Full-on Double Rainbow All The Way!

By now, I’m sure many of you have seen the epic viral video from Hungrybear9562. If you haven’t, it’s well worth the three minutes and thirty seconds.



I’m completely intrigued by the reasons why this video is so popular. Personally, I love it. I’ve shared it with tons of people. First, because it makes me laugh. But there is something else very appealing about this clip. Forget whatever preconceived notions you may have formulated about the mental state of the author. I think this video is so viral because on some level, we would all love to be like this guy—completely and totally amazed with childlike wonder at something so seemingly trivial. What if all of us reacted like Hungrybear9562 to seemingly trivial things? How would the world be different?

Shameless Pitches

I recently attended a conference where the last general session was billed out as a compilation of the best fundraising ideas of the year. This was the session “not to be missed!” Now, you know how you get that groggy, if-I-have-to-put-on-my-smiley-face-one-more-time feeling at the tail end of a conference? Well, I powered through that. I got myself geared up and ready to be inspired.

Total disappointment. Instead of “15 Great Ideas” I got to sit through 15 shameless pitches. Then it got me thinking. Ironically, the big idea I took away from this session was more of a things not to do list.

Here we go:

10 Things Not To Do When Speaking at a Conference

1. Don’t Sell
How annoying is it to pay to go to a conference to learn new things and then have to sit through a series of capabilities presentations? People aren’t stupid. Focus on what you can give away, not what you can take away.

2. Don’t Forget the Passion
I had a college professor that said 80% of what we communicate is emotion and 20% is information. If you get bogged down trying to get in all the right points, you often miss the point.

3. Don’t Read From A Piece of Paper
Preparation is good, but the best presentations I’ve experienced always have a hint of improv. Remember, your audience is what is most important, not your own personal agenda.

4. Don’t Do Bullets on PowerPoint
I swear, PowerPoint has made us all dumber presenters. No one wants to read bullet points on a screen—no one.

5. Don’t Forget to Make Sure the Presentation Makes Sense to Someone Other Than You
I’ve added this one specifically because there was one presentation I saw that was so unbelievably out there, everyone was checking their coffee to make sure they weren’t dosed with something.

6. Don’t Try to Be Too Cute
Creativity is great, but content is king. Don’t try to trump clarity with persuasion.

7. Don’t Be Afraid to Make it Interactive
Give the audience a chance to engage and be part of the presentation. Let them stop you, ask questions, raise concerns, and help to drive the agenda. A dialogue is always more interesting than a monologue.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Inspire People
What has happened to vision? Give people something big to believe in and then show them how they can achieve it. Challenge them to apply what you’ve taught them.

9. Don’t Tell Me Turn to The Person Sitting Next To Me and Have to Say Something Stupid
Really? How old are we?

10. Don’t Forget About The Cynical Blogger in the Crowd
The wrong message, to the wrong person, at the wrong time can be devastating. Check out the blog post I wrote about this topic: The Wrong Message, to the Wrong Person, at the Wrong Time (notice the utter hypocrisy here…shameless, huh?)

Don’t Ever Apologize for Asking for Money

As nonprofits, why do we feel so sheepish about asking for money?

Do we not believe that our causes are worthy of donor funding? I doubt it.

Do we think that asking someone to give a gift to our organization is offensive? Maybe.

But why do we feel this way? The reality is that every single organization on planet Earth asks for money. Some are nonprofits. Some are for profits. But they all ask for our money.

For profit organizations ask for your money in exchange for goods and services. They spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing to target you with the right messaging and number of impressions to convince you that their product is uniquely suited to meet your needs. Oh yeah, and they make billions of dollars in profits too. But have you ever been offended by a TV commercial for no other reason than the fact they asked you to buy their product?

So why do we get so bent out of shape when we receive direct mail and emails from nonprofit organizations that are doing truly meaningful work and making zero profit?

I think it comes down to two things: our own self-centeredness and a twisted perspective of how nonprofits should spend donor dollars.

On the self-centered bit, here is something to consider. When you give to a nonprofit, the benefit goes to someone else. I think we get ticked from repeated asks because on an unconscious level we are all pretty selfish. We would rather spend our hard-earned money on treats for ourselves. When we receive an opportunity to give, we gag because it reminds us that no matter how good a person we portray ourselves, we are secretly pretty selfish. But that’s just part of the problem.

The second issue is even more problematic for nonprofits. Somewhere at some point someone decided that in order to be “donor worthy” a nonprofit should only spend 25% of their expenses on “overhead” and the remaining 75% should go directly to programs. Here’s the fatal flaw in this approach—by keeping salaries low for staff members, and under spending on critical revenue drivers like marketing and fundraising, nonprofits will consistently fall short of their ultimate potential.

The staff compensation issue makes recruiting the necessary talent virtually impossible. In most instances, talented leaders have to make the decision to either make money or do good. Imagine if the compensation for a nonprofit executive was in line with the compensation of a for profit executive? Would we see more talent pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector? I think so.

Lack of spending on marketing initiatives is another part of the problem. Ironically, if nonprofits were not demonized for spending on things like branding and advertising, then they wouldn’t have to ask for money as often, and less people would be offended by the constant appeals for funds. Nonprofits ask for money in most of their communications because they have to. All messages are measured almost completely by ROI.

How Do We Change the Game for Nonprofits?

If you work at a nonprofit organization, imagine what you could do for your cause if you were able to compensate your staff appropriately and invest more dollars in branding, marketing, and advertising. How could this change the game for you?

Now what if every charitable organization was free of the same constraints? How might our culture change if suddenly nonprofits had much larger platforms to get their message out? Imagine watching television and seeing story after story of people’s lives being impacted through the work of nonprofits. How might that inspire philanthropy? What if messages promoting generosity became as prevalent in our world as messages promoting consumption?

Want to learn more? Check out Dan Pallotta’s new book, Uncharitable.

Rocky Balboa or William Wallace?

Two movies I absolutely love: Rocky (the whole saga, really) and Braveheart. Both feature exceptional stories and two amazing characters. On the surface, you might think that these movies share a lot of similarities. Both are inspirational stories. Both feature a main character that endures amazing punishment, suffering, and self-sacrifice to accomplish an amazing goal. But if you analyze what motivates each man, you find two very different stories.


Rocky Balboa is motivated by fear.

In the original Rocky movie, we see a big, strong, rough, tough scrapper constantly fighting his immeasurably small self-esteem. Rocky’s deepest fear was that people would think he was a bum—a nobody. Towards the end of the movie, right before his legendary fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky confesses to Adrian, “When that bell rings—and I’m still standing—then I’ll know that I’m not a bum.”

The very last movie in the Rocky saga, Rocky Balboa, captures the essence of the Rocky credo. In a scene where Rocky is visiting the grave site of his beloved Adrian, he confronts his son, now a grown man, about his own self-esteem issues:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you!”

Fear is a very powerful motivator. In fact, there are cases where people in very frightful situations were able to accomplish amazing, even superhuman feats. But most of the time fear is a very self-centered motivator. In the case of Rocky, his fear of failure stemmed from his weak self esteem and placing all of his self-worth on how others viewed him. We watch the movie and are inspired by the amazing iron-clad will that got him to continually endure unbelievable punishment and continue to move forward, but ultimately, it was self-centered motives that drove Rocky. He wasn’t fighting for his country, his family, or even a belief he held—he was fighting for himself.


Contrast that with the story of William Wallace.

William Wallace was motivated by a belief.
The movie Braveheart depicts the story of William Wallace, a Scottish patriot that paved the way for Scotland’s independence. In the film, we see another remarkable story of inspiration. In the face of great adversity, outnumbered and outmatched, William Wallace led an army of peasant farmers against the legions of highly trained British troops in an effort to win Scotland’s freedom from tyrannical rule (sounds remarkably familiar, huh).

Here we see a leader that was motivated by what he believed. His belief was in a free and independent Scotland. This belief was something that transcended himself and spilled over into the hearts of the battered and oppressed Scottish peasant class. There is a scene very early in the movie after William Wallace’s father was killed by the English where William dreams that he sees his father and he gives him this very short, but unforgettable pep-talk, “William. Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.”

Follow it he did. And in the process he inspired men to do amazing things. In one famous battle scene, the Scottish militia has gone out to meet the English on the battlefield. Typically, Scotland’s nobles would negotiate a deal and then lead their army away. But it is at this moment that William Wallace delivers one of his most inspirational soliloquies:

“I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men... and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?”

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!”

Later in the movie, after his father betrays William Wallace, Robert the Bruce a leading contender for Scotland’s crown confronts the elder Bruce:

“Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I never had… I don't wanna lose heart. I wanna believe as he does.”

When it comes to our fundraising messages, we have a choice.

Fundraising is no different. We can either motivate our donors to give out of fear or out of a shared belief. The former usually leads to churning and attrition, while the latter leads to lasting relationships. So, how do you communicate with your donors? Are you inspiring them with a vision that is based in a shared belief, or do you tap into their deepest fears? Are you Rocky Balboa, or William Wallace?

Look, Smile, Thank

I was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and stopped over at a service plaza to grab a quick dinner. The restaurant was a cafeteria-style Italian restaurant where you were issued a still-damp red plastic tray and had to navigate the different “Tastes of Italy” to assemble your own personal dinner courses. As I was checking out, my eye happened to catch a small message taped to the top of the clerks computer monitor.



In case you can’t read it, the message says:

Look at the Customer.
Smile at the Customer.
Thank the Customer.

As you can tell, I only dine at the finest restaurants.

At first I scoffed at this tiny employee manual cheat sheet. ‘Do people really need to be instructed in how to be kind and courteous?’

But as I thought about it more, I realized that this tiny treatise contains the essentials of a donor or customer retention program. Let me break it down:

1. Look at the Customer. Too often we communicate with our donors with our heads down. We break into our well-rehearsed ask and don’t make much of an effort to make our message relevant to the person to whom it is intended to reach. If we took a good look at our donors, we may discover that what motivates them to support our cause is vastly different from what we think motivates them. This is why donor research and data analytics is so very important. In order to engage our donors in a conversation, we must understand what motivates and drives them to take action.
   
   
2. Smile at the Customer. If we are doing noble work (and I would reason that everyone reading this is indeed doing noble work), shouldn’t we be more joyful? Shouldn’t our messages to our donors reflect that joyfulness? Too often we shroud our fundraising messages in doom-and-gloom, if-you-don’t-give-now-then-bad-things-are-going-to-happen type rhetoric. Why? We should be asking for support with a smile on our face because we know that the work that we are doing is worth it, that the difference that we can make is real, and that the support that we receive connects our organization to our donors. We need to tell people the exciting things that are happening. We need to tell them what their donation is accomplishing. We need to engage cheerful givers.
   
   
3. Thank the Customer. If there is one thing that most nonprofits do a poor job at, it is thanking donors. Too often, we become so acquisition-focused that we neglect the big gaping hole we have in our current donor file. Most of the attrition that nonprofits experience is because donors a) don’t feel that their donation is making an impact; b) don’t feel connected to the organization; and c) don’t think that their donation will be missed. By simply thanking our donors we can overcome two of these main causes of donor attrition and make our donors feel more appreciated.
   
   

So maybe we can all take a lesson from the Italian buffet place and tape a little reminder to our computer screens:

Look at the Donor.
Smile at the Donor.
Thank the Donor.

What if Everything You Thought You Knew About Marketing was Wrong?

As marketers we pride ourselves in our exceptional marketing instincts. We are studiers of behavior and masters of persuasion. We understand the psyche of our customers and donors and can conjure up the perfect messaging cocktail that always gets killer results…or so we think.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director of Marketing Experiments, shared a startling fact during the Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Optimization Summit: the majority of the time, marketer intuition is dead wrong. To prove this point, Dr. McGlaughlin put three different versions of an email up on the screen. Each version was designed by a different agency, and each version was visually stunning. Then he asked those in attendance—all top email marketers in their own right—to vote for the version of the email that they thought would get the best response. About 4% got it right. In reality, every single version of the email that was designed by a competent design agency underperformed the control. So, in actuality, it was really a trick question—every version of the email stunk—some just stunk worse than others.

This illuminates a very important principle when it comes to email marketing: if you are not testing your creative, if you are just going with your marketing gut, you are most likely leaving a lot on the table. You need to be constantly testing and optimizing your email campaigns to ensure that you are making the most of every opportunity. By the way, this is a Biblical principle. It’s called stewardship. We need to think of every campaign as a resource entrusted to us and we need to use every tool available to ensure that we are not wasting what has been put in our hands to manage.


So, What Do You Need to Get Started Testing and Optimizing Your Email Campaigns?

• First, you need a way to quickly and efficiently measure email response. Personally, I like to use Google Analytics with eCommerce tracking enabled coupled with a custom Google URL. This gives me clear insights into exactly what each email campaign is doing in my key metrics of clicks, conversions, and average gifts.
  
  
  



• Next, you need an optimization methodology. Dr. McGlaughlin often puts it this way, “Best practices are not enough—you need a rigorous methodology.” We use a methodology that helps us to focus our thinking on what truly matters when it comes to optimizing an email campaign. This is best represented by the following heuristic:
  
  
  

• Finally, you need to be committed to testing. For instance, we do not let an email campaign leave our shop without testing something. Start small with subject line A/B spit tests. Carve out a sample group from your email file and break it into two segments. Send the email to the two different segments with two different subject lines between 24 and 48 hours before your actual send date. Based on your open rates, roll out with the winning subject line. It may take a little while to get going, but once you are able to see the fruit of testing and optimization, you’ll be hooked.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

Tullian Tchividjian shared this with me, a piece written by Dr. Bob Moorehead. I've decided to commit it to memory...who's with me?

I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)