Strategy
This document was uploaded by user and they confirmed that they have the permission to share it. If you are author or own the copyright of this book, please report to us by using this DMCA report form. Report DMCA
Overview
Download & View Strategy as PDF for free.
More details
- Words: 2,694
- Pages: 7
Why does your organization need a strategic plan? A well designed planned giving program should be set up in such a way that every aspect of the program is integrated to promote donor education, commitment, connectedness and volunteerism. If all these areas are addressed, strong relationships between the organization (its staff and volunteers) and donors will develop and future gifts through planned giving will be the result. A planned giving strategic plan should blend seamlessly with your overall organizational strategic plan so that there is no conflict with established policies and procedures and all fundraisers are working in tandem. The ten steps 1. Get started with the simple and the obvious. Educate all staff (especially the front lines) to be on the lookout for signs that a donor may fit the demographic of a legacy donor. Staff should scrutinize direct mail response pieces and donation cheques as well as telephone calls and meetings with donors. The indicators that can help to identify a potential ideal legacy donor include: • • • • •
A shaky signature on a cheque or handwriting on a note The use of the title “Miss” A cheque that is issued on a private banking or VIP special account A cheque that shows a home address in an affluent postal code Conversations where donors self-identify as: o widowed/single o childless o “snowbirds” o small business owners o multiple property owners o connected and committed to your organization
2. Write policies that are simply a list of dos and don’ts that your organization (staff and volunteers) will adhere to. Written policies need to be in place at the beginning to guide and govern the actions of those who come after us. Ultimately these policies are in place to act as guidelines for accepted protocol and to prevent future harm to the organization from the unintentional but imprudent actions of staff, board members and other volunteers. The policies include standard will clauses, gift acceptance policies, a code of ethics, investment policies, and endowment policies. 3. Develop a tracking system that is an effective system for recording all paper, e-mail and telephone interaction (and hopefully personal visits) with donors and professional advisors. This will allow your organization to carry on meaningful relationships with these people over the long term and to withstand critical staff changes. One of the most important long term assets a charity has is its knowledge and understanding of its donor base. In both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, the success of the organization
comes down to the relationships it builds between the organization (staff) and donors/clients. 4. Measurement criteria needs to be established early on. Unlike cash donations that are easy to determine with an annual calculation, planned gifts are usually made now but realized in the future. It is important for the board and staff to have an accurate measurement of how the planned giving program is proceeding in the absence of hard dollars in the door by fiscal year end. Measuring activity that will lead to future planned giving successes is an important yardstick early on. 5. Mine your database by taking advantage of the segmenting work that other charities have done with respect to determining which donors are most likely to become gift planning prospects and eventually confirmed bequest donors. Other charities have discovered through experience, donor focus groups and surveys, that a certain definable demographic make up the donors that are inclined to make a charitable gift through their will. By focusing on this demographic, any organization can use its limited resources to effectively work with those donors most likely to have the ability and the desire to make planned gifts. Generally speaking, ideal planned giving donors are: • • • • •
Elderly (preferably at least age 70+, ideally age 80+) Single, widowed, divorced Wealthy (or have capacity to give) Homeowners Connected and committed to your organization
6. Recognition is very important and often underrated. For small organizations, however, recognition must be kept simple so as to not become too onerous for staff. The planned giving recognition policy must blend seamlessly with the overall donor recognition policy. If your organization does not have a general recognition policy, the first step would be to develop one, and then develop a separate but aligned recognition policy for planned gifts. 7. Estate administration can’t be overlooked. Every charitable organization has a fiduciary and moral obligation to the donor and to the charity’s supporters in general to make certain that the gift to the charity is maximized and not diminished or lost due to an inexpert executor or to unsubstantiated estate administration expenses. It must be remembered that the donor made the gift to benefit the organization and their wishes must be honoured. Many executors (both lay and professional) require guidance in the estate settlement process as it is an increasingly complex field. By monitoring the estate settlement process, your charity can maximize the gifts received through estates and shorten the time it takes to receive the funds. 8. Marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some planned giving marketing basics for all organizations:
•
Self-identification form: This is a card (or buck slip) that can distributed to supporters and easily mailed back to your organization. It allows donors to selfidentify that they have left a future gift to your organization in their will or through life insurance.
•
Piggybacking on all current marketing materials: All marketing and communication materials associated with your organization need to contain a reference to the opportunity for donors to leave future gifts through their wills, etc.
•
Develop a bequest brochure: The brochure should focus on the “why” of giving with some simple instruction on how to make gifts through a will (with only a mention of other forms of planned gifts). The brochure can be distributed to supporters and professional advisors and can be sent in response to donor enquiries.
9. Stewardship, the process of continued relationship building with established donors, is an important element of engaging donors. A well developed stewardship program will enable established donors to be educated about the work that an organization does, keep the donors committed to the cause and connected to the organization through relationships with staff and volunteers. 10. Networking is an integral part of a healthy and growing planned giving program. The idea here is to establish a presence in the professional advisor community, not to expect advisors to convince their clients to leave gifts to your organization or to recommend your worthy cause over a multitude of others. The goal is twofold: it is to educate advisors as to what it is that you raise funds for, and to make your organization top of mind with the advisors. By educating in this way, you will enable advisors to be in a position to respond to client enquiries with accurate and knowledgeable (and hopefully enthusiastic) responses to questions that ultimately will lead to increased opportunities for planned gifts to your organization. In the 1960s, Albert Humphrey of Stanford University developed the SWOT analysis technique as a strategic planning tool. The concept is simple and easy to apply: You identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of a particular organization, an event or a unit (which can also apply to a human unit when doing a performance evaluation). Much has been published on this technique since then, including this article on CharityVillage: How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis. The SWOT analysis has been considered by some as a dated management fad (similar to management by objectives, total quality management (TQM), reengineering - the list is long). My experience suggests that using the SWOT analysis technique is as valuable today as it ever was...IF you use it to its full capacity. In simple terms, one begins with brainstorming a list of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the unit being evaluated (for example, your not-for-profit
organization). Obviously, some statements recorded on your flipchart are more mission critical than others; you may elect to establish criteria for what stays on the list (i.e. likelihood and degree of impact). SWOT Flipchart Strengths - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Weaknesses - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Opportunities - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Threats - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
The utility of the SWOT analysis comes from the exercise of identifying ways to maximize or offset each key factor identified through your SWOT in your strategic and/or action plan. What actions will you take to ensure the growth potential identified as an opportunity? How will you sustain the strong volunteer leadership listed as a strength? Threats are more than likely going to be external forces; perhaps a key threat is the emergence of a strong competitor. In such a scenario your plan should identify goals that address how to minimize the impact or more aggressively compete fiercely with that threat. Opportunities are likely based both in your internal and external environments. Potential to expand current offerings and to offer new ones are typical examples. Your plan should itemize how you will seize the potential of each one. It is not enough to identify the opportunities, weaknesses, etc. in your plan; you need to elaborate on how your plan is going to manage each. How will you turn your weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities and where is that referenced in your plan? Which activities are top priorities; which are low? And with all things in the orbit of “planning” how will you evaluate success? How will you monitor progress? How will you tweak and adjust? The answers to these questions need to be in your plan. It sounds simple; it is.
Introduction In most cases, strategy is developed by a group of individuals. In some cases, that group is comprised of management, sometimes of board members, and other times both. But, regardless of the makeup, it requires that the group solve the strategic problems of the organization and make key decisions with imperfect information. This article outlines a basic process for helping a group problem solve and make decisions. The Challenge of Groups While it is generally agreed that group decisions are usually better than individual decisions, (there are specific situations in which this is not accurate), and help build support, the process of getting a group to reach a decision can be problematic at times. With group decision-making, you not only have the perspectives and biases of each individual but you also have issues associated with group dynamics that can include power struggles, people talking over one another, lack of listening and hidden agendas, to list but a few. In fact, helping a group to make a decision can sometimes be akin to herding cats. A Basic Model In our work with literally hundreds of organizations, we have found a general pattern to the process of group decision-making. This pattern includes the stages of generation, understanding, consolidation, evaluation, decision-making, and ratification. While the length of time a group tends to stay in each stage varies, the general pattern usually bears out. Stage One - Idea Generation In trying to solve problems, one of the biggest obstacles groups face is the inability to generate new ideas. Without new ideas, it is difficult to solve the problem. As the saying goes, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." It is for this reason that the first stage of the process is the idea generation stage - often referred to as brainstorming. The idea of brainstorming is to get novel ideas on the table so that they can be further explored. There are many facilitative techniques to brainstorming (which is beyond the scope of this article), but regardless of which one(s) you use there are a few guidelines you should keep in mind: • • • • •
Ensure that the participants are clear about what they are being asked to brainstorm on. Participants should not edit themselves. Ideas will be clarified, discussed and evaluated later - this should not be allowed during the brainstorming exercise. Participants can add or expand upon ideas. The goal is quantity.
Stage Two - Understanding Assuming the brainstorming stage was kept focused on just brainstorming, the group should have a list of ideas in front of them. Before the ideas can be intelligently discussed, participants need to have a common understanding of each of the ideas that have been generated. In this stage, questions are asked to help understand what exactly was meant by the idea presented. In working towards this common understanding, it may generate additional ideas or develop an idea beyond what was originally intended by the individual who initially provided it. These are both positive outcomes of this stage of the process. It is surprising how many individuals within groups will get into conflict because they are arguing about two different interpretations of a single idea. Stage Three - Consolidation & Elimination The purpose of this stage is to reduce the number of ideas that are in front of the group by consolidating similar ideas and eliminating those that the group acknowledges as being unrealistic. With everyone having a common understanding of all the ideas, the process of consolidation and elimination should go quickly. When trying to eliminate and consolidate ideas you cannot get quick agreement then leave the idea on the chart and move on. The purpose is to quickly reduce the number of ideas that the group will discuss in greater depth. Stage Four - Basis for Evaluation The purpose of this stage of the process is for the group to evaluate the remaining ideas. The process of evaluation can be done in many ways. The most common method is to develop a set of criteria against which each of the ideas can be evaluated. Regardless of which methods you choose the outcome is to have the participants agree on the basis upon which the ideas will be evaluated. Stage Five - Discussion & Decision-Making With the ideas generated and the basis for evaluation determined, the group now has the task of making a decision. This is often the longest portion of the process. The participants must feel that they have had the opportunity to provide meaningful input, without allowing grandstanding, so that all points of view have been raised and discussed. At this point, the group needs to use the basis for evaluation determined earlier and make the decisions. Decision-making is not only about what options you choose but also what options you choose not to do. Because decision-making often means that you can't please everyone, it can be a difficult process for some groups. The facilitator needs to recognize this and help the group deal with it without compromising the quality of the decision-making process. Stage Six - Ratification This stage is often overlooked in the process. The purpose of this stage is to provide the group with the ability and opportunity to review the decision(s) it made, discuss the associated implications, and ensure that it just "feels right". It is easy to get caught up in the formal cookie-cutter process and have a decision "drop" out the bottom only to look back at it later and wonder what you where thinking. So, before you get to that point, the group needs to take a short break, sit back and ensure that the decision makes sense. This
has the benefit of not only reducing the probability of making an error, but it also tends to improve participant support. Summary This tool, just like any other tool and the ability to use it effectively, is dependent on using it with the right group, and the skill and experience of the facilitator. Since the process is quite disciplined, we have found it most useful in dealing with groups that have higher degrees of conflict or a history of not being able to reach decisions on difficult issues. A word of warning, however, the greater the degree of conflict or more difficult the decision, the greater the need for the facilitator to be skilled in order to reach a successful outcome
A shaky signature on a cheque or handwriting on a note The use of the title “Miss” A cheque that is issued on a private banking or VIP special account A cheque that shows a home address in an affluent postal code Conversations where donors self-identify as: o widowed/single o childless o “snowbirds” o small business owners o multiple property owners o connected and committed to your organization
2. Write policies that are simply a list of dos and don’ts that your organization (staff and volunteers) will adhere to. Written policies need to be in place at the beginning to guide and govern the actions of those who come after us. Ultimately these policies are in place to act as guidelines for accepted protocol and to prevent future harm to the organization from the unintentional but imprudent actions of staff, board members and other volunteers. The policies include standard will clauses, gift acceptance policies, a code of ethics, investment policies, and endowment policies. 3. Develop a tracking system that is an effective system for recording all paper, e-mail and telephone interaction (and hopefully personal visits) with donors and professional advisors. This will allow your organization to carry on meaningful relationships with these people over the long term and to withstand critical staff changes. One of the most important long term assets a charity has is its knowledge and understanding of its donor base. In both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, the success of the organization
comes down to the relationships it builds between the organization (staff) and donors/clients. 4. Measurement criteria needs to be established early on. Unlike cash donations that are easy to determine with an annual calculation, planned gifts are usually made now but realized in the future. It is important for the board and staff to have an accurate measurement of how the planned giving program is proceeding in the absence of hard dollars in the door by fiscal year end. Measuring activity that will lead to future planned giving successes is an important yardstick early on. 5. Mine your database by taking advantage of the segmenting work that other charities have done with respect to determining which donors are most likely to become gift planning prospects and eventually confirmed bequest donors. Other charities have discovered through experience, donor focus groups and surveys, that a certain definable demographic make up the donors that are inclined to make a charitable gift through their will. By focusing on this demographic, any organization can use its limited resources to effectively work with those donors most likely to have the ability and the desire to make planned gifts. Generally speaking, ideal planned giving donors are: • • • • •
Elderly (preferably at least age 70+, ideally age 80+) Single, widowed, divorced Wealthy (or have capacity to give) Homeowners Connected and committed to your organization
6. Recognition is very important and often underrated. For small organizations, however, recognition must be kept simple so as to not become too onerous for staff. The planned giving recognition policy must blend seamlessly with the overall donor recognition policy. If your organization does not have a general recognition policy, the first step would be to develop one, and then develop a separate but aligned recognition policy for planned gifts. 7. Estate administration can’t be overlooked. Every charitable organization has a fiduciary and moral obligation to the donor and to the charity’s supporters in general to make certain that the gift to the charity is maximized and not diminished or lost due to an inexpert executor or to unsubstantiated estate administration expenses. It must be remembered that the donor made the gift to benefit the organization and their wishes must be honoured. Many executors (both lay and professional) require guidance in the estate settlement process as it is an increasingly complex field. By monitoring the estate settlement process, your charity can maximize the gifts received through estates and shorten the time it takes to receive the funds. 8. Marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some planned giving marketing basics for all organizations:
•
Self-identification form: This is a card (or buck slip) that can distributed to supporters and easily mailed back to your organization. It allows donors to selfidentify that they have left a future gift to your organization in their will or through life insurance.
•
Piggybacking on all current marketing materials: All marketing and communication materials associated with your organization need to contain a reference to the opportunity for donors to leave future gifts through their wills, etc.
•
Develop a bequest brochure: The brochure should focus on the “why” of giving with some simple instruction on how to make gifts through a will (with only a mention of other forms of planned gifts). The brochure can be distributed to supporters and professional advisors and can be sent in response to donor enquiries.
9. Stewardship, the process of continued relationship building with established donors, is an important element of engaging donors. A well developed stewardship program will enable established donors to be educated about the work that an organization does, keep the donors committed to the cause and connected to the organization through relationships with staff and volunteers. 10. Networking is an integral part of a healthy and growing planned giving program. The idea here is to establish a presence in the professional advisor community, not to expect advisors to convince their clients to leave gifts to your organization or to recommend your worthy cause over a multitude of others. The goal is twofold: it is to educate advisors as to what it is that you raise funds for, and to make your organization top of mind with the advisors. By educating in this way, you will enable advisors to be in a position to respond to client enquiries with accurate and knowledgeable (and hopefully enthusiastic) responses to questions that ultimately will lead to increased opportunities for planned gifts to your organization. In the 1960s, Albert Humphrey of Stanford University developed the SWOT analysis technique as a strategic planning tool. The concept is simple and easy to apply: You identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of a particular organization, an event or a unit (which can also apply to a human unit when doing a performance evaluation). Much has been published on this technique since then, including this article on CharityVillage: How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis. The SWOT analysis has been considered by some as a dated management fad (similar to management by objectives, total quality management (TQM), reengineering - the list is long). My experience suggests that using the SWOT analysis technique is as valuable today as it ever was...IF you use it to its full capacity. In simple terms, one begins with brainstorming a list of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the unit being evaluated (for example, your not-for-profit
organization). Obviously, some statements recorded on your flipchart are more mission critical than others; you may elect to establish criteria for what stays on the list (i.e. likelihood and degree of impact). SWOT Flipchart Strengths - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Weaknesses - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Opportunities - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
Threats - Key Factors 1. 2. 3. 4.
The utility of the SWOT analysis comes from the exercise of identifying ways to maximize or offset each key factor identified through your SWOT in your strategic and/or action plan. What actions will you take to ensure the growth potential identified as an opportunity? How will you sustain the strong volunteer leadership listed as a strength? Threats are more than likely going to be external forces; perhaps a key threat is the emergence of a strong competitor. In such a scenario your plan should identify goals that address how to minimize the impact or more aggressively compete fiercely with that threat. Opportunities are likely based both in your internal and external environments. Potential to expand current offerings and to offer new ones are typical examples. Your plan should itemize how you will seize the potential of each one. It is not enough to identify the opportunities, weaknesses, etc. in your plan; you need to elaborate on how your plan is going to manage each. How will you turn your weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities and where is that referenced in your plan? Which activities are top priorities; which are low? And with all things in the orbit of “planning” how will you evaluate success? How will you monitor progress? How will you tweak and adjust? The answers to these questions need to be in your plan. It sounds simple; it is.
Introduction In most cases, strategy is developed by a group of individuals. In some cases, that group is comprised of management, sometimes of board members, and other times both. But, regardless of the makeup, it requires that the group solve the strategic problems of the organization and make key decisions with imperfect information. This article outlines a basic process for helping a group problem solve and make decisions. The Challenge of Groups While it is generally agreed that group decisions are usually better than individual decisions, (there are specific situations in which this is not accurate), and help build support, the process of getting a group to reach a decision can be problematic at times. With group decision-making, you not only have the perspectives and biases of each individual but you also have issues associated with group dynamics that can include power struggles, people talking over one another, lack of listening and hidden agendas, to list but a few. In fact, helping a group to make a decision can sometimes be akin to herding cats. A Basic Model In our work with literally hundreds of organizations, we have found a general pattern to the process of group decision-making. This pattern includes the stages of generation, understanding, consolidation, evaluation, decision-making, and ratification. While the length of time a group tends to stay in each stage varies, the general pattern usually bears out. Stage One - Idea Generation In trying to solve problems, one of the biggest obstacles groups face is the inability to generate new ideas. Without new ideas, it is difficult to solve the problem. As the saying goes, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." It is for this reason that the first stage of the process is the idea generation stage - often referred to as brainstorming. The idea of brainstorming is to get novel ideas on the table so that they can be further explored. There are many facilitative techniques to brainstorming (which is beyond the scope of this article), but regardless of which one(s) you use there are a few guidelines you should keep in mind: • • • • •
Ensure that the participants are clear about what they are being asked to brainstorm on. Participants should not edit themselves. Ideas will be clarified, discussed and evaluated later - this should not be allowed during the brainstorming exercise. Participants can add or expand upon ideas. The goal is quantity.
Stage Two - Understanding Assuming the brainstorming stage was kept focused on just brainstorming, the group should have a list of ideas in front of them. Before the ideas can be intelligently discussed, participants need to have a common understanding of each of the ideas that have been generated. In this stage, questions are asked to help understand what exactly was meant by the idea presented. In working towards this common understanding, it may generate additional ideas or develop an idea beyond what was originally intended by the individual who initially provided it. These are both positive outcomes of this stage of the process. It is surprising how many individuals within groups will get into conflict because they are arguing about two different interpretations of a single idea. Stage Three - Consolidation & Elimination The purpose of this stage is to reduce the number of ideas that are in front of the group by consolidating similar ideas and eliminating those that the group acknowledges as being unrealistic. With everyone having a common understanding of all the ideas, the process of consolidation and elimination should go quickly. When trying to eliminate and consolidate ideas you cannot get quick agreement then leave the idea on the chart and move on. The purpose is to quickly reduce the number of ideas that the group will discuss in greater depth. Stage Four - Basis for Evaluation The purpose of this stage of the process is for the group to evaluate the remaining ideas. The process of evaluation can be done in many ways. The most common method is to develop a set of criteria against which each of the ideas can be evaluated. Regardless of which methods you choose the outcome is to have the participants agree on the basis upon which the ideas will be evaluated. Stage Five - Discussion & Decision-Making With the ideas generated and the basis for evaluation determined, the group now has the task of making a decision. This is often the longest portion of the process. The participants must feel that they have had the opportunity to provide meaningful input, without allowing grandstanding, so that all points of view have been raised and discussed. At this point, the group needs to use the basis for evaluation determined earlier and make the decisions. Decision-making is not only about what options you choose but also what options you choose not to do. Because decision-making often means that you can't please everyone, it can be a difficult process for some groups. The facilitator needs to recognize this and help the group deal with it without compromising the quality of the decision-making process. Stage Six - Ratification This stage is often overlooked in the process. The purpose of this stage is to provide the group with the ability and opportunity to review the decision(s) it made, discuss the associated implications, and ensure that it just "feels right". It is easy to get caught up in the formal cookie-cutter process and have a decision "drop" out the bottom only to look back at it later and wonder what you where thinking. So, before you get to that point, the group needs to take a short break, sit back and ensure that the decision makes sense. This
has the benefit of not only reducing the probability of making an error, but it also tends to improve participant support. Summary This tool, just like any other tool and the ability to use it effectively, is dependent on using it with the right group, and the skill and experience of the facilitator. Since the process is quite disciplined, we have found it most useful in dealing with groups that have higher degrees of conflict or a history of not being able to reach decisions on difficult issues. A word of warning, however, the greater the degree of conflict or more difficult the decision, the greater the need for the facilitator to be skilled in order to reach a successful outcome
