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(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

Ten years ago, I worked at a corporate PR firm. My first week there, my boss taught me two very important lessons that I call upon every day as I produce and write annual reports, videos, articles, communications plans, stories: Never start from scratch, because you don’t have the time and repurpose any and everything you do.

Instead of starting from scratch, she encouraged me to scan the environment and see what’s already been done that I can build on or adapt. And then the next step is to adapt and re-purpose the fruits of that work!

I not only consider the content I create for repurposing, I also listen for ideas that I can adapt to a piece that I’m working on.

For example, I was recently at a fundraising dinner and my CEO spoke about what had moved her the most at a recent conference we had held for our community. She told a story about a woman she’d met years ago – an employee at a grant partner organization. The woman’s personal transformation resulted in her becoming a powerful and eloquent leader at another organization that has made incredible gains on behalf of farm workers in California’s Central Valley.

This inspiring story helped to demonstrate the ability of our organization to identify and cultivate leaders who have gone on to have a tremendous ripple effect in their communities. And it showed the way the work personally touched my CEO. The story became an important part of a direct mail letter this spring.

Another great place to repurpose content is in your organization’s blog. I’ve found that many organizations are reluctant to start blogs because they don’t know how they will generate content. I launched a blog for the Women’s Foundation of California this spring, and I base content creation upon repurposing the incredible information that I come across in the course of a week.

Before the blog, this was information and anecdotes shared when people sat together and ate lunch, or short emails that rarely went further than staff in-boxes. Many of us come across information that can be easily re-purposed for blog content. Examples include:

* success stories shared by grantees or the beneficiaries of your organization
* responses that you write to emails seeking information about your work or an issue
* podcasts that other people do (you can link to ones that are related to your issues)
* photos you take at events that can become brief photo blogs
* quick videos in which you ask a question and get an answer (see previous blog post about using video)

It’s also important to share the workload and engage others. We have a couple of regular contributors who write blog posts every other week. Another staff member created simple short videos featuring two public policy fellows who are working on upcoming legislation. And don’t forget to create an editorial calendar with key dates so that you can see what’s on the horizon for your organization and your constituents. That will inspire story ideas too.

I didn’t think so at the time, but I’ve come to realize that these ideas – never start from scratch and repurpose everything you do – are actually ways of exercising creativity. Many great inventions are inspired by, or modifications of, something that already exists.

In his book, Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius, Michael Michalko uses the acronym SCAMPER to help people remember 9 different things you can do with an idea to create a new idea:

- Substitute
- Combine it with something else
- Adapt
- Magnify or add to it; modify it or change it in some fashion
- Put to other use
- Eliminate something from it
- Rearrange or Reverse  it

Try repurposing an idea this week and see what you can create – and the time you save!

Substitute asking yourself, “How do I begin?” with asking, “What can I adapt?“

“People don’t think carrot cake is weird. So when I serve a parsnip cake, that’s not weird to me. It’s just one step to the side.”

- Marcus Samuelsson, New York Chef (Aquavit)

Happy Monday!

We all know we’re in the midst of significant change propelled by new technologies.

We’re living the change every day – with our smart phones and flat screen TVs, our Facebook and Skype accounts.

If you doubt the rapid changes in technology watch this video of Steve Jobs unveiling the Macintosh computer – it makes 26 years seem like ancient history.

So how are all of these changes affecting Philanthropy? Check out the new white paper, Disrupting Philanthropy, for a comprehensive summary of how our access to instant information and capacity for networking online is transforming philanthropy. For a quick synopsis read Working Wikily’s review.

The authors of Disrupting Philanthropy, Bernholz, Skloot and Varela, offer some advice for us on how to deal with all of this rapid change: be flexible, scalable and portable.

“Th(e) institutional structure has remained the predominant model for organized philanthropy for almost a century. Today, peer-supported, data-informed, passion-activated, and technology-enabled networks represent a new structural form in philanthropy, and the institutions that support them will need to be as flexible, scalable, and portable as the networks they serve.”

Substitute, “This is the way we’ve always done things” with “Times they are a-changing.”

“The forms that will animate philanthropy ten years from now don’t yet exist. In the meantime, we can agree not to fear, scorn, or ignore new technologies but to be open to learning about them, experimenting with them, and sharing the results.

We can reconsider assumptions built into our work over decades – assumptions that may no longer make sense….There are innumerable strategic and tactical approaches for us – as philanthropic institutions, as social-purpose organizations, and as individual donors – to consider in this moment of transition.”

- Disrupting Philanthropy by Lucy Bernholz, Edward Skloot and Barry Varela

Happy Monday!

We often talk in fundraising about donor prospecting, cultivation and the all important “ask” – but equally significant for successful relationship building with our supporters is donor stewardship.

Stewardship is defined as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”

Every gift that we receive from a donor, large or small is an act of trust.

Donors are trusting that we will use their money in the ways we’ve said that we will. And in a world where financial scandals are reported daily and faith in systems and the people who run them is weaker than ever, this part of our job is even more crucial.

What are the key aspects of good donor stewardship?

1. Honor the intent – Did you receive the gift in response to a targeted appeal? Did the donor send in a note with their gift expressing interest in a specific program? Then that’s where their money needs to go. Talk with the donor about why they are choosing to give to you. Record and respond to their interest.

2. Be Transparent and Honest – Every donor wants to know, “How will my money be spent?” Don’t use fancy marketing or vague lawyer speak to answer this question. We all feel suspicious of that sort of thing. Instead be explicit about organizational costs and expenses using simple language and terms that are easy to understand.

3. Report on successes and challenges – Donors want to hear from us about how their money was used. Did their contribution make a difference? The stories we share about what is made possible because of donor generosity is the pulsing heart that keeps our organizations alive and thriving.

4. Remember where the money comes from – We are simply intermediaries between the donor and their passion. We are helping them do what they want to do in the world. So the money might change bank accounts but it’s never ours.

5. Be your donor’s best friend - Don’t take your donors for granted. No relationship is static. Donors literally have thousands of choices of where to give their money. What will keep them giving to you is the relationship you nurture and build with them.

As passionate crusaders for our cause we can easily slip into the belief that we “deserve this money” and forget how important donor stewardship is.

But as the charities who’ve had to close their doors in the past two years know, without our donors our organizations will not survive. So follow these five basics of donor stewardship and honor the trust your donors place in you each time they make a gift.

Substitute, “It’s a done deal” with “Take nothing for granted.”

Stewardship: “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

One of my favorite quotes by Martin Luther King says anyone can be great, because any of us can serve.

He reminds us that you don’t have to be incredibly bright or skilled, “you don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. . . you only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Growing up, I knew incredibly generous Black women who embodied that meaning of greatness. One of them was my grandmother, who in her 60’s, adopted the 5-year old daughter of a friend.

Hit by a car, the young girl was paralyzed from the waist down. My grandmother’s friend said that she couldn’t do it – she couldn’t take care of her own daughter. So my grandmother did it. For the next 25 years, my grandmother raised her, provided for her, and helped her to grow into an independent woman who would choose a partner and raise two children of her own.

I was reminded of the greatness of the unsung heroines and heroes who commit their lives to service when I listened to the Oakland-born Malaak Compton Rock (at the recent Madam CJ Walker Luncheon) describe her story and personal journey from the time she was a young girl watching her mother engage with social causes. Her mother, Gayle Fleming, included the young Malaak in her activities, whether that be attending a rally, meeting with a nonprofit, or door-to-door canvassing for a political candidate.

Commitment to serving others became integral to Malaak’s life, personal mission and employment, and she went on to work for the US Fund for UNICEF, then started her own organizations: Styleworks, providing image consulting to women moving from welfare to work and then Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, which takes NY teens (many of whom have never left NY before) to South Africa to meet and learn from their young counterparts.

Of Journey for Change, Malaak says, “Ultimately we want them to return to the US encompassing a greater sense of understanding for their blessings, to dream big, and to challenge themselves to become the best young people they can be.”

Malaak’s new book, If It Takes a Village, Build One: How I Found Meaning Through a Life of Service, and 100+ Ways You Can Too, is a rallying call for action, engagement and service. The book blends personal stories from ordinary people who’ve gotten involved with causes that touch their hearts with how-to tips on choosing organizations to support – whether through donations, volunteering, or promotions.

She also talks about how to start your own organization, how to reach out to and engage celebrities, and ultimately how each of us can tap our passions in order to improve our communities and ultimately, the world.

This message of whole-hearted engagement is one that those of us who communicate and fundraise on behalf of good causes simply can’t afford to miss. We can’t afford to think only in terms of raising donations for our organizations, because while money is important, it’s not enough.

We need to make sure that we’re inspiring and moving people to get involved by tapping into their passions, encouraging them to make connections between what they care about personally and what they see going on in the world outside of themselves.

To realize a better world, we have to encourage all of us to realize our greatness, our unlimited capacity to serve with love and grace.

Substitute, “How will we raise more money?” with, “How can we raise more whole-hearted engagement for our cause?”

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve, you don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.

You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.