Getting Giving on the iPhone: There's an app for that!

I warned you in my very first post. I'm a nerd. A certified nerd. And now I'll prove it to you.

There is no rational reason whatsoever for me to build an iPhone app. I need one just like I need another hole in my head. But nerds are curious people, and while I have neither the time nor the energy to learn a new programming language to build an iPhone interface for the GettingGiving blog, it seemed like a fun idea. And then I heard about the folks at appmakr and how for a relatively small amount of money, they could build a simple iPhone app and would publish it in the Apple Store for me. I was smitten. And now when you visit the app store and enter 'GG Blog' in the search field, there it is!

So now you can have a free application on your iPhone to read the GettingGiving blog, see the LindauerOnline twitter feed, and carry lists of recommended readings and websites that are of interest to fundraising professionals. Did I mention it's free?

You likely have no more reason to download the 'GG Blog' app than I did to make it, but if you're like me and you love the free apps, why not? When you're stuck in the airport or at a doctor's appointment, you can get your fundraising fix right on your iPhone.

I still recommend following GettingGiving by RSS Reader or Email subscription (which you can do at the top of this page) but the app is pretty cool too, especially since it's FREE.

Instructions for finding the iPhone app:

1. Open 'App Store' on your iPhone
2. Select the search function at the bottom of the page
3. Enter 'GG Blog' in the search box
4. Touch 'SEARCH'
5. There it is. Touch the 'GG Blog' logo and then download it

I look forward to hearing from those of you who download the app. Any feedback is always appreciated!

Getting Giving on the iPhone: There's an app for that!

Recommended Reading

From time to time, I read something that I feel is an important work for fundrasers to read. I'll mention it, and maybe even give a few highlights or thoughts about the work itself. This time, I'll do half of that. . . .

If you haven't already, Seth Godin's Linchpin is a must-read. Even better, it's available in Kindle format if you are a Kindle person. I won't comment on the book, as I'm only 90% complete, but so far it's amazing and you should read it. Now. It's not a fundraising-specific book, but it is "a work of art" fundraisers can benefit from.

(Seth's blog is also wonderful, and can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/)

On an unrelated note, I couldn't put more words into the blog today anyway, as I'm still suffering from the defeat the Saints put on my Colts last night. Congrats to the people of New Orleans, and thank you to the Colts for a fun season. There's always next year!!

Stay tuned later this week for a big announcement. Well, really not that big in the grand scheme of things, but something that will make you shake your head a bit and think "Why do I need that!?!?" right before you click your mouse :)

Linchpin. What are you waiting for?

Recommended Reading

Can You Replicate Think Week?

Much has been written about Bill Gates and his bi-annual 'Think Week' exercise. If you've not heard of this, Bill takes a couple of weeks a year to get away from it all. During this time, he reads papers, proposals and other materials that he otherwise might not have time to devour during his busy schedule.

In my 'dream world' I see Bill calling his pilots, telling them to fire up the G-V, and he heads to a luxurious mansion on a remote private island where he stays in his hammock alternating between reading, cat-naps, and just gazing at the ocean thinking about how to make his next billion. In reality, it's said he only allows one caretaker to join him at a small secluded cabin, he works 18 straight hours a day reading 100+ papers and drinks a kidney-killing number of diet soft drinks. I like my dream world better.

While most of us have neither the time nor the money to replicate Bill Gates' Think Week, we do face the same problem: Information Overload. Our day-to-day jobs include too many meetings, to-do-lists that need completing and several fires to put out daily. We have little time to think and read. Even less to explore new ideas and research new opportunities. Instead of moving forward, we tread water daily.

In case you were wondering, that's not a good thing. We need time to step back and think about the future. Our organizations will only move forward when we regroup and take considerable time to organize our thoughts about what we want to accomplish and the best ways to get where we want to go.

Several years ago, after first learning of the 'think week' exercise, I tried a 1-day 'think day' experiment and loved it. I rented an inexpensive hotel room (on my own dime) for a night, took a bunch of stuff I was working on and checked in. I didn't leave until the next day at noon, and spent my time doing nothing but reading and thinking. My caretaker was the pizza delivery person who brought my dinner, and I drank more than a few 2-liters of Dr. Pepper. It wasn't a hammock on the beach, but it was an enjoyable experience. I need to do that again.

My happy medium today is a box that sits under my desk labeled 'Travel Stuff' that sits filled with a wide variety of materials. In the box you will find presentations that have been given by others, interesting blog posts, magazines like Fast Company and CASE Currents, a few books, random memos and proposals and many pieces of paper of varying sizes with ideas, notes, and concepts written on them in my horrible handwriting. Everything in the box was, at one time, considered important enough to read or think about but not time sensitive enough to warrant immediate attention. When I have anything that fits the 'Travel Stuff' category I either throw it in the box or email links or documents to my assistant to put them there for future travel.

Every time I leave town, I take a handful of items from the 'Travel Stuff' box to read on the plane, at the airport, when dining alone or in my hotel room. Travel often provides downtime I wouldn't otherwise have. Rather than waste that time, having a go-to selection of important reading materials available to throw in my briefcase at a moment's notice gives me the opportunity to read and think about things without the normal office distractions. On those rare days with few meetings and little to do, I can also dip into the materials. Some materials are then forwarded to appropriate members of my team with my scribbled thoughts, some spark follow-up meetings, and some hit the circular file.

I highly recommend going away to a beach and thinking in a hammock. But until then, consider creating your own 'think box' system for those brief trips or other times you might have to ponder the world without distraction. You might find the most productive time you spend is when you are actually doing nothing at all.


Note: I won't go into the technical details, but another great technology I use to facilitate this is Instapaper - a tool that lets you save web pages for reading later. It's great for the iPhone, as you can read the page on an airplane in the 'airplane safe' mode. And it doesn't kill as many trees.

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Can You Replicate Think Week?

Professional Development For Any Budget

Tomorrow I'm off to Chicago for my favorite professional development event of the year. I hesitate to call it a conference, and at times I'm not even sure it's a meeting. It's more of a convergence of some of my favorite people in the business. In fact, this year it's been coined a scrum. You should try it.

Every year, a small group of annual giving professionals from similar programs gets together in Chicago to share ideas, look at trends and pick each others' brains. We initially gathered because we participate in a common benchmarking group, but it's safe to say we would continue this practice regardless. We enjoy each other and respect our various opinions too much to miss an opportunity to gather. We actually get together twice annually, but this is the meeting has the looser format. And it's probably the better of the two.

Part of the meeting is facilitated by a consultant, part is not. We have a basic agenda of topics submitted by the attendees, but it's really an 'organic' meeting. We go wherever the discussion takes us. Outsiders might consider it to be the ultimate exercise in digression. However, if they paid attention, understood the purpose and opened their minds to the discourse at hand, they'd find a very productive and informative meeting. They'd leave with a notebook full of ideas. They'd feel recharged and ready to return to their offices to put those ideas to work. And they'd have quite a bit of fun, too. I often wonder what the new members of our group must think for the first hour or two. My best guess is 'what have I gotten myself into!?!' but it doesn't take long for them to become active participants. And by the end they're looking forward to next year.

With today's economic conditions, it's sad but true that organizations are cutting back on professional development of all types. The days of the formal conference in an exciting city are often distant memories, replaced with a discounted book from Amazon and perhaps a webinar or two. These are great, but nothing beats substantive face-to-face interaction with peers.

If you're saddled with budgetary constraints and unwilling or unable to invest in professional development, you're not alone. You might consider an ad-hoc gathering of professionals from similar organizations in your area or region. You don't need expensive conference fees, fancy presentations or luxurious surroundings - just good people, good ideas, and a shared purpose. Find an out-of-the-way hotel, share the cost of the meeting room (or find another similar venue) and stay for at least 2 days. Your only significant expense is the hotel and your experience will be worth that many times over. I do recommend getting away from the office and spending the extra money to spend the night. Getting away means getting away even if you're only 5 miles from home. If you want to take the next step, consider bringing in a facilitator. He or she can help guide the conversation and bring new annual giving ideas into the group. This would add an expense, but if shared among the participants it doesn't amount to much.

I'm fortunate to have made so many great friends in this business, and I very much look forward to this seeing many of them this week. We speak on the phone often, but the magic really happens when you put us all in one room. I may eat too much and stay out too late, but it's worth it. You should try it sometime.

If you're on Twitter, be sure to follow me and also look for the #TAG2010 hashtag. Perhaps you'll see some interesting activity and even an opportunity for an afterhours meetup!

Professional Development For Any Budget

You Asked For It

I've had a couple of folks ask me what happened to follow-up on my 'Pay It Forward' post back in September. That post referenced an interesting article about the impact David Robinson (NBA) superstar has made through his philanthropy and led me to discuss my philanthropic goals. You can find the original post in the September 2009 archive at the GettingGiving.Com Blog.

Beginning in September I set out on a mission to 'act more like an involved donor' and become more thoughtful about my support. I'm sure most of us who write smaller annual giving checks don't give much thought to their giving philosophy, but as gift size increases so does the research, soul-searching and analysis of various nonprofits. There is a big difference in your outlook when you are writing a $10 check than when you write a $1,000 or $10,000 check. I'd say the same is true as you get into $100,000 or $100,000,000 but I haven't had that pleasure. Yet.

The main goal of my endeavor was to do a better job distributing my personal philanthropy. Think 'focused giving' rather than 'sprinkle a little here and yonder.' There was, however, a fascination with the process as I wanted to learn more about the thoughts and tools one would use to really investigate the options, and what I 'felt' along the way as I made my final decisions. No research could provide me with that feeling. While "I am not my donor" I am a donor and that experience can't hurt.

I initially created a long list of criteria (which I seem to have misplaced) and I'll do the best I can to outline the big ones below along with my answers:

• National, Regional or Local (I chose local. I want to help close to home)
• Environment, education, arts, food/shelter (Ended up with a hybrid education/shelter)
• Must be able to see concrete examples, see that I made a difference (Done.)
• Must trust nonprofit (Done.)
• Must trust nonprofit's staff/leadership (Done.)
  
• Financially secure nonprofit, reasonable expenses, etc. (Done.)
• Must understand mission, long-term goals of nonprofit (Done.)
• Can I clearly define success of the organization (Yes.)
• Can I volunteer and/or participate somehow (It's an option, not now maybe later.)
• Will a gift of my size make an impact in a meaningful way? (I think it will.)

My list was much more detailed and comprehensive, but you get the idea. It actually may have taken more time and energy to make the list than to answer the questions.

In the end, I knew I was already making significant contributions to my alma mater and this fulfilled my interest in education. Issues of poverty/shelter/food throughout our country are probably next on my list and I decided to focus my research there.

Utilizing a combination of Google, Charity Navigator, Guidestar, NetworkforGood and some others I looked for nonprofits whose mission closely associated with my goals. There were many you've heard of, many many many more you've not. It was almost overwhelming to see how many nonprofits are dedicated to this mission and the amazing number of different strategies they employ to address the issues. But I can't support them all.

I had originally thought location didn't matter, but by the end I was convinced I wanted to stay close to home. This helped reduce my options significantly (thankfully) and as I looked at the final few, it became clear what I needed most to make a decision.

Give me a good website! I need to learn more about you, your mission, your philosophy, your successes, your challenges. Make it easy for me to get the information I need and present it in a way I can understand it. Show me your progress. Make it easy to see your financials.

I need contact information! Give me a staff listing so I can call somebody if I have a question. Not just a 'contact us' form with no name, no numbers, no nothing.

Make it easy to give online! I didn't make a gift online, but I'm an annual fund geek so of course I looked around! Sometimes it takes an advanced degree to figure out how to use an online gift form. I don't have that kind of time.

Show your passion! If you don't believe in your organization, why should I? I want to read it in your stories, see it in your photos and, above all else, I want to hear it when I talk to you. Show your excitement about what you do and the impact you're making. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

Prove yourself! I was surprised that I needed as much 'proof' as I did that an impact was being made. I needed to see photos, hear real stories and be convinced that my gift would translate into some better outcome. Don't just say it's making an impact, prove it.

Respond! You don't have to answer the phone on the first ring or reply to my email within a few minutes, but do not blow me off! I had two different nonprofits ignore phone calls. That's right, I called out of the blue and left a message saying I wanted to learn more about their organization as I was thinking about making a gift. And they didn't call me back. That simply amazes me. Needless to say, I didn't call back either.

There are many more, but those six really stood out because my experience highlighted the lack of many to do these things well.

In the end, I chose a nonprofit I was already familiar with, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County. Their mission is solid, their success evident. My gift will make a difference to them and the the lives of many. I can see the results. I can feel good about my investment. That's important to me.

I've been a Habitat supporter before, but not at my current level. The smaller gifts were transactional but now it's an investment. I studied the 990's, explored the website and had personal conversations with the Executive Director and a couple of board members. I went to an event at which I was able to meet a Habitat Homeowner. I treated it just like I would any other significant financial transaction.

If I had to identify one single variable that helped make my decision easier it was the personal interaction with the people I spoke with, especially the Executive Director. It's easy to see her excitement, passion and dedication. I can trust her. I believe my gift will be used appropriately and I know she is making decisions she believes are in the best interest of the organization and the people it serves. I didn't need hours and hours of her time, but if I had, she would have happily shared information and answered as many questions as I could come up with.

As you think about your organization, your processes, your customer service and your people, how would you have looked in this situation? If a prospective donor was thinking about making a gift to a nonprofit like yours? If they were 'investigating' you and others alike to make a final decision about the allocation of their philanthropic dollars?

They're looking. How will you look to them?

You Asked For It