Association of Fundraising Professionals
WASHINGTON CHAPTER
WASHINGTON STATE MEMBER E-NEWS UPDATE:
Winter 2008 edition
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Table of Contents
- Book Notes
- Profiles in Fundraising
- Fundraising in An Increasingly Diverse Eastside Community
- Seeking 2008 Student Leader Nominees
- Congratulations!
This is going to be a very exciting year! As the board president, I am working together with 29 stellar AFP Washington Board Members to ensure that your AFP experience is something you can be proud of and benefit from. During our annual meeting in December, I rolled out three areas of focus for us this year:
- Expand the reach of AFP
- Elevate the visibility and brand of AFP
- Enhance the value of membership and accessibility towards becoming active, engaged and contributing members
The board is working hard to attain these goals and as the year progresses I'll be reporting back to you the result of these efforts in our eNews bulletins. Already we have begun innovative conversations around increasing our diversity, celebrating our 20th anniversary of National Philanthropy Day, providing more for your membership dollars, and exploring the possibility of creating an organizational accreditation program.
If you are interested in getting more involved in the activities of AFP, click here to learn about the various committees where you can connect with other fundraising professionals.
Cordially,
Ray Li
President
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Book Notes
While you are thinking of your next opportunity to appear in front of an audience and before you are even tempted to click on the PowerPoint icon on your laptop, take a look at Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman.
The author shows you how to transform your presentations from dry recitals of facts into compelling stories with a laser-sharp focus on what matters most: your audience. Step-by-step, you will walk through the Five Cardinal Sins of presentations, examine the 16 Flow Structures, and understand the WIIFY (What's In It For You) triggers, and examine the MEGO (Mine Eyes Glaze Over) pitfalls – all before you get to the technical part of assembling your slides.
Taking the time to think about your audience, story, message, and delivery is vital to a successful presentation. The book provides plenty of information on graphic design elements, making the numbers sing, and bringing your story to life.
One of my favorite sayings is, "Give me wings to get to the point." Weissman offers you a guide to do that, and more. Follow his lead and leverage these persuasive, maximum-impact presentations principles.
Storytelling can be a powerful tool in motivating others to give, and we can all become masters in this art. These two books offer tools and techniques to hone your skills and achieve your goals.
In The Elements of Persuasion, Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman deliver a formula for creating the perfect story for any situation. Using five basic components, you can construct a personal – and powerful – message. Find out how Passion, a Hero, an Antagonist, a moment of Awareness, and Transformation lead to accomplishing goals.
Another new practical guide to use your own stories to communicate with power and impact is by Annette Simmons: Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins. Find, develop, and use your own stories effectively by understanding universal story structures, including Who-I-Am stories, Teaching stories, Vision stories, Values-in-Action stories, and I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking stories. In the ocean of data and choice, this book helps you to use story as a credible tool to connect with your audience of one or hundreds, win others to your point of view, and enable better group decision-making.
These new titles are available through the King County Library System. Visit www.kcls.org to sign up for This Just In, a weekly listing of new books, movies, and music on your favorite topics and genres delivered to your desktop.
Jeanne Thorsen, Executive Director
King County Library System Foundation
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Profiles in Fundraising
Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Heather Trescases has found her perfect niche in Bellevue as Executive Director of the Eastside Heritage Center.
With a Master of Arts degree in Public History (Canada) and a Licence d'Histoire from l'Universite de Paul Valery (France), she is passionate about the organization's mission to collect, preserve, and interpret documents and artifacts and to promote public involvement in and appreciation of the Eastside's heritage.
"Our vision is to have a destination heritage museum and research facility, where we can display the collection and serve the public. We have more than 30,000 items in offsite storage, and no room to display them in our two historic houses." Heather manages a staff of five, which includes education coordinators, an archivist, a curator, and a fundraising coordinator. The major fundraising activity is the annual Strawberry Festival, and grants support programming and exhibits.
"The biggest challenge for us – and many historical groups – is raising funds for operations," she notes. The organization's programs are extremely popular and offer unique opportunities for children and adults to connect the past to the present.
A new member of the AFP Washington Chapter, Heather puts her research skills to work in accessing the organization's benefits including attending international conferences, gleaning information from the newsletter, zeroing in on the resources, and attending professional educational activities. "The international conference in Dallas provided substance for long-term thinking and tips for planning operations in small shop. I also appreciate meeting members and the scheduling of audio conferences and programs on the eastside."
When she has time and when she can find a rink, Heather indulges in her favorite sport: ice skating. On blades since childhood, she was a competitive ice dancer, and recently she and her partner earned silver medals in the U.S. Adult National Figure Skating championships. Look for her license plate: ICEDNSR.
For more information, visit www.eastsideheritagecenter.org and contact Heather at director@eastsideheritagecenter.org.
This profile was written by Jeanne Thorsen, Executive Director of the King County Library System Foundation.
To nominate a member for Profiles in Fundraising, contact Carol Borgmann, AFP eNews editor at carol.borgmann@lakesideschool.org.
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Fundraising in An Increasingly Diverse Eastside Community
The sparkling new Bellevue City Hall was the perfect setting for a roundtable discussion on fundraising in an increasingly diverse Eastside community, sponsored by AFP Washington Chapter's Eastside Program Committee (EPC).
Moderator JoAnn Yoshimoto set the stage for the discussion with a few statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, some of which may be surprising unless you live or work on the Eastside:
- The racial/ethnic minority population of King County is higher than the national average, and Bellevue's minority population is higher yet, at 35%.
- Beyond the population percentages, the minority population is growing at an accelerating rate, increasing by 21.1% in the past decade.
- Bellevue has a foreign-born population of 31%; nearly triple the national average of 12.5%.
- Bellevue's non-white population is larger, percentage-wise, than Seattle's.
Here are highlights from the discussion:
An increasingly diverse Eastside community is transforming organizations.
- Client base is definitely growing in diversity and in some instances, there is double the minority client base compared with 5-10 years ago. One organization reported serving up to 50% people of color.
- There is a growing need for Eastside organizations to provide translators and interpreters for clients with limited English language ability. In many cases, a school-age child serves as a translator for the foreign-born parent. However, the subject may be more complicated than a child can explain/translate.
- Entry- and mid-level staff is beginning to mirror client diversity; however, executive staff falls behind in this regard.
- Board composition is slowly beginning to diversify, more so than executive staff.
- Organizations must go beyond the "usual targets" when seeking to diversify their board. It is unlikely that the top choices among well-known ethnic community leaders are available to serve on your board. You must dig a little deeper rather than thinking, "They're not available," and giving up.
- Organizations must identify and work past barriers to board service. For example, a requirement to give or get $xx,xxx may be a barrier to participation. Organizations must find ways to work with the prospective board member to make the board opportunity workable and mutually rewarding.
- It is very difficult to achieve diversity in mid- to upper-level positions that require advanced degrees. There is a huge need to grow a diverse pool of talent now so that qualified candidates will be available in the future.
Most organizations reported only a minimal amount of increased donor diversity, if any.
- Eastside nonprofits have seen new donors from the Asian Indian community. In addition, specific language groups, such as German-speakers, have emerged in support of language initiatives.
- Organizations have seen the donor base diversify in support of programs that create collaboration with minority communities.
- Funders are reporting an increase in highly focused requests from nonprofit organizations, for example: "a program to help women and at-risk children in xyz community". This presents a new and growing dilemma, as grant makers are interested in highly focused programs, yet are unable to respond favorably to all requests to support a growing number of minority groups.
Best practices/success stories:
- Post "Welcome" signs in many languages at entrance to office. In addition to an organization's greater staff diversity, a simple sign can go a long way to send a positive signal to minority groups.
- Greater staff diversity helps form a bridge to diverse clients. Staff with multiple language ability can pinch-hit as interpreters. This, however, puts additional demands on staff that must also perform their core responsibilities.
- Cities are looking for non-cash ways to be helpful to nonprofits. Kirkland recently instituted a computer donation program, GIS mapping assistance and facilities acquisition/leasing assistance. Bellevue also has services that help nonprofits work with and for the community's growing diversity.
- The role of the Eastside Human Services Forum is to educate, advocate, and work on projects that have a systemic impact for the full Eastside. The EHSF welcomes ideas from nonprofits. Visit www.eastsideforum.org for more information.
- United Way of King County sponsors Project LEAD, which develops board leadership skills in minority populations. Alumni from this program are a good source of potential board members.
- One Eastside nonprofit conducts "diversity discussions" within each department to determine the breadth and depth of issues related to providing service to an increasingly diverse community. A two-hour timeframe provides the format for meaningful discussion.
- Translating marketing and fundraising materials into world languages can be effective. Ensure that the materials say what you intend to say. Mistakes often reveal that the organization has not used input from minority groups, thereby reflecting badly on the organization in spite of good intentions.
- Attendees acknowledged a realization that achieving greater organizational diversity is a process that takes time and ongoing commitment from the organization's leadership.
The 30 participants agreed that nonprofits are experiencing greater client diversity, and there is opportunity for greater donations from diverse communities. The EPC provided resource materials to assist with assessing and moving toward greater organizational diversity and fundraising successes. Finally, there was an interest in reconvening this roundtable discussion group later to report progress and experiences.
JoAnn Yoshimoto, CFRE
Consultant, The Alford Group
Vice President for Diversity, AFP Washington Chapter
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Seeking 2008 Student Leader Nominees
Bank of America is asking you to help find qualified high school students for their annual Student Leader Awards, part of their national, signature philanthropic program, the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative. The Student Leader Awards strive to honor young people who are exemplary with regard to their passion for helping their community. Awards will be announced in the spring to five Puget Sound students based on their overall leadership and volunteerism in their communities and their schools. The "award" is a paid, full-time summer internship with a local nonprofit agency in their area (valued at $5,000), PLUS an all-expenses paid, 6-day trip to Washington, DC, for a leadership summit with 195 other Bank of America Student Leaders from across the county. This is an amazing opportunity for any student who is interested in developing their leadership potential!
If you have a high school volunteer that you feel is deserving of consideration, please encourage him/her to self-nominate. Third-party nominations not accepted. All applications must be submitted online by noon on Feb 29, 2007. No exceptions. Go to www.bankofamerica.com/foundation for more details about the Neighborhood Excellence/Student Leader program. Or send an email to elisa.m.freitag@bankofamerica.com.
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Congratulations!
These fundraising leaders have just been awarded their CFRE credential: John Gilchrist, Mark McCampbell, Sara Oshikawa-Clay, Dawn Rains, and Rig Riggins.
And Thanks!
Special thanks to the AFP Washington members who celebrate 20+ years of AFP membership: Janet Boguch, Non-Profit Works; Lynne Conrad Marvet, American Red Cross; Janet Aldrich Jacobs, CFRE, PATH; Jean Leed, CFRE; Mark McCampbell, CFRE, Virginia Mason Foundation; Peter Raffa, Seattle Public Library Foundation; Lynn Schrader, CFRE, King County Library System Foundation; and Ruby Smith-Love, CFRE, United Way of King County.
And the winner is…Tom Mesaros, CFRE, The Alford Group, Inc. who celebrates 30 years of AFP membership this year!