SPEAKER_03
You're listening to the Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals in higher education. This show will tackle all sorts of questions related to student recruitment, donor relations, marketing trends, new technologies, and so much more. If you're looking for conversations centered around where the industry is going, this podcast is for you.
Let's get into the show.
SPEAKER_00
Welcome to the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. I'm Troy Singer, and with my co-host and GI Joe action figure collector, Bart Kaler. Today, Bart and I speak with Bill Stanzakevich from the Lilly School of Fundraising about creating an effective case statement for fundraising.
Yeah, Troy.
SPEAKER_02
It's been a really good conversation. Bill is very, very knowledgeable. He teaches at the IU School of Philanthropy here in Indianapolis, and he does a great job of outlining the case for support.
A lot of times, we as marketers are going to be asked by the Advancement Department to help them with whether it's a capital campaign, whether it's year-end fundraising or just ongoing fundraising. A lot of times, we as marketers need to understand what that's all about and then be able to understand how to craft the stories and the marketing around that to make it most effective. Bill does an excellent job of outlaying that and really helping us to understand that.
SPEAKER_00
You and I happen to know that Bill also has a background in radio that comes out in his voice, it comes out in his energy and the delivery, and this will be 20 very fast and enjoyable minutes and also most importantly, very informative. So let's check in on our conversation with Bill. It is our pleasure and honor to welcome Bill Stanzakevich to the Higher Ed Marketer podcast.
Bill Stanzakevich is a professor and director of the Fundraising School. Bill, thank you for coming on the podcast. We're excited to talk to you about fundraising and best practices and some of the things that you teach at the Little East School of Philanthropy.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Troy, thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER_00
If you would, give us a little bit about yourself and the school.
SPEAKER_01
Well, the fundraising school has been around since 1974, invented by Henry and Dottie Rosso when they foresaw the coming growth of the nonprofit sector. Back then, the sector was still growing in many ways. The profession of fundraising was in its early stages.
A lot of times what a nonprofit would do is kind of bring somebody into fundraise and when the campaign was over, send them on their way. We're hiring full-time fundraising staff. Hank and Dottie decided to formalize the profession by creating this school with evidence-based principles and techniques of fundraising.
We train all over the world before the pandemic, about 6,000 people every year. Of course, because of the pandemic, more so now online than in-person, although we do have significant in-person offerings. The fundraising school is housed within the Indiana University Lily Family School of Philanthropy, which is the world's only school on philanthropic studies.
So think about, there's a school of law, school of medicine, a school of business. We are the school of philanthropy, different from nonprofit management. As important as nonprofit management is, instead, philanthropy is part of the human condition.
It's who we are as people. It's part of our behavior and lifestyle and the ways we express our generosity to each other and in our communities. And so we have bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees in the school of philanthropy.
We also have a robust research team that's continually discovering new knowledge about philanthropic behavior, including charitable giving. All of that informs the curriculum of the fundraising school. We don't just have a fundraiser in front of the room saying, here's how I had success, you can too.
Our faculty are accomplished fundraisers. This is practitioner-focused, but our curriculum as much as possible is evidence-based with that research.
SPEAKER_00
Thank you. And where do your students typically come from?
SPEAKER_01
So primarily in the United States, but we also do teach all over the world, where we cover all nine subsectors of the philanthropic sector and all budget sizes. So the largest universities and hospital systems to the corner neighborhood nonprofit with a budget of less than $100,000, we have different curriculum tailored to each of their respective needs as they come to the fundraising school to strengthen their fund development skills.
SPEAKER_02
Thanks, Bill. I appreciate you kind of explaining a little bit about the school of philanthropy. I know that when we first had our initial conversation, we kind of talked through some different subjects.
And one of the things that you agreed to talk about was kind of the elements of the traditional fundraising case for support, whether that's using fundraising, whether it's used in capital campaigns. There's an element, kind of a metric to that, I guess, that you teach that would love to hear a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_01
Well, your higher-end audience will appreciate kind of the letter V in the academy. That's how we work, right? We start with a big concept and then we continue to narrow down to the specifics. So let me take a step back and invite your audience to think about, let's just say painting a room, right? You're going to do your own painting.
It's going to be, say, your living room, your dining room, or so forth. Do we just take the can of paint and throw it up against the wall? You could. That's called abstract art.
Some people might even pay you millions of dollars for that. But no, actually, we're probably going to be a lot more planned and disciplined and careful about that. So what do we need to do? We need to take the furniture out of the room.
We need to make sure the floor is covered. We need to make sure that we're taping off the trim so the trim doesn't get the same color as the wall paint. We're taking off the covers for the light switches and the electrical outlets.
We're cleaning the wall. We're maybe filling in some some pock marks that might be there and smoothing that out. Maybe there's an oil stain, so we have to prime that part of the wall.
All of these things need to happen before we can paint the room. And then, by the way, now we need to go to the store and you say, well, we're going to paint the room blue. And the woman at the hardware store shows you literally 300 shades of blue and different, you know, gloss finishes and all of that.
Now you got to choose one of those. A lot of planning, a lot of thinking, a lot of strategy. And that's what we want people to think about in terms of fundraising is that it is the multiple steps of planning that go into this process.
I think a lot of people who are hesitant to fundraise, they think, well, I just can't go up to people randomly and ask them for money. Good, because we're not asking you to do that. Instead, there's a lot of planning that needs to go into this process.
And that planning is a 14 step process called the fundraising cycle. And in the fundraising cycle, we have things like getting an initial idea of who could possibly fund us amongst individuals, foundations and corporations. Some initial ideas about our needs based on our program costs and other forms of revenue.
We engage our board with their oversight and their insight into this process. Then we get more specific about our needs and finalize those and more specific about categories of fundraising opportunities. Again, individuals, foundations and corporations.
Then we name names of individuals, name names of foundations and corporations. Kind of give an estimate of a range we could fundraise from them in the next coming year for what reason attached to which program or service or unrestricted. And knitting that all together is called the fundraising plan.
Now, before we move forward, we need to make sure our marketing materials are aligned. Do we have a theme? Do we have a logo? Are there going to be handouts? What about social media and the website? Are we going to buy these ads that break into streaming services now, right? Whether it be Spotify or YouTube TV or whatever people are watching from. We got all that planned out.
Then we're still not done. We need the board's approval. And only then can we go make the ask, which is stage 13 of this 14 stage process.
The 14th step being stewardship. That we're maintaining relationship with those donors and funders in ways that don't continually ask them for more money, but just treating them with human dignity, honoring them for their gift, maintaining that relationship over time. So that's the 14 step fundraising cycle.
The very first step is your fundraising case for support. This is what sets you apart. This is your most unique aspect, strongest description of why you are distinct.
There are in the United States alone about one and a half million nonprofits. And that doesn't even include all of the religious congregations. If we included them, the number is about 2 million.
And donors are receiving requests from multiple nonprofits every single year. How do you set yourself apart with the fundraising case for support? So Bart and Troy, it's a very specific tool that without that, you're not going to be able to distinguish yourself and make your fundraising case when the time comes to talk to the donor.
SPEAKER_00
Thank you, Bill. And if we can, we'd like to break down the fundraising case of support. I believe there are five elements.
And the first element is what is your compelling idea? Or what is your big compelling idea? Correct?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. When we think about the corporate sector, I think just about everybody has flown Southwest Airlines. Right? And even back in the day, those of us have been around for a while.
Remember that when the other airlines had their flight attendants in really fancy uniforms and were serving us like chicken and steak dinners and things like that, the Southwest flight attendants were in their cargo shorts and their golf shirts, making jokes as they tossed their bags of peanuts across the airplane. But the one thing is, is that Southwest was always very customer friendly and highly affordable. What's their big compelling idea? That has led them to win the Customer Satisfaction Award decades in a row.
And the big compelling idea at Southwest Airlines is giving people of all incomes the freedom to fly. That's the big compelling idea. And every decision they make falls within that big compelling idea.
What is your big compelling idea at your university, at your college, at your department or your division within your college, at your research institute, at your athletic department, in your music program? What is your big compelling idea? Because donors are interested in those big ideas. The number one of the key reasons that people give is impact, results, making a difference. And what are you asking me to make a difference in? And it's that big compelling idea.
So a good place to look is the organization's strategic plan. What is your vision statement? And what are your value declarations? These should be just very high-minded, big concepts, inspiring words and phrases that move us towards that cause of why the school exists. And it's that big compelling idea that's going to define everybody else and really grab the donor's attention up front as to why they could be interested in your school.
SPEAKER_02
That's great. And I know that we kind of go into that because I've worked on some case statements before too. And many times it's in collaboration or we get the big idea and we get these other elements and put them in a marketing speak and things like that.
But I guess the second one is kind of then starting to understand what the problem is you're trying to solve. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, there are a couple of different ways to look at this. Either you have a specific problem you're trying to solve. So I'm on the board of our local food bank and we're trying to solve food insecurity.
Right? And so then we would describe food insecurity in the region that we serve, use data, how that compares to other regions, how many people are being served, the repercussions if they're not served, the positive consequences if they are, all of these things we're describing the problem. But we can also put this in a positive term and that is describe the opportunity you're trying to fulfill. And so especially in higher ed, are we starting a new program, a new research institute, a new line of research, a new faculty chair, a new degree program? Those are all opportunities or just overall the relative advantage of who we are as a school that I might be a small liberal arts campus, but I also have this strong science college that maybe distinguishes me from other small liberal arts schools.
That's going to be an opportunity to fulfill for some donors. So again, it's either a problem to solve an opportunity to fulfill, it's tied into that big compelling idea and we're being as specific as we can with data, with research reports and study findings, perhaps with a testimonial of somebody who has used our program or the typical person who would use our program if we're getting started, a way to understand the real why of what we're doing tied into that big compelling idea of how we're going to make the world a better place.
SPEAKER_00
So after that problem is identified and the case is made, then the next step is offering the solution or explaining the solution.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and this is probably the easiest step of all because you're describing your programs and your services or the programs and services that you're launching. And this is especially where our board members can come in because they should be able to describe this in very clear terms without necessarily having to get into the nitty-gritty and the details. And so we can describe our research project, our degree program, the new initiative, the way we're partnering with the community around community development or with the business sector around economic development.
So just describing our programs and our services in great detail so that the donor can see exactly what we're doing to accomplish the why in very specific practical terms.
SPEAKER_02
And then I think when I'm looking at the number four one, it's kind of like the idea of the outcomes. What are the outcomes going to be? What is the intended results going to be? Is that how it works?
SPEAKER_01
And so again, the big compelling idea, especially when we think about major gift fundraising, big donors want big ideas, right? But they want to know that these aren't just flighty ideas, that these are very thoughtful ideas, that these are going to be long-standing, long-term ideas and solutions that are going to have a steadfast contribution to making the world a better place for a long time. And one way we're going to do that is to measure for results. And so we're going to be able to describe to our donors, because of this program, this is going to happen.
We anticipate this is going to happen and why. Or if the program has been in existence, here are our program data, not just our outputs, the number of students who graduate, but our outcomes. What are our alumni doing these days? What type of work are they doing? What type of impact are they having? And yes, what type of salary are they drawing and being able to care for themselves as well? So we're going to be able to measure all of these things and make that part of our description to the donor.
Because again, one of the top reasons that people donate is they want to fund impact. They want to be able to make a difference. You can also, some of those results can be testimonials from people served by the program or people providing the service, say a faculty member who's leading a research division or a particular line of instruction at the school.
So big compelling idea. What is the problem we're trying to solve? Or the opportunity we're trying to fulfill? Describe how with our programs and our services. And then what results do we anticipate? Or are we enjoying? Or can we magnify and multiply because of charitable support from the donor?
SPEAKER_00
And then finally, it's very apparent of why should the donor care making that emotional impact and making sure how you communicate that is relevant to the donor, make sure it's tailored to the donor.
SPEAKER_01
And that's exactly right. We're now customizing all this information for this particular individual or foundation or business sector funder as well. And so instead of me going to the department store to just buy a suit off the rack, now I'm going to a tailor to customize a suit specifically for me.
That's this stage of the fundraising case for support. We could have 10 people who support our college, 10 people who support our university, but they could have 10 very different reasons for doing so. Maybe one is an alum, maybe another one is a parent of a student who graduated, maybe one is a business leader who relies on the college for the next round of employees.
All sorts of different reasons, religious faith, taxes can figure into this. My reputation, not an ego way, but in a positive way to say this is why I want to be known as out in my community. All these myriad of reasons why people donate.
And as fundraisers, we're going to know the specific reason or reasons for each of those 10 different donors. And that's how we're going to tailor this fundraising case for support so that it's not a one size fits all. The first four aspects are, but in this fifth one, we're now translating it to this particular donor's strongest interest with their philanthropic values and their philanthropic motivations.
SPEAKER_02
I love that. I know a lot of times as marketers sometimes we can get excited about taking a lot of this information and putting it into a real nice brochure or a real nice presentation piece. But I think one of the things that we forget even as we're copywriting and doing other things is that we've got to focus on, like that last part you talked about, the tailored aspect of who the donor is.
Remembering that the donor really wants to be able to, in a way, I mean, there's this idea that the hero of the story that they want to be able to steward, they want to be able to serve, and they're not looking for just being asked. They want to be able to be a part of what's going on. And so I think sometimes, and correct me if I'm wrong, Bill, but sometimes we need to make sure that the way that we are crafting the message, the way that we are connecting the donor with with our opportunities for them to join us in stewardship has more to do with tailoring it toward them rather than just giving them a laundry list of Santa Claus, here's what I want for
SPEAKER_01
Christmas. And this is where our marketing colleagues are essential to fundraising and the fundraising case for support. And to amplify a word that you just used there, Bart, and that's story.
People might not always remember data. They might not always remember research findings. They might not always remember the details of your program or your service.
But more often than not, they will remember a story or at least the essence of a story. And we can even think about how marketing experts or even think about our television and movie producers, the typical story arc. Here is our main character, our protagonist.
And let's let's learn about this main character and some things that are true about them. And then we learn about some either challenges that they have in their life or some opportunities that could come across their way. But then there's kind of this fork in the road that those problems aren't going to be solved or that opportunity isn't going to be fulfilled until this resolution point comes about that does solve that problem or does fulfill that opportunity.
And then at the end, that main character, their life is in a good place. If it's a Hallmark movie, it starts to snow the dog barks. And it's all good.
So our marketing people can take that fundraising case for support and create that story, create that narrative, tell us about that typical student who talked to us about that typical member of the alumni, that typical faculty member who's doing the research, the typical community that benefits from the presence of the college, the typical employment sector that benefits from our students going to intern and co-op and work for them and talk about that story in that way that then can also be seen. And therefore donor, you have a role in this story. Right. We have a spot just for we did our casting call and you're in you can see yourself as part of this story because remember with philanthropy and especially now with technology, we can sit in our homes and we can make a difference. We can pop open our technology device and we can make a donation or sign a petition or forward something on social media.
But our impact expands exponentially when we join with others who care about the things that we care about the causes that we want to pursue the way we want to make the world a better place in positive ways. And that's the story that I'm joining. So I would encourage our marketing people, you are essential to fundraising, help us craft those stories of which the fundraising case for support fits within so the donor can see themselves in that story.
SPEAKER_00
That's great. That's great. Bill, what are some of the other elements or topics that should be considered when approaching a major gift marketing or communication initiative?
SPEAKER_01
You know, I think, you know, we certainly want to think about all the leading edge ideas like, you know, how do we now get those ads that are tailored to each individual listener and viewer on our streaming devices? You know, I'm tuned into my SiriusXM channel listening to my favorite sports talk show. I reside in Indiana, but at the moment I'm in Illinois. This is a true story.
And suddenly the host takes a commercial break and I'm hearing a radio ad on satellite radio for a nonprofit back in Indiana. Why? Because somehow, you know, my technology device is registered in Indiana and they found out, well, just go find the Indiana people and, you know, plug in this spot into the satellite show. We've seen that for those of you who've cut the cord in stream, you know, Hulu, YouTube TV and so forth.
You know, suddenly I'm getting a TV ad. I'm watching my ball game and it's our local community college in Indiana. Hmm. How did that happen? Right? So all the sophisticated cutting edge things that are happening at the same time, let's not leave out kind of the old school, right? To make sure that we're still in the local media, whether it's the newspaper, even if it's not on paper anymore and it's on the tablet, the local radio, the local television, the local billboards, that those are still important. And I'll give you an example.
Again, I'm on the board of my regional food bank here and the New York Times comes a calling and interviews two of our staff members about how the supply chain problems in our economy are actually affecting the provision of food, especially for marginalized communities. Exactly the people we're solving at our food bank. Those two people, part of a New York Times story.
One of the national news networks picks up on it, MSNBC, and interviews our CEO on one of their Sunday morning programs. Nice 10 minute interview and the CEO did a great job. And about a week or two later, unsolicited comes this $20,000 donation from a resident in the state of New York, we're in Indiana, who said, Hey, I saw the TV interview, you guys are doing great work.
I love how you're overcoming these economic challenges that all of us are facing. Here's $20,000. Now, that doesn't always happen.
That's not always the guarantee, but it was traditional media that helped us get the story out. Right. In addition to all the cutting edge things that your firm is providing important leadership on, it's a both and so again, help us find those themes, help us find those delivery methods, different people, different demographics, different age groups are going to find information in different ways. Who's your key audience? Where do they consume information? And that's where we need to be with information about our nonprofit, not even about making the ask, but just putting the information out there about who we are and what we do that can get donor attention.
One more quick example, the research shows that a key way for nonprofits to fundraise is through their advocacy when they're out in the public square, when they might have a public event to, Hey, let's reduce food insecurity, for example, let's say, or it might be raising awareness around an important social justice issue for an example. Well, what are you doing? You're creating positive exposure for yourself. So when it comes time to make the ask, the donor is like, Oh, I, you guys had that big event, or you did that big social media campaign, or you hosted that, that, you know, a very positive demonstration in our public park and I'm aware of you.
So marketing folks, we need you to help us create that awareness so that the week can come in
SPEAKER_02
and ask those donors for financial support. That's great. That's great.
And I think that just to kind of, you know, piggyback a little bit on that, because I just want to make sure that everybody understands and heard what you said, Bill, the idea of segmentation is so critical when it comes down to, I mean, we talk about that enrollment sometimes, you know, with Generation Z and talking about millennials and things like that. But I think sometimes we forget, especially when we look at advancement and development work and fundraising work, that it's just as effective there because we're now talking about boomers, we're talking about, you know, greatest generations, still have a few of those around. But, you know, Xers, we've got to really start crafting not only the messaging for those audiences, but also the delivery channels that they prefer.
And Bill, I think you've made some really good points there that, you know, while some of the technology channels might kind of go back and forth a little bit, and, you know, you're certainly going to have a boomer and an Xer that might be listening to Serious Satellite Radio, like you mentioned, you're also going to have some more of those traditional elements. You're going to have, you know, letters that still work in traditional mailings and things like that. And so we've really got to, as marketers, do our homework to understand who the audience is that we're going to be
SPEAKER_01
communicating with. And the fundraising case for support to go back to our key topic here today is the baseline and the foundation for all of that. Whether I'm going to try to fundraise on Twitch with a gamer, which is leading edge right now, or if I'm going to try to get on my local television station, Community Affairs program, that fundraising case for support is that same foundation, that same kind of basis of talking points that we're going to use and grow from regardless of, you know, which demographic and where they consume information.
SPEAKER_00
As we approach our time limit, would like to know if there was either a point that we didn't get to that you would like to leave us with, or maybe a quick tip for fundraisers out there that have
SPEAKER_01
really benefited from our conversation? Well, I would just encourage people, you know, obviously we've been through and continue to be in some highly stressful times, whether it is a worldwide health pandemic, or what people have talked about that were in two pandemics with a wonderful reawarness around social and racial justice and reconciliation issues. And the challenges or stresses that sometimes folks can feel can make people hesitant to fundraise. And I would just tell you from our school, our data, not opinions, but our data show this is a great time to fundraise.
People are responding. And it's not to say that there isn't a lot of economic distress, there is and there will continue to be. But there are still a significant number of folks who were able to keep their jobs, were able to stay healthy or relatively healthy, and see the needs that are around and have been magnified by these twin pandemics.
And as fundraisers, we need not hesitate to still be out there asking. Remember, at the end of the day, philanthropy is a message of hope. We have the audacity to believe that we can make the world a better place.
And when you're bringing your message to your donor, even over Zoom or Teams or whatever format that you might be using electronically, they are watching the news and seeing these health challenges and economic challenges and social concerns that are being brought to the forefront. And you're coming to them with a message of hope. We see that in the data.
Folks are still responding. 2020 was a record year for charitable giving, even though we intentionally slammed the brakes on the world economy. It was a record year for charitable giving.
We see those trends continue, develop your strong case for support that doesn't allow you to compete with the other nonprofits. No, we're not in competition. That's a scarcity mentality.
It allows you to set yourself apart and meet each donor at their area of specific
SPEAKER_00
philanthropic value and motivation. I'm sure there are many people that you've inspired today for anyone that would like to either contact you or like more information about the school, what would be the best way for them to get that information or to connect with you or the school?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, a couple ways. So my Twitter account at underscore bill stan at underscore bill stan, I only tweet about fundraising and leadership and somebody could DM me there. Our school's website is philanthropy.
iu.edu, philanthropy.iu.edu forward slash the fundraising school. And even easier than that, the fundraising school app, wherever you get your apps, our app is free.
And with a couple of taps of your thumb, you can get the information that you need from the fundraising school at the Indiana University, Lily family School of Philanthropy.
SPEAKER_00
Bill, thank you very much for such an inspiring message. I've learned a lot and I'm sure others will as they take in this episode. Bart, do you have any parting words that you would like to share?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I just want to highlight a few things that Bill said and I would encourage everyone to go back and kind of re-listen to some of the elements of the case statement. I think there was just so much really good information here, but just that idea that the case statement is really what's going to set you apart and it's going to be kind of what that drumbeat is or as another one of our guests, another Hoosier, IU person was Eleanor Beerman had talked about the idea of a North Star, you know, marketing North Star or that case statement is going to be the North Star for all of the efforts that you're going to be putting into your fundraising. And so keep that in mind as you, as a marketer, are helping to create that through the stories, through the ways that you're developing that out.
And then also keep in mind that as you are being asked as a marketer to help with advancement, to help get the case for support out there, to help with the different needs that come up in advancement and development, make sure that you're really paying attention to the segmentation of who you are talking to. Make sure that you understand who is it that they're getting ready to go in front of? Are they going in front of a major donor or are they going in front of a foundation, a business, so that you can craft the messaging and help them create those stories and those elements very well. So thank you, Bill, for the time today.
Well, and I look forward to your assessment
SPEAKER_01
to see how well I'm doing marketing the fundraising school and the school of philanthropy. I hope I
SPEAKER_02
did that well today. That sounds great. I think you did.
Thank you both. The Higher Ed Marketer
SPEAKER_00
podcast is sponsored by Kailer Solutions, an education marketing and branding agency, and by ThinkPattended, a marketing execution company specializing in print, digital engagement, and direct mail. On behalf of my co-host, Bart Kailer, I'm Troy Singer. Thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_03
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