Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we’re catching up with fundraiser and podcast host Kathryn Van Sickle, who says talking with philanthropy leaders has kept her grounded during quarantine. Plus, we have expert advice on attracting and keeping donors from Penelope Burk, a researcher who has long studied fundraising and donor attitudes.

I’m Emily Haynes, staff writer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

With a Little Help From My Friends

Put your feet on the floor. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and let it back out. Feel better?

These are scary, frustrating times. Just when many of us thought we could let our guard down, the highly contagious Delta variant has upended our sense of security. During times like these, I find it helpful to remember that I’m not alone.

That’s something that motivates fundraiser Kathryn Van Sickle to crank out episodes of her podcast, the Development Debrief, which is now in its fourth season. During the early months of the pandemic, Van Sickle, who lives in New York City, moved back in with her parents and devoted almost all of her time outside of work to interviewing guests and editing episodes.

“It was a huge help to me to meet people, to engage, to feel less isolated, to be thinking about what other people needed,” she told me.

Van Sickle talked with me about what inspired her to launch her podcast and what hosting it has taught her about career development, interviewing donors, and staying grounded during a chaotic year.

When I asked whether hosting the podcast affected how she did her work as a fundraiser, she said, “It has definitely given me a lot of inspiration to keep going. I’m not alone. There’s a whole community out there of people who are trying to figure out how to do this differently. And I have definitely used tips that people have put forward. I’m better just with managing my time with thinking about new ways to approach problems.”

She equates hosting a podcast with conducting a donor interview, citing the “excited feeling” she gets with both as she wonders “How is it going to go? Are we going to jive? Are there going to be lots of awkward pauses? The skill is asking questions and not just accepting the first answer.”

She added: " I think a lot of fundraisers are afraid to say, ‘You mentioned that your company went public. Can you tell me what that meant for you? What were the financial implications?’”

I asked her what kind of topics she’s planning for season four, which just started in July.

“Fundraising is going to continue to be just as tumultuous as it was this past year,” she said. “It might be harder because return-to-work procedures are very charged. It’s going to be challenging for leaders to decide how much of a hard line they want to put down or not. If fundraisers want to work remote full-time, it’s going to be hard for them to grapple with whether they want it so badly that they leave their institution. We proved that we could do our jobs remotely. I had a great year, but I don’t think I was doing my best work.”

She thinks a lot of fundraisers will leave their jobs in the next few months. “There’s going to be a mass exodus of fundraisers this summer and this fall,” she said. “Think about all the people who in February of 2020 were ready for a promotion and have been sitting in a frozen institution. They’re going to leave if they’re not promoted. On top of that, what’s going to happen with all the discovery work we did this year when we go to meet these people for the first time? Everything was shaken up, and now as it settles, we’re going to be seeing some little tornadoes in there.”

Check out our full conversation and find out how growing up the daughter of a fundraiser helped draw her into the profession.

Exit Interview: Penelope Burk

I also talked with veteran fundraising researcher Penelope Burk, who has been up to her elbows in donor data for 25 years and plans to retire in December.

Our conversation touched on the changes she’s seen since she started conducting her survey in 2009.

“Among donors, the biggest overall change is their seriousness about their philanthropy, the degree to which they will do their research before giving for the first time or giving again. Fundraisers used to be able to say, ‘OK, here comes the appeal! I want you to give now, and this is why I want you to do it.’ They have to shift from gatekeeper to customer-service agent. It’s much more like, ‘How can we give you what you need?’

“In our research, donors are very clear in telling us what they need. They want restricted giving. They want to be acknowledged promptly and in a gratifying and gracious way. And they want measurable results before they’re asked to give again. And if they get them, they’ll stay.”

As for changes in fundraisers and how they operate, she said, “The fundraiser’s job becomes: How can I knock my donor’s socks off with the quality of the thank-you letter that I write? How can I encourage my CEO and the programs people to give me good information that proves we are doing a great job with the money that donors give us? It’s kind of like managing up inside your own not-for-profit — all the way up to the board. The fundraisers who are going to end up in the prominent, top positions in the country are those that can manage that transition from the dictator to customer service.”

For more insights, read our full conversation.

Hear From You

Last week, we talked about a new Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy study that found that for the first time in nearly two decades only half of U.S. households donated to a charity in 2018.

One of our readers, Patricia Foley Hinnen, said that story missed the mark. Foley Hinnen is the founding chief executive of the nonprofit Capital Sisters International, which connects women in poverty with investors who make small loans to support their businesses.

“The major factor for the decline in 2018 was the elimination of tax incentives for charitable donations,” she wrote in an email.

Foley Hinnen says the nonprofit she founded was one of many that depended on donors’ year-end gifts and saw them plummet when Congress changed the tax law.

“This kind of change is actually counterproductive as taxpayers will need to pick up the slack when NGOs reduce their services, and it will be much more costly and much less efficient,” she wrote. “We need a universal charitable deduction in the tax code, and not just for the measly (and temporary) $300 a year compromise!”

Do you have thoughts on the study’s findings? Drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.

Need to Know

Most signs point to a booming economy, but the full story is not so simple, my colleague Michael Theis reports. Economic output is up nationally, major stock indices continue to grow consistently, wages are rising, and consumers spent money. For fundraisers, this should be good news: A strong economy is generally good for raising money.

But that optimistic outlook is tinged with persistent inflation worries and looming uncertainty about the potential impact of efforts to contain the contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Experts suggest nonprofits keep an eye on gross domestic product, consumer confidence, the stock market, and unemployment.

Among the notable developments since Michael’s last economic update: The national economy continued to grow in the second quarter, but more slowly than forecasters had projected.

Plus:

• I once worked in nonprofits and can say with full certainty that when it comes to office politics, the struggle is real. Jackie Yodashkin, an organization development and communications consultant, wrote an advice piece for us that digs into why so many nonprofits struggle with intractable personnel issues and how leaders can help their staff work better together.

  Jackie shares five tips to reduce friction among colleagues, such as establishing a culture of collaboration. The culture of an organization — “how we do things around here” — sets the tone and establishes what kind of behavior is acceptable, she writes. To encourage both collaboration and everyone’s best effort, a nonprofit’s culture should include:
  

  • Accountability: Be accountable to one another; the mission, vision, and values; and to organizational (not departmental) goals.
  • A sense of partnership: Take time to listen to and consider productive ways to work together. Make sure your colleagues know you genuinely consider them partners.
  • Collaboration: Commit to creative problem solving together. Invest time and energy in identifying mutually beneficial solutions. Share responsibility for implementing those solutions.
  • Feedback: Name challenges as they arise; expect and permit conflict and tension. Don’t let your nonprofit’s culture be, as one interviewee put it, “very supportive and family-like” but lacking “straightforward feedback that could potentially move the needle.”
  • Common language: Find ways to communicate that are clear for all staff members. Take time to make sure that everyone truly understands what you mean.

  For more of Jackie’s tips, read her full advice column.

Tips & Tools

• What to Consider — and What to Avoid — When Reopening Your Nonprofit Office: The Delta variant has many of us reconsidering our fall plans — including whether and how we would return to the office. My colleague Lisa Schohl spoke with philanthropy leaders on how they’re planning for the future of work at their organizations.
• If You Want to Work for Our Nonprofit, You Need to Get Vaccinated: The Los Angeles LGBT Center, like many organizations across the country, struggled with whether to require employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Its journey offers lessons for other nonprofits grappling with this issue.
• How to Hand Over the Reins: Two Leaders Share Lessons From Their Own Transition: The former and current executive directors of Include NYC, a nonprofit serving young people with disabilities and the adults who support them, share how they planned a smooth leadership transition. Now the nonprofit has doubled both its budget and its staff size.

What We’re Reading

• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals uses fundraising, promotional, and money-management methods that might surprise many donors. The nationwide organization has raised more than $2 billion since 2008, only about 7 percent of which has gone to local SPCAs, which are not affiliated with the ASPCA. Officials with local groups say they must frequently dispel the notion that the ASPCA is an umbrella organization. Further, the ASPCA has spent on advertising nearly triple the amount it has granted to local groups, and its CEO makes more than $840,000, more than the leaders of some much larger charities. The group also uses some of the money raised in urgent appeals to build up its assets rather than respond to emergencies. That practice is not necessarily improper, but a “disconnect” between donor expectations and charity behavior “can cause a problem,” one nonprofit tax expert said. Still, the largest chunk, 40 percent, of the $19 donation the charity often solicits goes to animal care. (CBS News)
  
• Charities are reckoning with cryptocurrency as it becomes a more common vehicle for contributions. Giving Bitcoin and the like offers the same tax advantages as gifts of stocks, and some donors use contributions as a way to evangelize for cryptocurrency. In addition, the blockchain technology allows international organizations to bypass transfer and wire fees when moving money around and to track exactly how the money is used. But some charities are not equipped to accept cryptocurrency. “It’s different, and it’s not for the uninitiated,” one expert said. (New York Times)

#EquityTalk: Who to Listen to?

This fall, the Chronicle will profile people remaking their organizations and the nonprofit field as a whole to advance equity. We would like to know who you are listening to — writers, activists, podcast hosts, and social-media influencers as well as leaders, fundraisers, and other frontline workers bringing about change that’s driving conversations. Please use this form to provide as many as three names. Thank you!