Philanthropy – When Did It Become About Fundraising?

by David LawsonNo Comments
In the beginning there was a need and someone met it using their own time and resources. Then the need grew and became too much for one person, so they enlisted the time and resources of others. Out of all this activity was born a mission which served as the foundation for an organization to manage all of the time and resources. And so was born philanthropy. At some point it was decided a person needed to spend all of their time asking more people for more and more of their time and resources. And so the fundraiser was born. It was also when philanthropy began a long slow march away from its mission. Merriam-Webster defines philanthropy as: 1: goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially:active effort to promote human welfare 2 a : an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes     b : an organization distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes Notice there is no mention of fundraising. It is about giving, not...
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Time for Vendors (and Fundraisers) to Be Big About Big Data

by David LawsonNo Comments
In January The Atlas of Giving provided fundraisers with an in-depth look at 2012 giving, and a forecast of what to expect this year. In February Blackbaud came out with their view of 2012 and 2013. For a sector that for years had to rely on Giving USA, who will not report their numbers until June, it is great to see two companies working to give us more real-time insights. Full disclosure, I am on the Board of Advisors of The Atlas of Giving. Even further disclosure, a company I founded - Prospect Information Network (P!N), is now part of Blackbaud. I also work and compete with Blackbaud, and have many friends there. I have no direct connections to Giving USA, but as a long-time social data geek I have used their data for many years. So fundraisers are pouring over this wealth of data right? They are excited to see they can now have not only more timely yearly reports, but also...
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Behind the Scores – The Untold Story of Data

by David LawsonNo Comments
APRA members — Register for the Upcoming Online Solutions Showcase Webinar May 8: Behind the Scores – The Untold Story of Data Level: Intermediate Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST, 12:00pm – 1:00 pm CST, 11:00am – 12:00pm MST, 10:00am – 11:00am PST Speakers: David M. Lawson, Partner, TrueGivers, LLC, and Melissa Kwilosz, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Reporting and Analytics, Arizona State University Foundation Track: Prospect Identification This webinar will take you behind the scores where you will discover invaluable intelligence about your prospect's capacity, affinity, and philanthropic propensity.  David Lawson, a Partner with TrueGivers, LLC, will show you  how to identify and qualify prospects using over 200 data elements including home equity, household economic stability, discretionary income, buying behavior, lifestyle, personal interests, and philanthropic activities.  Melissa Kwilosz, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Reporting and Analytics at the Arizona State University Foundation will discuss how she has used the data to not only find prospects missed by traditional wealth screening, but also to better match the interests of their constituents with ASU's programs and projects. ...
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Part 2 – Best of Breed vs. Best of Vendor – The Blackbaud & Convio Saga Continues

by David LawsonNo Comments
Another day, another delay in the Blackbaud/Convio saga. My Google Alert set-up just for this unfolding drama took me to the page Blackbaud has set-up to cover the intended Convio acquisition: What is the latest update? Regarding the offer for Convio shareholders to tender their shares, on March 21, 2012, Blackbaud announced that it has extended the expiration of its cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of Convio to midnight, New York City Time, on Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The expiration date of the tender offer may only be extended in increments of no more than ten business days each, pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement between the companies. Regarding the ongoing DoJ process, Blackbaud will continue to respond to informal requests by the DoJ to provide additional information about its business, discuss the proposed transaction and answer any additional questions raised by the DoJ staff. Blackbaud remains committed to working cooperatively with the DoJ as it...
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Best of Breed vs. Best of Vendor – Why Blackbaud Was (Sales)Forced to Buy Convio

by David Lawson8 Comments
The Blackbaud/Convio deal is not done (and in fact has been delayed for a third time), but it has sparked an increasingly heated debate about what the post Blackvio/ConBaud world will look like. The easy answer is less choice, less innovation, and higher costs. Based on previous Blackbaud acquisitions, those are good bets. What is harder to answer is the question of what is driving Blackbaud to make this very expensive acquisition which will saddle them with over $300 million in debt. Taking out a competitor; buying revenue (especially Convio's valuable subscription revenue); and obtaining clients they couldn't win with their existing products are all good possibilities and certainly have factored into past acquisition decisions. But I think there is something deeper going on. Blackbaud is a believer in the Best of Vendor business model which says that clients should buy all of their "solutions" from one company. The theory is that clients benefit from the vendor's ability to integrate multiple functions...
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The End of the Comprehensive Fundraising Campaign?

by David LawsonNo Comments
When what has always worked stops working (or no longer works like it use to) you start to see innovation. I was reminded of that when I saw an article from Inside Higher Ed about Beloit College foregoing the usual 5-7 year comprehensive campaign. Instead they are are going to have a "modular" or "project based" campaign where the focus will be one or two projects over a short period of time. "Administrators hope the approach will set them apart from other institutions, motivate faster giving, and excite donors who can see a quick turnaround on their investments. In total, administrators believe the new approach will raise as much money, if not more, for the college than a traditional model." I think they are onto something. Surveys have shown donors are tired of long, drawn-out campaigns which are followed all too soon by yet another campaign. One of Beloit's donors said, "You can see evidence of what you’ve done and that it’s...
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The 80/20 Rule Fundraisers Don’t Know About

by David LawsonNo Comments
When it comes to data most fundraisers would just like their queries to be faster and their reports on time.  Sadly they are often disappointed on both fronts so it's no wonder they are not asking the most important question: "Are my queries and reports accessing all of our data?" The answer is “No!” Before you send this to your intrepid database administrator let's take a quick trip in the tech time machine to when donor management systems started to proliferate. It is the 80's and entrepreneurs are beginning to use relational databases to create software to store information on donors. Contact information and gifts are the first to be digitized and fundraisers comment that this is not much better than the 3x5 cards that had served them so well before the Jobs/Gates era. Over the next 25 years data fields grew like kudzu and so did the size of our databases. It is understandable then that users assume when they ask a...
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