James M. Langley, President

Amy Gregg, Senior Associate

Langley Innovations

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

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

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

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

New Realities

Barriers and gateways

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

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

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)

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

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”

Experience of other institutions

Discovery interviews Annual fund Pre-campaign Salon events Curricular reviews/longitudinal assessments Encouragement of class notes, “share your voice”

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ….”

“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

“Americans are practical people. They want explanations not soaring rhetoric.”

Value/cost proposition

Role of philanthropy

Traditional/Existing Strengths

New Capabilities

Current and Emerging Realties

Opportunities(Intellectual)

Limitations(Fiscal)

Challenges(Moral)

Alignment Potential

+$

Diminished Relevance/Effi

ciency-$

Strategic/Obligatory

Adjustments

Strategy: The Means by Which Internal Aspirations Are Conditioned by External Realities

Maintaining Relevance: A Sustainable Model

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

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

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

Old paradigm Identify, cultivate, solicit

New paradigm Afford voice, validate, volunteer talent, promote

ownership through problem and opportunity sharing

We the people …a more perfect union

Questions?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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