There comes a time where we have to make a decision. What will we invest in? It is a serious question and not a budget exercise. If we are going to be intentional and proactive, we need to make an investment. At first that may be just time. Eventually it will be about people, our processes, our strategies and our technology. If we don’t become intentional in our approach to our digital constituent experiences we will continue to be haphazard in our approach; reacting, responding, solving toxic experiences in real time. This intention however must be about heartfelt experiences. It must create a passion for our mission.
There is of course, a very real cost to reacting. Scrutinize your budget and you will see that most of our fixed expenses are reactionary. What if we invested in proactive and intentional experiences of the heart up front? Could we radically reduce our reactionary and bloated fixed expenses? In fact, my guess is the reactionary expenses vastly exceed proactive expenses. I know nonprofits that are ramping up their expenses in reactionary engagement and relationships. The good news is that they are succeeding in shifting the negative to neutral or even the positive.
So what is the outcome of taking a negative and balancing it with a positive? Is it engagement or damage control? So what is the cost and value of neutralizing the negative? Shouldn’t we start with the amazing? What is the return on that investment in the stunning? What is probably most concerning is that most nonprofits are not measuring much of this. And why are we struggling to raise more money? Now think about that question. Why is our revenue flat? Why are donors not engaged and renewing their contributions?
Is the experience we are creating wonderfully sharable? If not, what is our investment over the next 3 months going to be in changing that? We must invest in not only a positive experience but an experience that screams out for our members, volunteers and donors to share it with everyone they know. That encourages others to join in. It also offsets any negative experiences anyone else has shared. Think about it. We all read the ratings and comments. If there are 100 over the top ones we can ignore the one that is virally negative writing it off to a weirdo.
What is the biggest deal? Trying to offset the negative experiences or proactively creating amazing ones? Creating amazing ones is everything. That is not an exaggeration. You know, from your own experiences that it is true. The cost of reacting is always eclipsed by the upside of the stunning.
Think of what you want. You are a consumer. You are the constituent who wants something from your nonprofit. Are you looking for the ordinary? No, you are looking for an experience, no, the experience.
Any nonprofit that recognizes you, remembers you, and gives you an amazing service experience will win your heart. And it is all about your heart. You will be loyal to them no matter what. That is what we know as relevance. A passion of our heart that transcends anything else.
And so, that heartfelt experience is not just a so-so something. It is everything. That kind of vision is the father of innovation. Who needs the mother of invention in that kind of world?
[…] intention however must be about heartfelt experiences. It must create a passion for our mission. More […]
ReplyDelete[…] Are we creating heartfelt experiences? […]
ReplyDeleteI am making an investment right now. One i feel is very valuable for two reasons upfront and numerous others. The 2 upfront are, i am investing my time here in you, because i believe in you and your information here. 2nd is it is valuable for me, the return investment is nice because i can put the information to good use....great use. And it costs me nothing but time. Oh sure to be literal there are expenses of electricity to run the computer and lights as i respond here, so ok we can count that. Intentional, i am doing this review of this Manifesto intentionally because i have meant to so many times and got sidetracked by something else be it business or personal. I am intentional about it because i value you and our....be it as it may,,,,(virtual) business and spiritual and friend relationship. I view it as something i must do, a responsibility to do as who i am. Because this experience will be one of numerous experiences i have had with you that i consider to be priceless. It is experience i look for as often "as possible" as it seems it can be not as often as one would like maybe.
ReplyDeleteAs founder of our nonprofit i have found myself indeed "solving toxic experiences in real time." These do not hardly ever feel good, but i can tell you they are most definitely from my heart and heartfelt on my behalf anyway.
Why are we struggling to raise money?? Why are our donations flat? Ohhhhh the subject i hate most...money. Well first i believe as far as our org is concerned it is because perhaps people do not understand fully what we do and that is my fault. It is because we do so much as far as services that i feel if i really detailed it people would not believe it anyway. We have typically done whatever it takes for whatever request someone made for assistance. How do you show that? Briefly and simply? Our donations are flat because i hate asking for money. I blog it and post it, but that is not the same to me as "asking" for it. I am horrible at fundraising. I am excellent at providing services in helping someone one on one. I do what ever it takes.
Experiences, in order to understand and enjoy them, i believe our constituents need to take a breath and slow down a bit in order to stop and listen and understand what the nonprofit is truly going through. (wow Michael my friend....brilliant....this is quite a little exercise you have created for nonprofit leaders big and small) In the work we have done at our org for example i cannot post all of the experiences. I guess you can liken it to a domestic violence org...you do not see everything they do on their websites. It is because it is private. Same for what we do in helping those in need. In order for the general public of today to have an experience they want to see videos and photos...well in our work that simply is not always possible because of what we would have to show. I simply refuse to show the very private stuff. It's ugly and if people are honest with themselves they really do not want to hear it. It's negative many times as far as the reason for the story because we are dealing with people in crisis...crisis is not pretty.....but if the constituents slow down a bit to absorb the experience they will see the positive in the work done by the description of that service provided.....there in will lie the experience.
And IF they want to know more about that experience and they want to feel the experience and hear the providers tears and shaking voice when they tell the story??? Then they can pick up the phone and ask about the story and what can be told about what took place.
So what has all this done? Well for the nonprofit there is quite an experience also. For us it is forcing us to revamp what we do and our Mission.
And that i believe will indeed be a Positive Experience for all. :-))!
Thanks again Michael