“You can write, kid,” was the note at the bottom of a first year English student over 50 years ago.  This note ignited a flame that started a distinguished writing and journalistic career of a new friend of mine, Don Reichardt from Roswell, Ga.  Don was honored along with my longtime, good friend Ron Loewen from Columbia, SC at the Emporia State University Distinguished Alumni Award ceremony Friday evening.

It would be easy for me to write today about Ron’s career and accomplishments that are impressive by any standards, the personal and professional support of me over the years, and to herald the role ESU played in setting him up for his success in life.

But I am not going to do that.

I am going to focus on recognition.  Not because I don’t think Ron deserves more accolades than those lavished upon him over the past few days, but because this is, after all, my blog about fundraising opportunities seized and lost.

I am constantly amazed at how nonprofits miss opportunities to advance a friendship, galvanize a connection or just bring glory to those who they love and those who love them back.
Now, I am not talking about recognizing people who are only tangentially related to you.  I am talking about people who could really help.

In the university environment, the conflict between celebrating a friend or alum and seeking their financial support is frequently pronounced.

It shouldn’t be.

Honoring someone doesn’t guarantee a gift and yet, you should not just honor those who give you money.

I believe an institution cannot have enough recognition opportunities.  Several years ago when Warren Armstrong at Wichita State and I was working under him, he asked me to put together a recognition program beyond the one the Alumni Association had.  He respected that the Alumni Association had a role to play in recognition, but not an exclusive one.

We set about to consider the audiences of the University that deserved recognition. Ultimately, we initially added the Honorary Doctorate, which was a few years later removed by the Kansas Board of Regents—but not before a few had been awarded.

But three others were the province of the University and the President.  First was the President’s Medal, awarded to an individual or couple who best exemplified support of the University’s growing mission.  At that time, it was bestowed at Commencement.  The Fairmount Founders Award recognized again that individual or couple who showed great respect for the heritage of Wichita State, founded as Fairmount College.  This award was given at a special dinner that honored the largest gift donors to the University, recognized as the Fairmount Society.  Finally, we offered WSU Board of Trustees Award. The Board was created during the transition of WSU from the University of Wichita in the 60’s.  This award was to be given for great appreciation and value of the city and county relationship.

That was over 25 years or more ago.  The introduction of these recognition awards was met with mixed reviews. Some in the Alumni Association thought the University should only have their awards.  In respect for the Alumni Association, none of these awards - at least as we started - occurred at Homecoming or Alumni Association events.

Some thought we would never find enough people who were worthy of the honor.  Well, it wasn’t that tough.

There was also a concern that only the donors were going to get these awards.  Certainly, one way to demonstrate support of the university is through gifting.  The history now shows a slight tilt to this, but it is balanced.

As you read the obituaries of many at WSU, you will repeatedly see the acknowledgement of receipt of one or more of these awards.

And what is wrong with that?  If you can help add meaning and appreciation to someone’s life, what are you waiting for?

Well, back to my friend, Ron, who received the Distinguished Alumni award this weekend.  To start, there was, a Presidential Luncheon, a special lecture, a social hour and dinner on Friday night.  Ron gave a very fitting speech that was sharp and paid tribute to ESU.  (When I received this award several years ago, my good friend Kala Stroup, who has been honored so many times, gave me good advice, which I passed on to Ron.  She said, “Bob, be funny.”)  And Ron was funny.

That was Friday . . .then Saturday began with a breakfast with alumni, a lunch at his fraternity, a parade, a football game and going out to the 50 yard line.  As you can imagine, it was a special day for him and his family (his sisters came to participate from Phoenix).

As the weekend wound down, Ron called me on his way to the airport.  I could tell he was exhausted.  But clearly, the day meant a great deal to him and the other awardees.

As fundraisers, we frequently have influence or even control these opportunities.  They should not be treated casually or without purpose.  Emporia State honored Ron, the man who made the internet profitable to the television industry, was President and CEO of Liberty Insurance preparing it for sale, was a senior executive of a media company that sold for a billion dollars to Raycom and is now consulting and has recently accepted the role of CEO of the South Carolina Business Incubator Center which oversees 46 emerging businesses.

Congrats to ESU for figuring this out.

Don Reichardt’s professor told him he could write.  Who knew the impact that simple acknowledgement would have on his life?

Look around.  Opportunities are right in front of you.  If you can’t see them, contact me and I’ll help get you started.

Few of us need a plaque or a trophy or public praise, but all of us like to be appreciated.

I’ll admit, I think about fundraising all the time.  It’s not easy being me, but no one seems to feel sorry for me.  All kinds of thoughts are swirling around my head today and I can’t seem to find the “glue” to meld them into one comprehensive message.  So today I’ll share three unrelated thoughts.

Impact of High Income Deduction Change

When it comes to research, where does common sense enter in?

Another well established research body has assessed that gifting will be reduced by $3 billion to $6 billion per year as a result of the President’s plan to reduce the charitable deduction.  You can read it for yourself.

Really?  We have already lost about $30 billion dollars because of this threat to gifting.

Remember, two thirds of all gifts come from high net worth individuals with $200k annual income and $1 million in assets.  You think these people who itemize haven’t been watching this debate and consistency of the President’s proposals?  Giving is already going down in terms of long term pledges as a result of this pounding on the deduction.

I am not in support of the President’s plan, but my clients are planning for the fall.

You are right, I am self-centered

This weekend a very good friend of mine attended an event in which they announced the completion of a $10 million project. Among the gifts was a $750k gift from a foundation that, from our experience, would have given $1.5 million to this project.  Unless this institution is doing strange things that I am not aware of, the Foundation would have given them $750k more.  We were not approached to be counsel, and I don’t know if anyone was.

If they did this campaign alone, I am sure some trustee said, “Yea, we did this and didn’t have to hire an outside consultant.  We saved $76,000.”

And they lost $624,000.

We aren’t perfect, but we know what we’re doing.  I’m sure fundraising consultants like us aren’t alone, thinking about lost opportunity.  I am sure doctors, lawyers, and financial planners look at stories like this in their venues and say the same thing.  It is sad.

Stop Reading the Gloom and Doom

I will tell you what the press is going to say and you can save yourself hours of reading.

“The economy is bad.”

“It’s going to get worse.”

“Fundraising is down.”

Then they are going to tell you all kinds of gimmicks to improve your online work, or your endowments, or give priority to this or that.

Hey, I’ll tell you the truth.  Like all good businesses that succeed when others slip away, it comes down to Persistence and Tenacity.

Got that?

You better.  Those who tell the fundraising success stories of this next year will.

For the first time in history, fundraisers and nonprofits can’t take for granted that the charitable deduction will be in place for its donors.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Now, let’s talk.  If you receive $60 gifts, your nonprofit will probably not feel it.  But if you get $1,000 gifts, you probably will.

For too long the fundraising profession has sat on the sidelines of public policy.  An unfortunate positive outcome of this attack on the deduction is that it is motivating nonprofits and those who believe in the nonprofit role in our society to mobilize.  I have said for years that regulation will ultimately unify America’s fundraising professionals.

Well, I know at the highest levels, AFP, CASE, AHP and many others are organizing to make sure Congress and the President understand the incredible damage this will cause our country at a time when more and more government is shifting to the private sector.

Our friends at the Center on Philanthropy issued a report a couple of years ago when the President first presented this idea (he has proposed it three more times and it is in his jobs bill).  Clearly, the nonprofit sector has not convinced him of the harm.

The Center on Philanthropy indicated in their study that eliminating the charitable deduction would diminish giving by over $6 billion.  The economy has already reduced giving over $20 billion, according to many other sources.

While Hartsook would argue that giving and major gift giving will continue, it is going to cause a pause by donors.  Once the deduction has been decreased in any way, it is a slippery slope.

This is a time for you to make sure you know where those groups of influence are on this challenge.

Where does your Board stand?  Where does your staff stand?  Do they understand the impact of this change on their lives?

Have you formed an opinion?

Better get one.

Saturday afternoon, I crashed, exhausted.  Friday night and most of Saturday, I taught and led FR 600 Introduction to Fundraising, the one hour course in our Avila Hartsook Institute Masters Degree program.

As I shared last week, this class marked the beginning of our second year of the program.  There were 11 students in this course.

•    Deanna is working in accounting, but took a nonprofit management course looking for more exposure to fundraising.

•    Kristy is a Hartsook client from Lancaster, Ohio who is commuting to get her fundraising masters degree from Avila, a first for this degree.

•    Bailey started midyear and was just catching up.  She comes to us from time spent at Harvesters and more recently in admissions at Avila.

•    Martha is the principal of a larger, 700-student Catholic elementary school in Johnson County, Kansas.  She recognizes the role fundraising is playing and will play in her work and career.

•    Cara joined the program midway last year and has left her transitional career of renting apartments to use her art history degree as an Assistant to the Curator at Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

•    Abbey is our first graduate of Rockhurst University’s nonprofit management program with a fundraising emphasis.  She is the fundraiser for a retirement community.

•    Catherine started the program last year but couldn’t do the intro course, so she was catching up.  She has had two promotions last year, one to Special Events Coordinator for her former health care employer.  Now she is just starting a new job as Director of Special Events for the Red Cross in Kansas City.

•    Brett comes to us as a recent grad from Tennessee and is the Sports Information Director at Avila.  He knows the role fundraising is going to play in his career.

•    Robin also started the program last year, but missed the fundraising intro.  She has had two major events in this year.  She is our first student who has become a mother while in the program!  (She named her baby “Rick”.  I lobbied for “Bob” but failed).  Robin has recently been hired as Executive Director of Advancement for Avila.

•    Aaron is already on his career path as a grant development specialist, but wants a bigger role in fundraising.

•    And finally Ruth, who joined us late in the enrollment process comes from Kenya.  She is a US citizen but is interested in working with the United Nations charities.

You will hear about these men and women and others in the Hartsook program.  They are the future leaders of the Growing Philanthropy Movement.

They signed up for this course knowing that they were not just going to read articles and books by the leaders of fundraising in America—they were going to meet and interact with them.  They would be exposed to fundraisers who have not just spent their life running one or two nonprofit programs, but have been a part of fundraising domestically and internationally.

Along with myself, they were exposed to the following guest lecturers who share the goal of growing philanthropy through a new way of thinking about the fundraising professional.

•    Matt Beem, CEO of Hartsook, consultant to hundreds of varying nonprofits throughout America and the inspiration for Hartsook Worldwide.  Matt is in Geneva right now to meet with UN officials as I write this blog.

•    Norma Murphy, a long-time Hartsook consultant who specializes in grantsmanship, with clients throughout America and our Kresge Foundation specialist.  You might remember she was on the last flight out of Chile before the earthquake a few years ago after working with a client.

•    Karin Cox, the co-founder of Hartsook whose innovative, creative voice has changed much of the infrastructure to improve Hartsook’s practice and competitive advantage.  She is a former child abuse prevention center director and author of the Fundraising Principles and Practices chapter on Fundraising Events, came developed the Cox Grid.

•    Finally one of our best friends and thinkers, Lou Gehring, who has had a significant role in the creation of the Hartsook Institutes.  He talked about CEO/CDO relationship.

After I rested Saturday, I reflected on the day and the challenges this particular group of students will face.

•    These are the first students of fundraising that have been confronted with the possibility of a change in the Charitable Deduction.  Until this year, the charitable deduction was taken for granted.

•    They are the first students to know that government’s economic influence on nonprofits is going to be less, not more.

•    They are the first group to know that the nonprofit sector is going to be challenged by donors and government to prove they are having an impact on society.

There is much more in store for these students as they enter the program and challenge themselves, their practice and the profession.  Along the way, they will be challenged to think and be agile, nimble, and aggressive fundraisers.  Mostly, they will challenge themselves as they own their responsibility to grow the profession’s capacities.

If you felt a tremor in KC over the weekend, don’t worry.  Be excited!  The Avila in the master’s class is causing a tectonic shift in the Growing Philanthropy Movement.  You may feel more rumbles in the next few weeks.  October 20, most of these students will join others for the next eight-week course in course.

So brace yourself.  A new breed of fundraiser is coming, and the movement is Growing Philanthropy.

This Friday evening and all day Saturday, the Hartsook Institute at Avila University in KC Masters in Fundraising the introductory class will begin a dozen or so new students in.  We have now about 25 students in the program at some point.

While this will change over time, currently all classes are being taught or directed by me.  I want to personally ensure the program is headed in the right direction.  So you know where I’ll be this weekend — don’t expect me out at my usual Friday night haunts.

There’s nothing I’d rather do, because my time is worth the investment in growing philanthropy.

The Hartsook/Avila program is different.  How?

It was designed in collaboration with the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy Hartsook Chair in Fundraising, Adrian Sargeant. As a result it, is focused on building and transferring a body of knowledge through research and best practices for our students.

This program deals with the theory behind fundraising and builds the case most recently expressed by the AFP CEO that the fundraiser is the broker of philanthropists and nonprofits.

While quality practice is a vital outcome, we believe that if doctors didn’t understand basic science or lawyers the Common Law, they would be unable to provide good service to their clients and patients.  So a theoretical understanding, combined with the practical essentials, is critical to a fundraiser’s role in increasing philanthropy.

The curriculum is highlighted by one class in each course being taught by the Hartsook Chair.  This way, each student has the opportunity to exchange ideas with the prolific leader of the fundraising educational change in America, rather than just reading his works.

Guest lecturers also include:
•    Blackbaud’s Chris South (Charleston, S.C.), who provides insight into technology advances;
•    Heritage Foundation Director of Development and Growing Philanthropy Award winner for Direct Response Marketing Carsten Walter (Washington, D.C.), who provides a world view of the subject;:
•    Hartsook President and CEO Matt Beem (Kansas City), author of Fundraising Practices and Principles’ chapter on Planned Giving, who speaks to the subject;
•    Author of the Special Events chapter, Sr. Executive Vice President Karin Cox (Wilmington, NC), who presents the Cox Grid, a new tool for evaluating fundraising special events;
•    and many others from throughout the country.

Nearly every class requires students to critically evaluate new research in the field and to judge its quality and applicability to practice.

Finally, this program must meet accreditation standards.  It is believed that two thirds of the nonprofit management programs in the country do not require even one class in fundraising.  Tell me how you lead a nonprofit without fundraising.

So if you are in the fundraising career and want to be the best, there is still time to sign up.  We have students commuting from distant points, and soon we will have an online version.

As demonstrated by the quality of students enrolling in the Hartsook Institute at Avila, the good keep getting better.

Speaking of that, I better get back to work on our class this weekend.  We have work to do: Philanthropy won’t grow itself.