – Motivational Type CSI (Connection, Stability, Internal)
Driven by relationships, need a stable environment (not likely to challenge the status quo), rewarded by less tangible awards such as private recognition, internal feeling that the work is worth doing, etc.
Have any donors that fit this profile?
6. The Relater – Motivational Type CVI (Connection, Variety, Internal)
Driven by relationships, thrive on variety and are likely to shake things up, rewarded by less tangible awards such as private recognition, internal feeling that the work is worth doing, etc.
Perhaps your events staff matches this style.
7. The Refiner – Motivational Type CSE (Connection, Stability, External)
Driven by relationships, need a stable environment (not likely to challenge the status quo), rewarded by tangible awards such as public recognition, etc.
Perhaps some of your corporate supporters fall into this category.
8. The Explorer – Motivational Type CVE (Connection, Variety, External)
Driven by relationships, thrive on variety and are likely to shake things up, rewarded by tangible awards such as public recognition, higher pay, etc.
Perhaps the motivational type for individuals who love to travel the world, meet new people, and make a lot of money. Know anyone like that?
Get Motivated! Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate Your Success with Motivational DNA by Tamara Lowe
or take the:Motivational DNA Test
If you purchase the book, Tamara Lowe includes numerous bonus items. Ms. Lowe is donating 100% of her proceeds from this book to children’s charities.
I hope you will add this book to your collection and use the profile to understand and balance the dynamics of your staff, volunteers, and board members. Use it to segment your donors, and learn how to reward them for their generosity in the most effective way.
Set achievable goals for yourself using the knowledge gained about your own Motivational DNA. Improve relationships with coworkers, friends, and family. The potential application of this knowledge is tremendous.
