You have a passion for your mission. You want to do the right thing for your constituents. You believe in a better constituent experience. You are on a journey. This is a world that brings about radical change for your nonprofit. Your journey will require that you master “change management”. “Change management” is your primary role as a visionary who truly believes your nonprofit can end up in a better place with more reach for your mission and with an improved bottom line to fund it.
You are a champion of transformation and innovation in your nonprofit. You will face a lot of challenges. It will require hard work, perseverance and support from many. You will discover many allies and a few enemies.
Part of your work is about discovery. Much of it is about communication and formulation of strategy. A focus on going from strategy to a few actionable next steps is critical. This is definitely hard work. If you are up to it, that is precisely why it is interesting. Not everyone can lead the way.
All the hard work will lead to the reward. Unparalleled growth is the promise of an enriched customer experience. (Yes, there is data to support this.)
Too often, the constituent’s experience of your brand is an afterthought. Your main focus is to become intentional about everything you can. To bring the issues front and center, you and others need to champion internal transformation. It doesn’t matter that you are unclear where to begin right now. Getting started will help you figure it out. You are going to need lots of helpers. And you probably need at least one mentor.
Acknowledging that the world is changing may be a wonderful place to start. We know consumer behavior is changing rapidly. It is impacting how constituents view your nonprofit. Documenting how it is impacting your nonprofit is another key focus area. It is already impacting your bottom line.
Another focus of the journey may be to break a few deadly habits. We all have habits. One nonprofit habit is seeing donors from the view of a single donation transaction. This is called direct response. This habit can cause you to miss the donor (they are a millionaire) who has recently made a series of small donation transactions. What experience did they just have with you? As a result that experience, are they on a journey with you to engagement with your mission? Moving from a transaction mindset to a relational and engagement mindset can remarkably impact the experience the donor has. This has huge rippling effects into loyalty and total giving.
And so … it is a journey. Constituent behavior is changing and changing fast. As a hero leading the journey internally, it is your role to help leaders see the impact to your bottom line and help everyone keep up.
Another good one Michael.
ReplyDeleteChange, is always good i believe as it builds a deeper foundational ground in a person.
Donors, transactions and relationships. As founder of our very small nonprofit homeless outreach organization, each donor is important to me, mostly because of why they are giving. I like to try and learn what that is about each one. Not necessarily by asking them but by listening to them.
We have millionaires who have donated to our organization and we have a few billionaires who donated. We have one billionaire who has supported us in the past. We have a pleasant relationship with them although the funding has dwindled. Mainly, due to location.
Transactions: Asking for the transaction to take place is one of my most least favorable things. When it comes to the transaction, i personally thank each donor. That just never seems to be enough to me. I mean, a thank you for the donation is expected and received by many. In other words i feel it actually can ruin the experience because of how it is the "norm" to say and send a thank you.
Personally, i wish i could do more then just "thank" someone for that recent transaction/donation. However, i find some donors do not want the direct interaction/relationship and simply want the experience as you point out that they experience when they come to a website. That as a founder makes me feel bad, makes me not want that donation no matter how small or large it may be or who it may be from.....i know i know..i sound crazy here. It is because i really want them to know why their donation was important other then just seeing the words on our website or in an mail.
Website experiences: I personally maintain our nonprofits website 100%. What i attempt to do is provide a real world experience of "boots on the ground" type feel. One that is simply..."This is how it is". Our website has been my attempt at trying to give potential donors a look at what we do, an experience of urgency. What seems to "sell" however to seems to be fluff and inflated numbers/metrics etc. However, i do understand it is up to me to provide a "better" experience. My problem is, i want the experience to be real, not just something to make someone feel good.
My hope has been to try and put content out there to create an experience which generates potential donors be they the waitress down the street, the warehouse worker in another state, the local doctor, millionaire or billionaire to give me a call and ask me why they should donate to our organization. We have had one billionaire call me and ask what he could do to help us and then did over a 4 year period so far. We had two other billionaires donate $500 and $250 without a phone call.
I have changes to make i know. Trying to make some now in fact. I love change. I feel it forces you to be more creative and you can always learn from change. I want to create an experience for potential donors to move them to call me and ask why they should donate to our organization. I want them to see my appreciation for them in more than just typed print. I want them to see it from my face and my voice. From our efforts.
I am 100% positive we have missed numerous donors, even millionaire and billionaire donors because i do not put out information the way everyone is used to seeing it.
The experience for the constituent must be great i agree.
Our target constituents for example have two basic qualities:
1) They know how Jesus Christ wants things done - this is the most important
2) They are looking to do things in a different way then the norm.
A Hero? Am i a hero? Do i want to be a hero? Nah.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate hero, everyone else pales in comparison.
Our organization simply wants to honor His Heroship by doing what we do.
That is the experience people can look for from our organization.
Thank you once again for this Manifesto Michael.
:-))!