Campaign Planning is Key for Success

I believe it was Churchill who once said something along the lines of, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Though my favorite WWII premier and I might disagree on many things, the importance of planning is something we both passionate about. No matter the size or type of your organization, and no matter the size or specialization of your staff, planning is crucial to your success.

Just imagine him saying, "PLAN!"
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Having a plan is having a roadmap. Without a roadmap, you're the blind leading the blind taking chances that your organization just might not be able afford to take. Trust in me, your valued public relations practitioner, when I say planning can be simple, easy, and not the headache that many make it out to be.

While your organization's mission and vision can be vague and abstract when determining the future of the firm, each and every public relations and communications campaign or program you implement should be well-thought and well-planned. A public relations plan, or campaign, has four basic elements: research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Almost as simple as do re mi, isn't it?

Research is the very first step when a campaign has been decided. Forget those awful days of undergrad media research where you spent hours and hours nauseatingly viewing hours of microfilm in a dark hot room with tension headaches - research isn't as always as bad as that. This phase includes reviewing past campaigns, gathering information about potential projects, events, and materials, interviewing key individuals, review demographics, and researching other opportunities for the campaign. And focus groups...those can be fun!

Planning is the next crucial step in the campaign process. This is where you bring the various elements of your research together to form a cohesive plan, or strategy, that will later be executed. This is where you pour the concrete foundation. You decide the direction your campaign will take, form your message, and decide how your message will be disseminated. You'll also figure a reporting mechanism so you track your campaign's success.

Implementation is go time. This is when you take the master plan and put it into action...tally ho and view halloo. Message is disseminated, feedback is received, and operations continue in action. While your plan is strong and concrete, as you should make alterations as you receive feedback from stakeholders. For example, you might implement a weekly Twitter chat that is failing miserably as planned. Thus, make changes, such as implementing a blog discussion forum. Though the implementation stage is putting your plan into action, it's also an evolving process for your campaign as you should make alterations as necessary.

Evaluation is the last leg of a campaign where you take time to analyze the successes and failures of your campaign's plan and implementation. Review feedback from stakeholders, write reports for other organizational executives, reconcile your budget, discuss the research and planning phases with your committees and staff, and overall ask yourself what you did well that should be done again and what didn't work well and why. Evaluation happens when a campaign ends...that's a hint that your campaign should be timed (short-term or long-term, but with an end date). Oh and celebrate...no matter the how successful or how failed your campaign is, you and your team will have given your blood, sweat, and tears for the program, and thus the end should be celebrated.

The bigger your campaign, the more time and effort each of these stages will require. However, don't be intimidated...planning is important and can determine your success (or failure).

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Have You Thanked Your Donors?

I recently attended an executive soirée where a VIP stated that if you're doing a job you love, you don't need to be thanked. While that is a great idea for seeking intrinsic satisfaction in our work, how often do we take such liberties when it comes to thanking others? Coworkers, customers and clients, and family and friends. But lest we forget one group of stakeholders that we cannot successfully function without: donors.

Many organizations, like Habitat for Humanity, depend greatly
on volunteer efforts to be effective in our communities. 

Thanking your donors is a key component to any fundraising campaign and any nonprofit organization's operational model. Long-term success cannot be secured without a little thank you here and there. It's seems pretty simple, doesn't it? Someone makes a donation, and you say "thank you." But as we all know, it's often the simple things that are first forgotten.

The first step is to recognize who our donors are. Philanthropy and donorship are predominantly viewed as the giving of money. While, yes, that is a big part of fundraising (emphasis on "fund"), a philanthropist is someone who gives of their money, possessions (in-kind gifts), and time. Volunteers and board members are sometimes second to none, including executive directors, the most hardworking advocates for our missions.

The second step is to identify where your donors are on the donor pipeline. All active donors are in one of the following five stages:

1. Identification: recognizing a stakeholder having philanthropic potential. 
2. Qualification: assessing the relationship between your organization and an individual to determine the pathway to take (ie, type of gift to pursue).
3. Cultivation: building upon the existing foundation to form a stronger and more beneficial relationship.
4. Solicitation: the ask.
5. Stewardship: continuing to strengthen the relationship by thanking your donor (thanking without asking, that is), and accounting for the use of their gift.
6. Repeat.

Keep in mind that cultivation process could take up to a year, and stewardship can be spread over several years. However, once a donor has been stewarded properly, you can then assess if the donor is capable of making another gift (identification), and re-qualify them for another gift. Thus, the cycle is continually repeating...on the donor's timetable, not ours. The key here is to not jump from solicitation to solicitation without effective stewardship...don't ask for a gift without thanking your donor for what you have already received.

There is the old adage that a donor should be thanked eight times for one gift before you ask for another gift. Did you read that correctly? Thanked eight times! Yes, for some NPOs, that might feel a little superfluous, but it is truly the bedrock for effective stewardship. As with everything in strategic fundraising, the actuality is dependent upon the donor, strength of the relationship, and size and type of gift.

This brings us to our third step - developing thank you opportunities. Expressing gratitude doesn't happen automatically over night without effort on our part. Here are some tips for developing effective thank you opportunities:

• The first gift should be acknowledged within 10 days of receipt. Work with your accounting department or gift processor to determine the most efficient system notifying you of gifts received so that you can quickly and efficiently thank your donor. 
• Don't confuse a thank you (aka expression of gratitude and often a reporting mechanism) with a gift acknowledgement (aka a receipt for gift received noting tax deductibility, premiums received, and other pertinent information for using a gift for a tax deduction). These should not be treated as the same. 
• Regardless of a gift being a restricted (given with specific purpose) or unrestricted (gift to an organization with no stipulations for use), the individual in charge should be the first to thank the donor, and within the 10 days. Depending on the organization, this could be the executive director, president, department chair, etc. The vehicle for the communication can be based on giving levels. Some organizations send letters immediately, and only make a phone call to thank when it's above a certain amount, from a new donor, from a repeat donor, or based on other predetermined factors. 
• Don't assume that donors want to be involved or don't want to be involved in the projects or programs they're funding. Using a donor thank you communication is an opportunity to invite donors to increase their involvement and personal level of investment into their giving. 
• Consider tiering thank yous internally. This could mean a phone call from the executive director, letter from the development office, handwritten note from board chair, letter from program director, phone call from volunteer, etc, all for one gift. Some organizations base the type of communication and from whom on the size of the gift. 
• Time your communications. You want to thank your donors for their gift within 10 days of receipt, but you don't want to do 100% of your thanking in one week. Thank you communications can include follow up and reporting. This is a great opportunity to illustrate to donors the return on their investment. 
• Be creative with your communication tools. Did your donor-funded program's amazingly great project make it into the paper? Cut out the article and include it in a handwritten note to your donor saying, "You made this possible...thank you!"

The most important rule of donor stewardship is to be genuine. For some donors, uniqueness is a wee bit limited, but for other donors, it is a full-time endeavor to know anything and everything to plan, prepare, develop, and strengthen a relationship with your donors.

We all know the value of gifts of time and resources - they are the life blood of our organizations. Mom's old saying that "haste makes waste" is especially true in donor stewardship. Give your honest effort, be genuine, and remember that time is of the essence.

Have a stewardship dilemma? Email BOLD PR for service tailored for your organization.