The COVID Crisis is an opportunity to make your case for support even more compelling!
Adapting Your Case for Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact all businesses, including the mission-driven sector, many nonprofit organizations are asking how to best approach fundraising during a time when so many have lost jobs or closed their businesses.
Based on recent experiences of our past and present clients, and other nonprofits regarding their crisis-oriented fundraising appeals, there is cause for optimism.
These organizations are initiating crisis/urgent giving campaigns which have met and surpassed original goals. At the heart of these success stories is a fundamental principle for success: a case for support which is compelling, urgent, and adapted to address the needs of the current moment.
Below, we have outlined a few of the principles we believe are behind this success:
Engage your constituency by asking for their feedback regarding your COVID Crisis Case
Whether it be a time of prosperity or moment of adversity, this long-held axiom prevails, “People support what they help to create.”
Giving after prior crises show us that donor retention is most successful when organizations maintain candid and consistent communication with their constituency during the crisis. Now is the time to reach out to your major donors, most consistent annual donors, and other key constituents to ask for advice and feedback on your organization’s COVID-19 crisis plan and modified case for support. Be sure to listen actively and report back regarding how you've addressed and implemented their collective feedback.
Identify and confront the brutal truths confronting your organization: adapt your case to reflect these brutal realities
In James Collins 2001 classic business book, “From Good to Great,” he named the Stockdale Paradox. Stockdale was an American pilot in the Vietnam war. He was captured and made into a POW. He spent 8 gruesome years in solitary confinement in Vietnam’s infamous Hanoi Hilton while being tortured almost daily. After the war, he explained how he survived and why optimists were the first ones to die in the camp. Those who confronted the brutal reality that they would be imprisoned for years by developing survival tactics, lived. Those who did not, died.
The Stockdale Paradox applies to Covid’s effect on your organization. When crafting your message for your crisis/urgent giving campaign, articulate the challenges facing your organization, no matter how dire. Be direct in stating your need, timeframe, and why support is critical to your mission and impact on those you serve. At the same time, lead with empathy and understanding for those who may not be able to help at this time.
Leverage Technology
There are always blessings which result from every crisis or challenge. One of the silver linings of this moment is the availability of technological tools to support online giving. If you have the capacity, leverage your organization’s e-mail marketing and social media platforms to expand the reach of your crisis/urgent giving campaign, set up zoom or WebEx meetings to engage your major donors, and be consistent in driving investors to your online giving portal by using your volunteers and stakeholders to spread the message to their respective networks. If you don’t have these tools, now is the time to invest in technology, despite diminished financial resources.
Share Your Success and Thank Your Benefactors
In any time of turmoil, people gravitate towards stories of hope and inspiration. After your successful crisis/urgent giving campaign, report back and share your success with your entire constituency. And always, thank those who stood by your organization during this time of need.
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To all of our friends, clients and partners, we wish you the best of health and safety. If you have any questions, if you’d like to discuss any of our thoughts and recommendations, or if you’d just like to talk or Zoom, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: 888.949.5289
COVID-19 Advancement Strategies
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, mission-driven organizations across the country are required to adapt to a very challenging and new reality. As professionals in the philanthropic sector, this moment of hardship has presented its own unique set of challenges, as nonprofits nationwide are being forced to adjust programs, to cancel special events and fundraising galas, and to plan for a future with unprecedented uncertainty.
To all of our friends and past and former clients who work and volunteer for nonprofits, we thank you for all you have done and continue to do; we hope and pray that you and your families are safe and healthy; and we want you to know that we are here for you and will do anything we can to help you with your immediate and long-term plans.
Based on our nearly forty years’ experience working with hundreds of organizations in all nonprofit sectors through other financial and world crises, we offer a few ideas and tactics to consider as you develop your crisis plan.
Crises Provide an Opportunity to Demonstrate Leadership Character
As American novelist James Lane Allen wrote, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” During this time, it is imperative that board and executive leadership communicate as often as possible with strong and decisive messages. Leadership should not sugar coat organizational challenges. Leaders should communicate and confront the brutal truths of the current reality and seek to align their teams around strategies and tactics to deal with these brutal truths.
When Making Tough Decisions, “Do The Right Thing”
Try to do your best to stay up to speed with all COVID-19-related guidance from local, state, and federal officials. The health and safety of everyone is paramount and takes precedence over everything. It’s important to error on the side of an “abundance of caution.”
Develop a “Stay-At-Home Friendly” Fundraising and Constituent Engagement Plan
Here are some advancement and fundraising strategies to consider implementing as part of your plan:
Constituent Connection and Engagement
Crises provide an opportunity to demonstrate the true ministry of advancement: to focus on relationships with philanthropic investors. Now may not be the best time to be soliciting gifts, but it is a good time to be checking in with your major benefactors to let them know you are thinking about them, to see how they are doing, and to tell them your organization is there to help them in any way possible. Time and time again, major donors say they remember and appreciate the organizations that reached out to them in times of crisis and, as a result, are more likely to give to those organizations once the crisis is over.
Developing Digital Content as Part of Virtual Events
Many nonprofits are faced with huge holes in their 2019 - 2020 operating budgets as a result of the cancellation of all Spring fundraising special events and gala dinners. We recommend taking advantage of this crisis to pivot to virtual events and days of giving.
The key is to create dynamic and exciting content to draw your constituents to your giving platforms. There are many talented and professional digital marketing firms which can help to develop the content and deliver it via all forms of social media and electronic messaging.
Consider How You Can Leverage the Crisis to Make Your Case More Compelling
While Latz & Company generally advises using this time to focus on donor communications and engagement rather than on solicitation and asking, we also know that many organizations may need crisis-related funding immediately. If your organization has urgent needs, especially related to immediate help for children or other at-risk populations, we recommend taking a moment to think about how your “ask” will fit into your current case for support. Be sure to position your “crisis ask” in the larger context of your organization’s vision for the future.
Engage Foundation Funders
There are many foundations who have prepared for this moment and are willing to go above their 5% disbursement minimums to help organizations in need. Take time to connect with your current foundation funders regarding their COVID-19 strategies and conduct research to identify new foundation prospects that may be meeting this moment with new areas of activity and streamlined application processes.
This article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy highlights some of the ways funders are responding to the COVID-19 crisis: https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Foundations-Adopt-Policies-to/248396
Consistent, Concise and Customized Communications are More Critical Than Ever
It’s critical during this time to leverage tools that are aptly designed to reach your organization’s audience and constituents. Many communication platforms are free and cost-effective and provide an opportunity to reach a large number of people who are increasingly at home and online. Now is the moment to think of creative social media campaigns that are fun, interesting and customized to each constituency.
A Moment for Transformation
Crises, while immensely challenging, also provide organizations the opportunity to think creatively about where they are and who they want to be in the future. It is in this moment, organizations should consider substituting time that would have been spent on fundraising activity with time dedicated to re-assessing strategic visions, plans and organizational development initiatives that may have been sitting on the shelf. When this crisis is over, there will be more need than ever and pent up philanthropic support. It’s critical that organizations prepare now to optimize future fundraising by building a strong foundation now.
Until we see you on the other side of COVID-19, please stay safe and healthy!
To all of our friends, clients and partners, we wish you the best of health and safety. If you have any questions, if you’d like to discuss any of our thoughts and recommendations, or if you’d just like to talk or Zoom, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: 888.949.5289