1. Rethinking Board-Advancement Partnerships in Light of New Realities
James M. Langley, President
Amy Gregg, Senior Associate
Langley Innovations

2. Partnerships Areas where partnering is most essential
Strategic information gathering
Volunteer identification and engagement
Projecting a plan for the school, not just making a case for more private support
Not about fundraising, but creating the conditions that encourage and inspire philanthropy

3. New Realities New realities
A smaller percentage of donors influencing fundraising totals
An erosion of long-term, broad based support, the bond portion of our philanthropic portfolios
Fundraisers having greater difficulty in securing appointments with new donors
Skepticism toward all contact from schools (tantamount to a request for funds)
Even insiders rebuffing requests for feasibility studies
Loyal donors asking for a plan not another case for support

4. New Realities New realities
A rigorous questioning of our cost-value proposition
Educational cost as a percentage of family income
The economic contraction revealed these issues but did not cause them
Gaps have been slowly growing
The realities of the school vs. the perception of constituents
For all institutions

5. New Realities
What in fact we’re seeing are three realities that are continuing to diverge; that of
The board/administration
The advancement operation
The current and prospective donors
The most successful schools will have the strongest alignment of those realities

6. New Realities

7. Barriers and gateways

8. New Realities
The keys to securing more support in the face of these challenges are not:
Increasing the number of fundraisers
Being more aggressive
Strengthening communications
Launching a traditional campaign (based on long-held assumptions)
Particularly if you are emphasizing capital improvements

9. Strategic Information Gathering

10. New Realities
The area where boards and advancement operations need to effect the strongest collaborations is in and around intelligence gathering
In exploring the potential divergence between what schools are seeking support for vs. what their supporters assign the greatest value to
And the degree to which its most important current and prospective supporters feel valued by the school – for their time and talents, not just their treasure

11. New Realities
The way to accomplish both – to explore the gaps between the expectations of the school and those who might support it, and to make your current and potential supporters feel value – is to interview them
Board – top donors and prospects, loyal donors
Head – commissions, blue ribbon panels
Advancing – polling (through means generally reserved for one-way communications)

12. New Realities The Georgetown Experience
93% - excellent or very good education
84% - “profound impact” on my life
17% - giving

13. New Realities Student Discovery 7,000 interviews
Alumni assured they would not be asked
Overall giving (among lapsed donors) increased by 43%
20 percent gave their largest gift ever
“I never felt more respected”
“I can’t believe you sent someone all this way just to see me”

14. New Realities Experience of other institutions Discovery interviews
Annual fund
Pre-campaign
Salon events
Curricular reviews/longitudinal assessments
Encouragement of class notes, “share your voice”

15. New Realities
When relationship management appears to be relegated to advancement (or development), the constituent draws the obvious conclusion – the value the school assigns to me is conditional
Yet, the potential supporter thinks about a different set of conditions – time, talent and treasure
Volunteers give 10X

16. New Realities
Relationship management should be, and perceived as, coming from the very top
Current donors – most likely to give
Lapsed donors, LYBUNTS
Major gift stewardship/review

17. Volunteers Donor Questions Was the experience satisfying?
Do you feel good about the impact of your gift?
Was there an emotional return on your investment?
Do you feel closer to the school as a result?
What have been your most positive interactions?
Who best exemplifies what you most value about the school?
How could your relationship with the school be improved?
How do you feel about the direction of the school?

18. New Realities Donor Interviews Ongoing feasibility
Not just the usual sampling
Skewed results
Identifying barriers and gateways
Even if you are in a campaign, this outreach gives you time to adjust/adapt
Many will be more candid with you than with the staff, and more apt to speak with you than a consultant

19. New Realities Prospect Questions What issues concern you most?
What do you hope for your children?
What must never change about this school?
Where do you think change is most needed?
How have you been involved?
When was your last engagement, interaction

20. Volunteer Identification and Engagement

21. New Realities
The next most important area for board-advancement partnerships is strategic volunteer engagement
Seek out relevant talents
Look for those who are grateful (in general) and don’t take sole credit for their talents (self-made)
Put them to work – task or task force
Beware of boards, committees

22. Volunteers Don’t build advancement staff, add volunteers
Create one-hour work modules
Provide toolkits
Train
Monitor performance

23. Volunteers Time/talent is a treasure (must be a true offset of costs)
Volunteers should not cost an organization
Not a form of entertainment
Predictive of future treasure giving (money)
Think of every genuine need as an engagement opportunity
Greatest costs -- salaries

24. Volunteers Identification/Recruitment
The best are the hardest to get, take the most time to court but ultimately make all the difference
Don’t just accommodate those who come to you looking for something to do
Avoid the “heavy hitter” syndrome, look for the mission driven, socially responsible, those who give outside their immediate self-interest
Create a farm system – task at time

25. Volunteers
If you survey your constituents – by any means – you will find a pent up desire to “be more engaged”
Engaging volunteers allows you show not tell, create a greater sense of ownership, shared purposes

26. Volunteers Mayflower Compact 1620
“ …combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation …; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony.”
Preamble to the Constitution, 1787
“We the people ….”

27. Projecting A Plan

28. HIGHER PHILANTHROPIC GROUND
“There’s a tremendous opportunity for nonprofits to build greater awareness and understanding of how they manage their organizations by sharing insights into their funding structure, project management and volunteer coordination practices. Transparency through open and frequent communication with current and prospective donors should always remain a priority.”
-Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Volunteer Match Survey

29. Projecting a Plan
“Americans are practical people. They want explanations not soaring rhetoric.”
Value/cost proposition
Role of philanthropy

30. Maintaining Relevance: A Sustainable Model
Traditional/Existing Strengths
Alignment Potential +$
Current and Emerging Realties
Opportunities
(Intellectual)
Limitations
(Fiscal)
Challenges
(Moral)
Diminished Relevance/Efficiency -$
New Capabilities
Strategic/Obligatory
Adjustments
Strategy: The Means by Which Internal Aspirations Are Conditioned by External Realities

31. Projecting a Plan
Increasingly important starting points in philanthropic discussions
What difficult decisions have you made?
How have you reallocated resources – from inefficient uses obsolescent purpose to efficient uses and a strategic purposes
What specific objectives do you hope to achieve with specific levels of private support

32. Projecting a Plan
Increasingly important starting points in philanthropic discussions
Sources and uses
Tuition dollars vs. private support
Core needs vs. the margin of excellence
Value sustaining vs. value added
Growing numbers of donors express a concern that fundraising is being used to patch over systemic issues, avoid difficult decisions and that they don’t see the net impact of their support over time

33. Projecting a Plan
Absent this, advancement staff, no matter how capable, will have an increasingly difficult time securing appointments, particularly with new prospects
Even when they are able to secure appointments, they will have difficulty advancing the discussion; prospects will remain “in cultivation”
They will be viewed as nice sales people incapable of addressing critical issues – and that will say something about the schools that deploy them

34. New Realities Old paradigm New paradigm Identify, cultivate, solicit
Afford voice, validate, volunteer talent, promote ownership through problem and opportunity sharing
We the people …a more perfect union

35. Volunteers
Questions?

36. The Right Environment

37. Real Work

38. Volunteers
Real Work
Beyond boards, please (especially fundraising boards)
Task forces
Blue ribbon panels
Commissions
Immerse in mission, delivery systems
Touch the baby, render real service
Trust

39. Volunteers Real Issues Emotional health Family health/dynamics
The creation of community
Students as stakeholders, responsible
The anatomy of bullying, alienation
Commitment to a common cause
The celebration of values
Athletics vs. academics

40. Volunteers Create work modules Look at political campaigns
Define important work that can be done in one hour, try out volunteer, increase increments according to interest, capability and performance (Student Discovery example)
Tours
Interviews/Polling/Market Research
Peer to peer
Parent to parent

41. Volunteers Create work modules
The running of every organization requires the assessment of what people are capable of doing and finding the appropriate level of work
People with sophisticated skills do not want to be assigned administrative tasks
If administrative tasks need be completed, find volunteers capable of and content with doing them
Phone answering, stuffing envelopes, staffing events

42. Matching Talents to Tasks

43. Volunteers
Reached a point where the greater logic says that volunteers need to be a permanent and critical extension of the professional organization
How we began
How we got so much done
Institutions over-professionalized, stilted volunteer spirit
Cannot continue to increase costs
Need more financial support

44. Volunteers
Need to think about building a professional organization and think about volunteers as non-paid, part-time professionals
Job definition
Recruitment/application
Goals, objectives, metrics
Performance reviews

45. Volunteers Volunteer Skills
High end abilities that we couldn’t otherwise afford (voluntarism tied to years of formal education)
Investing
Law
Strategy
Marketing
Computer science
Health

46. Volunteers Think of professional staff as functional core
Volunteers as selective, strategic augmentation
Advertise, interview for specific skills
Create a certain amount of redundancy
Stop thinking of them as prospects
Humoring, ingratiating
Tiptoeing around

47. Volunteers Every time someone says, “I need more staff to ….”
Ask ourselves if that need represents an opportunity for volunteer contribution
Peter Drucker – A knowledge worker needs to be treated like a volunteer
Need to explore the relationship of control to productivity

48. Avoiding Myths, Assumptions, Linear Thinking

49. Volunteers Volunteers are unmanageable, undependable
How much time did you spend seeking out specialized talent vs. accommodating those that showed up?
When you don’t train and trust, how do you expect people to feel valued and essential to the enterprise?
When someone is given inconsequential work, how do you expect them to stay motivated?
If volunteers are highly successful in their professions, how could they not offer valuable service?

50. Volunteers
In too many cases, volunteer sub-optimization is attributable to one primary cause – urgent, unimaginative fundraising
“Volunteers” were/are really prospects; we sought to engage them to advance the fundraising process
Since they were more prospect than volunteer, we put them on boards and put on shows for them

51. Volunteers We need to get real Real skill Real work Real contributions
Real assessments
Real decisions
Real results