Rob Burke: Welcome to the Focus Fundraiser. This is where I get to discuss how to focus on the right fundraising practices with those that are in the trenches helping nonprofits every day. Because something that we believe is doing more shouldn't be the goal, and we're going to talk about that today. Focusing on what matters most should be the goal. And most nonprofits fall into a pattern. You hire a development director, they work themselves to the bone, and 16 months later, they leave. And my guest today says that cycle isn't a p people problem. So Eddie Allen is the founder of Pacific Northwest Fundraising and the author of a new book coming out here called The Unicorn Development Director. And he has spent years proving that there's a better way to build fundraising. So I'm I'm excited to dive into this conversation with him. So if you've ever felt like your job wasn't possible, you should stick around because Eddie is about to explain why.
Eddie Allen: ⁓
Rob Burke: And what to do instead of that. So Eddie, welcome start us off by sharing a bit about yourself and your path into the nonprofit sector.
Eddie Allen: Sure. Thanks, Rob. I sure appreciate that. Well, Eddie Allen, the founder, ⁓ CEO, and I affectionately refer to myself as our lead guide of Pacific Northwest fundraising, because we believe in stewardship leadership, and ⁓ when there's a lot of mountain imagery in Pacific Northwest fundraising. ⁓ I got involved in the philanthropic world about 15 years ago. I I just happened to be fortunate enough in my life to be able to kind of choose what I got to do next, and went through a program called Leadership Clark County. Here ⁓ locally. And one of the things that they they did with the program at that time was they ⁓ administered the Berkman test, which is one of those personality tests, which is you know what you're supposed to be when you grow up. And I'll just never forget when I got the ⁓ the test and the test results back, ⁓ number one on a score of one to a hundred was social services, right? To champion said cause for the individual or the community for the greater good. ⁓ that was like a nine. And of ninety-eight was advocacy, advocate, which is to basically champion the cause for that individual or the greater good for the community. And ⁓ I was like one of those cartoons that you see where that light bulb went off over the top of my head and ⁓ that thought bubbled and filled in. And I said I wanted to be a development director, an executive director of a nonprofit, and four months later I was, right? And so that kind of led me on the journey ⁓ development director director of advancement and stewardship to starting Pacific Northwest fundraising ⁓ five years ago in the middle of COVID ⁓ of all things ⁓ to you know that we're gonna talk about to to you know look at this fundamentally I started out with trying to look at this problem of systemic turnover within the industry why it's 12 to 16 months on a development director what that looks like what's the causes are and ⁓ Yeah, I think our our model now reflects that and ⁓ I'm excited to talk about it here today.
Rob Burke: Awesome. Well, I think your book I I got to be one of the few that re read it before it's coming out, so thank you for that. And I think it sheds a lot of light on this topic. ⁓ the title, like I said, is The Unicorn Development Director and which is basically one person expected to do ten jobs at once. And I'm curious to know, for the fundraiser who is listening, that job description right now, if it feels like a fit for them, ⁓ how do they tell their boss the role
Eddie Allen: Yeah.
Rob Burke: itself is the problem and not their effort. Like let's dive into that a bit.
Eddie Allen: Well maybe we need to even back up a little bit and just ⁓ it's not necessarily just our model, which is the the fractional business model which allows us to give C-suite level ⁓ fundraising development experience and wisdom, okay, ⁓ to that organization. But just if you look at let's say all the national brand nonprofits or universities or hospitals, all these jobs are their jobs, their individual jobs, right? Communications, marketing, database management, philanthropy, development, ⁓ grant writing, so on and so forth. And so these major brands that have the staffing and the revenue, they already know of this, right? And so what happens is smaller organizations, we wrap this around the development, right? It's ⁓ it's literally ⁓ like hiring. Your plumber to build your house, right? Plumbing is super essential, but but no one would do that. So we we already drop them into this situation that it's just it's not gonna work, right? I mean, I was never hired for my Canvas skills, okay? I did have a a marketing background. I worked at a pretty high-end marketing company in in Portland, Oregon. ⁓ but I you know was a major gifts guy in relationship and understood the database. ⁓ the few grants that I wrote and won in in my career, I hated every second of it, right? Because those those are again individual jobs, okay? And so I think to that, you know, the book is about that development director. You're you're dropped into this place. ⁓ The timing doesn't match up, also, right? Usually, you know, when when a nonprofit hires, it's like we gotta raise money right now, all right? And this is the difference between fundraising, development, and philanthropy, right? So development, major gifts, you know, the word development literally means over time, right? And that could take twenty-four to forty-eight months, but you gotta raise a couple hundred thousand dollars right now, and there's no database, no database, no donor development, which is one of my my favorite sayings, of the reasons we like DonorDock so much. But ⁓ So there's no systems, no processes, no no relationship building. And you're supposed to do all that, one in that time frame for development, at the same time, do social media, you know, do the newsletter, do the grant writing, communications. It just it's no wonder that, you know, the this position fails in 12 to 16 months. The overall ⁓ burnout rate, or I I just saw that on the Chronicle Philanthropy, it's like over 70% if not Nonprofit professionals ⁓ experience burnout. The overall failure rate is close to 25% within the industry, not just the the the director of development. The other thing, too, the number that gets put out there all the time is that this turnover in 12 to 16 months is about $130,000 more or less in salary and benefits. But that's just above the waterline, right? That's not the total cost to it in this turnover. You have mission interruption, the damage to the brand. donor distrust, the stress that it puts on the the rest of the staff, it's double that, right? And we we have math behind that's just Eddie's opinion now, you know, I I suppose it has to get out into the marketplace, but that's the real math of the cost. And You know, my ⁓ my my dad was a teacher and my stepfather a ⁓ a small business owner. So one I just started looking at the math. You know, dad was a a math and history teacher. The math wasn't mathing. And then on my stepfather who owned a small business. If we did anything that failed 80% of the time like that, you know what he would do? Stop doing it. Right? And yet we, you know, you can
Rob Burke: Yep.
Eddie Allen: You can look at the job descriptions on Indeed and Idealist, and I just that person doesn't have a chance. Right? They really don't have the chance. So that's what the book's about. It's about infrastructure fundraising. It's about, you know, kind of stepping back before going forward. Because without those systems of processes, organizational processes that need to be owned by the organization, not on this person whose whose turnover is in 12 to 16 months. It's gonna fail, right? And the the math says that.
Rob Burke: Yeah. Yeah, some of those statistics are very sobering. Most of them are. and I think so, you know, you you threw out the major gifts take up to forty-eight months. Stewardship, ⁓ if we just broaden it, is a long game mindset. And so, for for teams that are genuinely cannot wait the two years to bring in that revenue, how do you ⁓ coach organizations to close that gap without burning out the person in the seat?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I I think yeah, it's a great question, Rob. And and some of it again is you know, build out the infrastructure first, but also start with, you know, the the different layers of fundraising, development, and philanthropy, right? So what does your twelve month annual giving plan look like? Which a lot of times doesn't change year over year, right? I mean you every nonprofit should be doing an end-to-year giving campaign. Although I think the last stats that I I read, it's only like fifty-two percent do when third of all gifts are in the month of December. All right. I'm we are huge fans of recurring giving because we think it's a great entry point into your organization. Right. And then the problem is that organizations don't have the the time, the bandwidth then to actually steward that donor. You know, just because they give you 25 bucks a month doesn't mean that they they can't give you, you know, $25,000. So so that's an issue there. So again, you know, whether it's recurring giving a a couple times during the year. ⁓ you know grant a grant stream as well you know oftentimes nonprofits do ⁓ a gala or an event you know th those are really fundraising events in time right it's so that kind of builds your first layer if you will because your gala just that the date changes every year but you know you probably have the same theme and so on and so forth that what we want to do is put the systems and processes in place that these folks are moving from that Into donor development that you know what the what's the math on a gala and an event? Like 12% of the people do 90% of the giving. So, how are you moving those folks into finding out their capacity and having lunch with them, this 20 to 30 people, over the next year? And again, that's the fundamental problem. The job is set up that you can't ever get out from behind the desk ⁓ and have that conversation to then have transformational. gifts and so we want to what we call you know infrastructure infrastructure fundraising or the expedition model like I said there's a lot of mountain imagery is what we we call and so it's just giving it the nonprofit the resources of a full on development team right so and and providing a return on investment but the other cool thing that that has happened with this is that we're also providing that leadership group whether it's the Executive director, up to five to ten hours a week back. That's what's been the thing that's kind of really unlocked this. So once that happens, now you can go have a conversation with that person, right? Just schedule Wednesdays at noon, right? Just make a commitment to it and go meet with your donors.
Rob Burke: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I know, personally I know that your team, the way that you you guys approach this is a fractional development team. ⁓ when you walk in ⁓ so I'm curious to know because you guys touch so many different organizations, when you walk into a nonprofit, what is the first sign that can tell you if the fundraising problem is a systems problem or a money problem?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you, almost every project that we do starts with the database. So right then it tells me it's a systems problem. And it's also a money problem because that the the person's turned over, right? So they've been you know throwing money at it versus fixing the problem, right? So ⁓ because of that turnover, you know, data is in somebody's head or it's in a spreadsheet. It's all over the place. So you know literally the foundation of this no database, no donor development is to create this clearing house of information that we can, you know, do a capacity report and identify those major donors and and start that, you know, identification, cultivation, solicitation process with them. And ⁓ that's Rob, that's fundamental to it. And that's the first thing, right? Then then it's a really systems issue. Let's build that out. Also, you know, I I do believe now our model isn't to replace development directors at all, it's to give them a fighting chance. But I do believe there's a place that until these systems and processes are in place, this model's it's it's much more risk aversive. It saves you money because when we can build that not only pay for ourselves. On a return on investment, which is anywhere from three to one to fifteen to one when you include grants, that time savings is if you can create whether it's the executive director or a board member to go have that cup of coffee, we the time is now built in, right? And that's where we want to change the mindset of fundraising to development and major gifts, right? Everybody kind of calls it development or fundraising and throws them all in one big bucket, but they're but they're not, okay? So if we can do this be the back end, and when I mean back end, I'm I'm we're not The the term consultant always makes the my hair on the back of my neck stand up a little bit because that old model was to come in, diagnose a problem, right, write up a solution and leave. Well, we've got a a a team of expert we're gonna do the deliverables, right? We're gonna do the campaigns ⁓ around your recurring giving, your social media, which I don't even like to call it that anymore. It's it it's it's donor digital engagement, right? It's the front end of donor relationships. So if you're just posting to post You're missing this again, this entry point into the organization for time, talent, and resources from from that donor and the stewardship. So, again, what are the systems and processes? How are we ⁓ what's the care of that donor once they've made that gift? And too often Donors don't hear from an organization, it's tell it's time to gift again, right? And that's what we don't want to have. You know, there's there's an old marketing adage that it takes anywhere between seven and twenty-seven touches. Like so what's that what's that calendar look like? What's the cadence? What's your thematic, right? What's your storytelling? ⁓ your digital donor engagement just can't be about a a community calendar. What's the impact that you're making? You know, who do you who do you affect? What's the benefit to the community? So, you know, the the hero's journey ⁓ in that really influences our work. The humans of New York has been a a big thing as well, right? Where's that intersection between ⁓ the donor and the people you serve and how we bring that together throughout the year?
Rob Burke: you're about retention and stewardship, right? So why do you organizations keep reaching out for acquisition over retention? It just seems like it's such a prevalent topic, but it's just not it just doesn't seem like it's getting through well enough. So what does fixing that mindset look like? Yeah, yeah.
Eddie Allen: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. No, the grass is always greener on the other side, right? We're spending all this time on new acquisition when it should be about retention. And I think that it's Rob, it it's just a bandwidth problem, right? And or the stewardship because we're asking this one person to do eight, nine, ten jobs, okay, and it's a chaotic environment which you know creates that turnover and situation that it puts that person in, that stewardship just gets dropped. Okay. And ⁓ because yeah, we we can see ⁓ on digital donor engagement, we can see the movement. My one of my mentors always said Facebook likes are not a donor strategy. Well I would push back on that now and say it's an engagement strategy, but it's an engagement strategy if you're looking at the right metrics, right? We're ⁓ we don't just track vanity metrics, right? We want to be able to see people who move from engagement on social media into the database for the three true outcomes. as a baseball fan, three true outcomes for, you know, time, talent, and resources for the nonprofit. That's that's what's important. Yay, we had I don't know how many times I've heard this, right? Hey, we got 200 likes on that post. Well, how many of those were you able to steward into your database to start a conversation who became recurring givers and then moved into, you know, a volunteer or a donor? And that is that's just not happening. And again, I think it's just bandwidth. Okay. It just it's just not happening.
Rob Burke: Yeah. so last question before I get to my final question for you. A lot of shops, ⁓ you you mentioned this at the very beginning. They chase grants or they are looking at the event coming up. ⁓ but if the fundraiser only had, and most of them do only had ten focused hours a week, where would you tell them to spend that time to grow giving the fastest?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Before I answer that, I just wanted big ⁓ or That is a great observation, right? We're we're working with so many clients who've been overdependent on grants and events, right? And literally have nothing through donor development, which is still 70% of all gifting, right? And so that's a whole channel we want to open up. I would say that, you know, start now. It doesn't have to be perfect, okay? And if you have any idea of who your top 20 donors. Are reach out to them, right? Make a commitment. And I always felt it was easier for me to not try to chase people around so much. I mean, right now on my calendar, every week I have a Wednesday lunch thing that I try to fill that appointment. That's that's for Eddie, right? And so I just build that in. That's my calendar. My job is to fill that slot. And so, you know, hey, I've got Wednesday or Friday afternoon. Or whatever it is, invite them to a tour. If you've got some kind of where they can go behind the scenes and a tour, donors love tours, right? they're one of the best things that you can possibly do. But I would say start now, right? Identify those folks, find out who's got the best relationship with them. Maybe a board member does and can do an introduction. But that that's where transformational gifts are. That's where relationships are. And if it's an organization that You're not getting a hold of these folks until the six weeks before your next event, then that's why you're chasing new acquisition, because they're coming into and you're not giving them a reason to stay. Right? People stay because they care. Right? Have a volunteer day. Pull weeds with them. I mean, all those things are are what creates a relationship. Break bread with them. ⁓ yeah. And because if you treat them transactional, you're you're gonna get transactional results.
Rob Burke: So well said. All right, Eddie, last question for you before we head out. I I I call this the tactical takeaway, something that's very pragmatic for fundraisers to do today to move the needle. So what is one thing every fundraiser should do today that you believe matters most?
Eddie Allen: But think I was talking, just you know, find the time to have those conversations, right? Sketch out that top 20 or 30 if you haven't. I think that's where transformational gifts are going to become. Separate infrastructure from donor development, right? And then think about spending 80% of your time in the 20% that moves the organizational forward, because typically it's the other way around, right? And so that's what I would would leave everyone with today.
Rob Burke: Prioriti prioritize and focus. Yeah. Yeah. Eddie, thanks so much for joining the conversation today. Your book, The Unicorn Development Director, which is focusing on why fundraising breaks when we build it around one impossible job and how infrastructure changes the math. It comes out in July, is that correct?
Eddie Allen: Yeah, one hundred percent. July is yes. More or less July, yeah. Sure. You can go to our website, ⁓ Civinorthwest fundraising.us. I'm
Rob Burke: July actually. It's coming out soon. How how can people reach out ⁓ and maybe sign up for for an early access list or something?
Eddie Allen: Assuming that maybe my email, Eddie at Pacific Northwest Fundraising.us, you can email me directly. It's one of the first mistakes I made with my company. I should have shortened that URL, but anyways, it's all spelled out. ⁓ and you can reach out that way. We're also on social media, LinkedIn, so on and so forth. So any of those channels, just reach out and we can give you an excerpt and let you know what's what's happening next. And and if you have a need, you know, we we'd love to talk to you, right? I mean we we want to provide this. service because we're all nonprofit folks. We're used to doing more with less and to really give these nonprofits who don't have the ability to hire individually the the expertise of that team to move the organization forward. I mean that's what why we get up in the morning.
Rob Burke: good. ⁓ for those listening, if this how you see your own role, I'd totally encourage you to pick up Eddie's book and to also share this episode with a fundraiser who needs to hear that the problem was never them. It's the systems or the lack of. and if you're curious about how DonorDock can help you find this clarity ⁓ and build relationships and retention through smart stewardship, visit us at donordock.com to learn more. We'll see you next week.
Eddie Allen: ⁓
Rob Burke: And what to do instead of that. So Eddie, welcome start us off by sharing a bit about yourself and your path into the nonprofit sector.
Eddie Allen: Sure. Thanks, Rob. I sure appreciate that. Well, Eddie Allen, the founder, ⁓ CEO, and I affectionately refer to myself as our lead guide of Pacific Northwest fundraising, because we believe in stewardship leadership, and ⁓ when there's a lot of mountain imagery in Pacific Northwest fundraising. ⁓ I got involved in the philanthropic world about 15 years ago. I I just happened to be fortunate enough in my life to be able to kind of choose what I got to do next, and went through a program called Leadership Clark County. Here ⁓ locally. And one of the things that they they did with the program at that time was they ⁓ administered the Berkman test, which is one of those personality tests, which is you know what you're supposed to be when you grow up. And I'll just never forget when I got the ⁓ the test and the test results back, ⁓ number one on a score of one to a hundred was social services, right? To champion said cause for the individual or the community for the greater good. ⁓ that was like a nine. And of ninety-eight was advocacy, advocate, which is to basically champion the cause for that individual or the greater good for the community. And ⁓ I was like one of those cartoons that you see where that light bulb went off over the top of my head and ⁓ that thought bubbled and filled in. And I said I wanted to be a development director, an executive director of a nonprofit, and four months later I was, right? And so that kind of led me on the journey ⁓ development director director of advancement and stewardship to starting Pacific Northwest fundraising ⁓ five years ago in the middle of COVID ⁓ of all things ⁓ to you know that we're gonna talk about to to you know look at this fundamentally I started out with trying to look at this problem of systemic turnover within the industry why it's 12 to 16 months on a development director what that looks like what's the causes are and ⁓ Yeah, I think our our model now reflects that and ⁓ I'm excited to talk about it here today.
Rob Burke: Awesome. Well, I think your book I I got to be one of the few that re read it before it's coming out, so thank you for that. And I think it sheds a lot of light on this topic. ⁓ the title, like I said, is The Unicorn Development Director and which is basically one person expected to do ten jobs at once. And I'm curious to know, for the fundraiser who is listening, that job description right now, if it feels like a fit for them, ⁓ how do they tell their boss the role
Eddie Allen: Yeah.
Rob Burke: itself is the problem and not their effort. Like let's dive into that a bit.
Eddie Allen: Well maybe we need to even back up a little bit and just ⁓ it's not necessarily just our model, which is the the fractional business model which allows us to give C-suite level ⁓ fundraising development experience and wisdom, okay, ⁓ to that organization. But just if you look at let's say all the national brand nonprofits or universities or hospitals, all these jobs are their jobs, their individual jobs, right? Communications, marketing, database management, philanthropy, development, ⁓ grant writing, so on and so forth. And so these major brands that have the staffing and the revenue, they already know of this, right? And so what happens is smaller organizations, we wrap this around the development, right? It's ⁓ it's literally ⁓ like hiring. Your plumber to build your house, right? Plumbing is super essential, but but no one would do that. So we we already drop them into this situation that it's just it's not gonna work, right? I mean, I was never hired for my Canvas skills, okay? I did have a a marketing background. I worked at a pretty high-end marketing company in in Portland, Oregon. ⁓ but I you know was a major gifts guy in relationship and understood the database. ⁓ the few grants that I wrote and won in in my career, I hated every second of it, right? Because those those are again individual jobs, okay? And so I think to that, you know, the book is about that development director. You're you're dropped into this place. ⁓ The timing doesn't match up, also, right? Usually, you know, when when a nonprofit hires, it's like we gotta raise money right now, all right? And this is the difference between fundraising, development, and philanthropy, right? So development, major gifts, you know, the word development literally means over time, right? And that could take twenty-four to forty-eight months, but you gotta raise a couple hundred thousand dollars right now, and there's no database, no database, no donor development, which is one of my my favorite sayings, of the reasons we like DonorDock so much. But ⁓ So there's no systems, no processes, no no relationship building. And you're supposed to do all that, one in that time frame for development, at the same time, do social media, you know, do the newsletter, do the grant writing, communications. It just it's no wonder that, you know, the this position fails in 12 to 16 months. The overall ⁓ burnout rate, or I I just saw that on the Chronicle Philanthropy, it's like over 70% if not Nonprofit professionals ⁓ experience burnout. The overall failure rate is close to 25% within the industry, not just the the the director of development. The other thing, too, the number that gets put out there all the time is that this turnover in 12 to 16 months is about $130,000 more or less in salary and benefits. But that's just above the waterline, right? That's not the total cost to it in this turnover. You have mission interruption, the damage to the brand. donor distrust, the stress that it puts on the the rest of the staff, it's double that, right? And we we have math behind that's just Eddie's opinion now, you know, I I suppose it has to get out into the marketplace, but that's the real math of the cost. And You know, my ⁓ my my dad was a teacher and my stepfather a ⁓ a small business owner. So one I just started looking at the math. You know, dad was a a math and history teacher. The math wasn't mathing. And then on my stepfather who owned a small business. If we did anything that failed 80% of the time like that, you know what he would do? Stop doing it. Right? And yet we, you know, you can
Rob Burke: Yep.
Eddie Allen: You can look at the job descriptions on Indeed and Idealist, and I just that person doesn't have a chance. Right? They really don't have the chance. So that's what the book's about. It's about infrastructure fundraising. It's about, you know, kind of stepping back before going forward. Because without those systems of processes, organizational processes that need to be owned by the organization, not on this person whose whose turnover is in 12 to 16 months. It's gonna fail, right? And the the math says that.
Rob Burke: Yeah. Yeah, some of those statistics are very sobering. Most of them are. and I think so, you know, you you threw out the major gifts take up to forty-eight months. Stewardship, ⁓ if we just broaden it, is a long game mindset. And so, for for teams that are genuinely cannot wait the two years to bring in that revenue, how do you ⁓ coach organizations to close that gap without burning out the person in the seat?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I I think yeah, it's a great question, Rob. And and some of it again is you know, build out the infrastructure first, but also start with, you know, the the different layers of fundraising, development, and philanthropy, right? So what does your twelve month annual giving plan look like? Which a lot of times doesn't change year over year, right? I mean you every nonprofit should be doing an end-to-year giving campaign. Although I think the last stats that I I read, it's only like fifty-two percent do when third of all gifts are in the month of December. All right. I'm we are huge fans of recurring giving because we think it's a great entry point into your organization. Right. And then the problem is that organizations don't have the the time, the bandwidth then to actually steward that donor. You know, just because they give you 25 bucks a month doesn't mean that they they can't give you, you know, $25,000. So so that's an issue there. So again, you know, whether it's recurring giving a a couple times during the year. ⁓ you know grant a grant stream as well you know oftentimes nonprofits do ⁓ a gala or an event you know th those are really fundraising events in time right it's so that kind of builds your first layer if you will because your gala just that the date changes every year but you know you probably have the same theme and so on and so forth that what we want to do is put the systems and processes in place that these folks are moving from that Into donor development that you know what the what's the math on a gala and an event? Like 12% of the people do 90% of the giving. So, how are you moving those folks into finding out their capacity and having lunch with them, this 20 to 30 people, over the next year? And again, that's the fundamental problem. The job is set up that you can't ever get out from behind the desk ⁓ and have that conversation to then have transformational. gifts and so we want to what we call you know infrastructure infrastructure fundraising or the expedition model like I said there's a lot of mountain imagery is what we we call and so it's just giving it the nonprofit the resources of a full on development team right so and and providing a return on investment but the other cool thing that that has happened with this is that we're also providing that leadership group whether it's the Executive director, up to five to ten hours a week back. That's what's been the thing that's kind of really unlocked this. So once that happens, now you can go have a conversation with that person, right? Just schedule Wednesdays at noon, right? Just make a commitment to it and go meet with your donors.
Rob Burke: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I know, personally I know that your team, the way that you you guys approach this is a fractional development team. ⁓ when you walk in ⁓ so I'm curious to know because you guys touch so many different organizations, when you walk into a nonprofit, what is the first sign that can tell you if the fundraising problem is a systems problem or a money problem?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you, almost every project that we do starts with the database. So right then it tells me it's a systems problem. And it's also a money problem because that the the person's turned over, right? So they've been you know throwing money at it versus fixing the problem, right? So ⁓ because of that turnover, you know, data is in somebody's head or it's in a spreadsheet. It's all over the place. So you know literally the foundation of this no database, no donor development is to create this clearing house of information that we can, you know, do a capacity report and identify those major donors and and start that, you know, identification, cultivation, solicitation process with them. And ⁓ that's Rob, that's fundamental to it. And that's the first thing, right? Then then it's a really systems issue. Let's build that out. Also, you know, I I do believe now our model isn't to replace development directors at all, it's to give them a fighting chance. But I do believe there's a place that until these systems and processes are in place, this model's it's it's much more risk aversive. It saves you money because when we can build that not only pay for ourselves. On a return on investment, which is anywhere from three to one to fifteen to one when you include grants, that time savings is if you can create whether it's the executive director or a board member to go have that cup of coffee, we the time is now built in, right? And that's where we want to change the mindset of fundraising to development and major gifts, right? Everybody kind of calls it development or fundraising and throws them all in one big bucket, but they're but they're not, okay? So if we can do this be the back end, and when I mean back end, I'm I'm we're not The the term consultant always makes the my hair on the back of my neck stand up a little bit because that old model was to come in, diagnose a problem, right, write up a solution and leave. Well, we've got a a a team of expert we're gonna do the deliverables, right? We're gonna do the campaigns ⁓ around your recurring giving, your social media, which I don't even like to call it that anymore. It's it it's it's donor digital engagement, right? It's the front end of donor relationships. So if you're just posting to post You're missing this again, this entry point into the organization for time, talent, and resources from from that donor and the stewardship. So, again, what are the systems and processes? How are we ⁓ what's the care of that donor once they've made that gift? And too often Donors don't hear from an organization, it's tell it's time to gift again, right? And that's what we don't want to have. You know, there's there's an old marketing adage that it takes anywhere between seven and twenty-seven touches. Like so what's that what's that calendar look like? What's the cadence? What's your thematic, right? What's your storytelling? ⁓ your digital donor engagement just can't be about a a community calendar. What's the impact that you're making? You know, who do you who do you affect? What's the benefit to the community? So, you know, the the hero's journey ⁓ in that really influences our work. The humans of New York has been a a big thing as well, right? Where's that intersection between ⁓ the donor and the people you serve and how we bring that together throughout the year?
Rob Burke: you're about retention and stewardship, right? So why do you organizations keep reaching out for acquisition over retention? It just seems like it's such a prevalent topic, but it's just not it just doesn't seem like it's getting through well enough. So what does fixing that mindset look like? Yeah, yeah.
Eddie Allen: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. No, the grass is always greener on the other side, right? We're spending all this time on new acquisition when it should be about retention. And I think that it's Rob, it it's just a bandwidth problem, right? And or the stewardship because we're asking this one person to do eight, nine, ten jobs, okay, and it's a chaotic environment which you know creates that turnover and situation that it puts that person in, that stewardship just gets dropped. Okay. And ⁓ because yeah, we we can see ⁓ on digital donor engagement, we can see the movement. My one of my mentors always said Facebook likes are not a donor strategy. Well I would push back on that now and say it's an engagement strategy, but it's an engagement strategy if you're looking at the right metrics, right? We're ⁓ we don't just track vanity metrics, right? We want to be able to see people who move from engagement on social media into the database for the three true outcomes. as a baseball fan, three true outcomes for, you know, time, talent, and resources for the nonprofit. That's that's what's important. Yay, we had I don't know how many times I've heard this, right? Hey, we got 200 likes on that post. Well, how many of those were you able to steward into your database to start a conversation who became recurring givers and then moved into, you know, a volunteer or a donor? And that is that's just not happening. And again, I think it's just bandwidth. Okay. It just it's just not happening.
Rob Burke: Yeah. so last question before I get to my final question for you. A lot of shops, ⁓ you you mentioned this at the very beginning. They chase grants or they are looking at the event coming up. ⁓ but if the fundraiser only had, and most of them do only had ten focused hours a week, where would you tell them to spend that time to grow giving the fastest?
Eddie Allen: Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Before I answer that, I just wanted big ⁓ or That is a great observation, right? We're we're working with so many clients who've been overdependent on grants and events, right? And literally have nothing through donor development, which is still 70% of all gifting, right? And so that's a whole channel we want to open up. I would say that, you know, start now. It doesn't have to be perfect, okay? And if you have any idea of who your top 20 donors. Are reach out to them, right? Make a commitment. And I always felt it was easier for me to not try to chase people around so much. I mean, right now on my calendar, every week I have a Wednesday lunch thing that I try to fill that appointment. That's that's for Eddie, right? And so I just build that in. That's my calendar. My job is to fill that slot. And so, you know, hey, I've got Wednesday or Friday afternoon. Or whatever it is, invite them to a tour. If you've got some kind of where they can go behind the scenes and a tour, donors love tours, right? they're one of the best things that you can possibly do. But I would say start now, right? Identify those folks, find out who's got the best relationship with them. Maybe a board member does and can do an introduction. But that that's where transformational gifts are. That's where relationships are. And if it's an organization that You're not getting a hold of these folks until the six weeks before your next event, then that's why you're chasing new acquisition, because they're coming into and you're not giving them a reason to stay. Right? People stay because they care. Right? Have a volunteer day. Pull weeds with them. I mean, all those things are are what creates a relationship. Break bread with them. ⁓ yeah. And because if you treat them transactional, you're you're gonna get transactional results.
Rob Burke: So well said. All right, Eddie, last question for you before we head out. I I I call this the tactical takeaway, something that's very pragmatic for fundraisers to do today to move the needle. So what is one thing every fundraiser should do today that you believe matters most?
Eddie Allen: But think I was talking, just you know, find the time to have those conversations, right? Sketch out that top 20 or 30 if you haven't. I think that's where transformational gifts are going to become. Separate infrastructure from donor development, right? And then think about spending 80% of your time in the 20% that moves the organizational forward, because typically it's the other way around, right? And so that's what I would would leave everyone with today.
Rob Burke: Prioriti prioritize and focus. Yeah. Yeah. Eddie, thanks so much for joining the conversation today. Your book, The Unicorn Development Director, which is focusing on why fundraising breaks when we build it around one impossible job and how infrastructure changes the math. It comes out in July, is that correct?
Eddie Allen: Yeah, one hundred percent. July is yes. More or less July, yeah. Sure. You can go to our website, ⁓ Civinorthwest fundraising.us. I'm
Rob Burke: July actually. It's coming out soon. How how can people reach out ⁓ and maybe sign up for for an early access list or something?
Eddie Allen: Assuming that maybe my email, Eddie at Pacific Northwest Fundraising.us, you can email me directly. It's one of the first mistakes I made with my company. I should have shortened that URL, but anyways, it's all spelled out. ⁓ and you can reach out that way. We're also on social media, LinkedIn, so on and so forth. So any of those channels, just reach out and we can give you an excerpt and let you know what's what's happening next. And and if you have a need, you know, we we'd love to talk to you, right? I mean we we want to provide this. service because we're all nonprofit folks. We're used to doing more with less and to really give these nonprofits who don't have the ability to hire individually the the expertise of that team to move the organization forward. I mean that's what why we get up in the morning.
Rob Burke: good. ⁓ for those listening, if this how you see your own role, I'd totally encourage you to pick up Eddie's book and to also share this episode with a fundraiser who needs to hear that the problem was never them. It's the systems or the lack of. and if you're curious about how DonorDock can help you find this clarity ⁓ and build relationships and retention through smart stewardship, visit us at donordock.com to learn more. We'll see you next week.
