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This article was written by Ariel Glassman. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. The end (of the fiscal year) is nigh; Giving Tuesday is upon us. Well, not quite. You still have some time to make a great plan for the nationwide giving bonanza that will take place on Tuesday, November 28. Planning a successful giving day isn’t rocket science – but it is a microcosm of many classic principles of fundraising, from online giving to events to capital campaigns. You probably already know all the reasons why you should invest in digital ads on social media platforms, pre-schedule your tweets, and solicit and leverage a matching gift for Giving Tuesday. But there are other strategies you can use to elevate your campaign, raise more money, build solid relationships with your donors, and reap the benefits of this giving day beyond this fiscal year. This year, make sure you: 1) Define and focus on a specific funding need. Giving Tuesday alone is not a reason for someone to give – it’s an opportunity. You still need to give your donors a compelling reason to act on the intrinsic motivation that makes them care about your mission in the first place. It’s critical that you do not rely on “gap messaging” that focuses on filling the hole in your budget as the end of the calendar or fiscal year approaches. The gap in your budget has nothing to do with the donor, and it’s not the donor’s problem to solve. Your job is to show them the big problem your organization exists to solve, and communicate how something specific you do is an opportunity for the donor to help solve that problem in a specific and tangible way. Any call to action to donors should be able to answer the following questions in the donor’s mind: “Why me? Why this? Why now?” The urgency piece is the hardest to get right. Sure, the fact that it’s Giving Tuesday helps, but that it doesn’t help you stand out from the crowd of other nonprofits fundraising intensely that day. Make sure the donors know when and why you need their money. Choose a specific activity or program with a communicable timeline, as well as an end point or milestone at which you can communicate success back to the donors who funded it. In doing so, you’re defining and demonstrating urgency in a way that will set you apart from all the general operations asks flying around on Giving Tuesday. And you’ll raise more money. If you work around actually restricting the gifts by closing with an ask for the donor to give “to solve urgent problems like this” or “to support our efforts to change lives like this,” you can have your cake and eat it too. 2) Set a public goal – and make it one you can crush. How you set a public goal for Giving Tuesday matters for many reasons. First and foremost – yes, you do need to set a public goal. Having a public financial goal helps donors see where their gift fits into the solution to the problem you are asking them to help solve. People act when they think they can tip the scales. If they don’t know what your goal is, they can’t contextualize their own gift and decide if their actions can make a meaningful dent in it. Even more critically, giving days are an incredible source of new donors for nonprofits of all types. This is a spectacular opportunity for you to gain ground on the difficult and expensive journey of donor acquisition and building your donor pipeline. How you respond to a donor’s first gift sets the tone for their relationship to your organization and the likelihood of retaining that donor in the future. Shared success is the foundation of relationship-building, and the best way to start a new relationship. And shared success is always relative to a goal. If you set a goal you can outperform, you create a big shared win for you and your donors. That’s a great start to permanently hooking new donors on your cause. If you set an ambitious goal and either don’t make it or barely make it, you don’t get to claim that epic victory that first-time donors will feel great about. You and the donor are in this story together, and setting an achievable goal is the first step in creating that narrative and influencing how they end up feeling about their gift and your organization. 3) Make your Giving Tuesday donors feel special with instant stewardship. We’ve written about instant stewardship for GiveBIG before – both why you should do instant stewardship, and exactly how to pull off instant stewardship for development teams of all sizes. Great news: instant stewardship is just as applicable to Giving Tuesday as it is to GiveBIG. To sum up: instant stewardship is a fast, easy, cheap way for any nonprofit in any mission space to overcome the short half-life of digital philanthropic engagement and increase your chances of retaining the new donors you will acquire on Giving Tuesday. Go back and read our previous posts for all the details, and get cracking! 4) Create and deploy a simple toolkit for others to use to help you raise money on Giving Tuesday. Fundraising is absolutely a team sport. Recent data from online giving platform GiveGab’s survey of their participants shows that, on average, a nonprofit with an “engaged” board raised $4,150 on their giving day, or roughly double those with a “slightly engaged” board, who raised $1,800. It really is worth it to invest in amplifying your campaign by building a strong team of evangelists who will give, share, and cheerlead. Think about all the people and affinity groups who are already “on your team” in some way: staff, board members, volunteers, advisory council members, young leadership group members, and yes, your existing donors! What do they all have in common? Well, they’re probably very busy people. As the fundraising professional, your job is to make it as easy as possible for them to help you raise money on Giving Tuesday. Leaving them to their own devices without support and tools is a surefire way to leave money on the table. So – set them up to succeed with a simple, concise digital toolkit for Giving Tuesday. Provide them with messaging around the funding need and your goal; sample social media posts, hashtags and graphics; testimonial quotes’ and sample emails they can personalize and forward to their networks. Make sure that this communications content is story-oriented and impact-oriented.

This article was written by Kari Dasher. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. If you love fall like I do, I imagine you are thoroughly enjoying the arrival of crisp October mornings that precede perfectly warm and sunny afternoons, with three more months of fierce weekly gridiron competition to go and the Thanksgiving holiday (my favorite) on the horizon. Of course, the arrival of fall also means that 2017’s year-end giving season is here. With nearly a third of annual giving occurring in December and 12% of all giving happening between December 29 and 31, you and your team likely began preparing as early as September. And between the annual gala, year-end appeal and plethora of major donor solicitations – not to mention, holiday vacations – the last four months of the year are stressful. So, herein, a bit of perspective for staying grounded and joyful throughout the journey. REPLENISH Fall is perhaps, if nothing else, the season of giving and service. Self-care is of paramount importance now more than any other time of year. It may be counterintuitive that pausing for a healthy mid-day meal and conversation with your colleagues or a walk to breathe deeply with the sun on your face or prioritizing extra rest – and extra fun! – during weekends can be the difference between success and near-burnout. Eleanor Brownn‘s often remind me that self-care prepares us to share our gifts with the world. “When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow.” So, go ahead; take a bit of time to cook, hike, go to the symphony or ballet or a show – and carry your light throughout the giving season and into the New Year. LEVERAGE WHAT YOU KNOW Inspire and assign your board and volunteers to help meet the goal. Whatever your year-end strategies, make them about your clients and donors. Emphasize online giving in the last week of the year. Learn from challenges, but keep moving ahead. Remember that you’re running a marathon, not a sprint, so plan accordingly. Remind donors how their gifts are changing someone’s world. Celebrate the smallest of successes. Give thanks. GIVE GRACE GENEROUSLY As pressures mount to exceed year-end goals – and your colleague excitedly reminds you every day that they will be home for the holidays in 59 days and counting – making it a practice to extend grace and gratitude to yourself, your colleagues and your family makes it possible to start the New Year with strengthened relationships. Some ways to do this: say kindly what needs to be said. Apologize and accept apology. Be self- and socially aware and deploy your best emotional intelligence tools. Genuinely care about and seek others’ experience and perspective. BE THE DIFFERENCE Know that your efforts to inspire contributor partnership on behalf of your clients – and our collective community – continue to make a small difference in counterbalancing the heartbreaking examples of hate, violence, toxic rhetoric and despair happening around the world and here at home. There are crowds of good people in our communities who want to use their talents and resources to make a difference. You and your organization are the catalysts for their giving. And now more than ever, our colleagues, clients, donors – and world – are counting on us.

I’ve been developing fundraising programs with several new organizations lately, and have often been asked the question, “What are your top tips for building a successful fundraising program?” As I considered my top recommendations, I realized they’re applicable for both new and established organizations. Here are the top 5 tips that can strengthen your fundraising program and help give your organization a jumpstart: Spend time getting to know your volunteers – they are your best potential donors in the future. Thank them often and ask their advice. Thank donors of any amount. Use email, letters and a good old fashioned phone call. If someone makes a gift to your organization (of any amount) they deserve the be thanked promptly. Go into each event you do with a goal in mind. Is it educational? Is it a celebration? Is it a time to ask for a gift? Defining a goal for every event (and I do mean EVERY event) before it even occurs can help clarify your appropriate follow-up. Involve your program team in fundraising. They live and breathe the mission. Not to say that fundraisers don’t also, but our program teams often have stories that communicate our mission in a way that is compelling and lasting. Invite them in on a call. Invite them in to make thank yous. They are a key resource in organizational storytelling. Segment your audiences. Not everyone deserves the same letter or appeal. By taking the time to segment your audience by what THEY care about (and not what we think they SHOULD care about), you will develop a more meaningful relationship.  Speak to them directly watch their engagement with your mission grow! Try out implementing one or all of these tips this fall and let us know how it impacts your organization We always love to hear success stories from organizations incorporating best practices into their work. Do you have any other key tips that you’ve seen work wonders? Let us know in the comments!

Relationships are important in any business. They are especially important in fundraising. Building trust and showing true interest in a person’s experiences, beliefs and values will bring rewarding return to you personally and professionally. How are you building relationships? Here are three strategies I utilize in building relationships in my personal and professional world. Please share yours in the comments section below, we could all use support and ideas in how to build meaningful relationships. Remember something. Remember the person’s name. Where they work. What their dogs name is. Where they traveled last. Remember something allows you to continue to build upon the relationship when you see the person again. Ask Questions. Generally people like to talk about themselves. It is human nature. Ask a person a question and let them talk. Usually in their response they will give you another question to ask which allows the opportunity for people to continue to share what is important to them. I always recommend having 3-5 questions in mind for every person you meet (hint: it is okay if they are always the same question). Good themes: family, work, travel and hobbies. Make connections. Use your networks to connect people. Most of us have a friend or colleague looking for something and I would bet, most of us know a person who could help. Keep your LinkedIn profile updated and when someone mentions they are looking to “connect with…” offer your LI profile to help them (hint: take your current resume and use it to help build your LI profile). As we know, good relationship-building is plain old good fundraising. Try out some of these strategies to help deepen your donors’ connection with your organization, and develop meaningful relationships with those invested in your mission.

This article was written by Casey Caylor. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. Grant funding is a pillar of fund development for many nonprofit organizations. While grants are an important source of income for organizations, a great grant program is about more than just the money. Inve­sting staff time and resources into developing a high functioning grant program can generate some amazing, unanticipated upsides. When you build a successful grant program, you also: Build a community of support for your programs. Funders like to see that your organization has the support of other donors; they are more likely to support your work as part of a community. If your organization has any interest in pursuing larger regional or national grants, you will need to develop a strong base of smaller local and regional funders that support existing programs before a larger national foundation is likely to invest. The grant process can also generate new partnerships with foundations and other nonprofits through program collaborations and opportunities to participate in thought leadership. Translate visionary ideas into tangible and realistic programs. A successful grant program helps translate a strategic plan into action, and helps develop a plan for future growth. Grant writers often hold an overarching, yet detailed view of the organization, as they are privy to detailed programmatic information, organizational strategy and financial details. They are in the perfect role to listen for new, visionary ideas, and facilitate internal conversations that translate these ideas into a compelling narrative with a clear budget. The result: they set these ideas on a path to becoming reality. Strong grant work guides your organization through critical questions: Who will this project serve? How will we secure funding? What is our budget? What is our timeline? Why now? Build internal systems that foster transparency and reflection. Grant funding almost always requires that organizations report back on the impact and expenditure of the grant award. Funders use this information to hold organizations accountable and make sure their funds are being used as they intended. The process of reporting financial expenditures and program outcomes compels organizations to build out internal systems that help them to better understand their community impact (and better articulate outcomes with other funders), track spending in a way that aligns with annual budgets, and approach program design with increased awareness of implementation and realistic goals. These internal systems and processes provide the necessary feed back to improve the next round of grant proposals, and have lasting benefits on an organization – far beyond that of an improved grants process. Foster a culture of philanthropy. At the Ostara Group, we view every organization through the lens of its organizational culture of philanthropy – or a culture in which fund development is valued as a long-term, mission-aligned program of the organization. A culture where members of the organization are committed to and personally involved in fundraising. The grant program plays an important role in fostering a culture of philanthropy by identifying funding opportunities, integrating departmental staff around the common goal of sustaining your mission, and building experience in collaborating with foundations to deepen or increase your impact on the community you serve. It takes a strong leader to develop a robust grant program, and it requires the collaboration of every department in your organization. It takes time and hard work from your staff and leadership in development, programming, and finance. The next time you are grappling with a tricky grant application, or frustrated about how long it is taking to build a relationship with a key potential funder, pause and think about how this work benefits your organization beyond financial gain – deepening your impact and increasing your sustainability!

This article was written by Ariel Glassman. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. Yesterday, we parsed out the many benefits of instant stewardship of your giving day donors – and promised we’d explain how to get it done today. So: here’s a step-by-step primer on how to flawlessly execute instant stewardship on GiveBIG. Because you’ll be executing instant stewardship in a fast-moving environment on the day of GiveBIG itself, it’s useful to separate this primer into two sections: What you need to do prepare for instant stewardship before GiveBIG, and what you need to do on GiveBIG itself. Spoiler alert: Much of the work actually happens before GiveBIG – and it builds on work you were already planning to do. Before GiveBIG: Draft a basic template for the content of the email you will send to each giving day donor in response to their gift. Keep this short and sweet – length isn’t as important as response time and personalization. Create, ask and confirm a list of the participating development and non-development staff. This activity can become unwieldy above 5 people, so stick to that upper limit. From all the participants, define one person as the staff lead for this process. The instant stewardship process will flow more smoothly if it is clear where the buck stops, and who has the answers to any questions participants have. In this case, if you’re reading this post, it’s probably you. Make sure this person is set up to receive all the gift notification emails from the GiveBIG online platform. Define which participants will steward which donors. For example, you might assign donors under $100 to your development associate, donors from $100 to $500 to the development director, and donors above $500 to the executive director. Make sure everyone knows in advance exactly when they need to take action, and for whom. Creating an automatic set of “if-then” rules like this reduces confusion and process friction, and increases the speed of execution. During GiveBIG: The staff lead should immediately steward all the pre-scheduled donors whose gifts automatically processed at midnight as soon as they can, if you haven’t done so as they pre-scheduled their gifts. This applies to donors of all sizes, even if you have multiple people handling different segments of donors. Don’t expect your teammates to be up and stewarding donors with you at 6 AM (or 12:01 AM), especially if they’re not fundraising staff. Begin the automatic rule-based stewardship when your team has arrived at the office for their normal day – and make sure you’ve set an expectation for what time that is. I’m looking at you, arts organizations. Each participant should open up the donor database and be prepared to look up each donor as they give so that your stewardship can include personal, relational details. Keep it open all day. The staff lead should watch the inbox receiving your GiveBIG gift notification emails like a hawk. If you have 3-5 people participating, it will be easiest for the staff lead to receive and distribute all emails to participants for stewardship, based on the automatic set of rules created. This helps keep most of the internal pressure for instant stewardship on the fundraiser who is the staff lead, and makes it easier for other staff who are participating. The easier it is for other teammates to help you, the more likely they will be to help you again next year. The actual instant stewardship email can happen in one of two ways: Open up a new stand-alone email message. This method takes a little longer, and requires the content of the email to provide more context and explanation, so that what it references it is obvious at a glance to the donor receiving the message. After all, they’re busy people too – don’t make them work to figure why you’re landing in their inbox. However, organizations with a very formal brand and personality may prefer the clean and sophisticated feel of this method. Forward the actual gift notification receipt back to the donor, and include your personal message with it. This has fewer steps and thus takes less time, and the inclusion of the receipt and the pre-populated subject line help you set the context for the donor.  For these reasons, I prefer this method, but it may work best for organizations with a more casual and personal brand or relationship to their donors. Distribute high-fives liberally among your teammates throughout the day (yes, it’s OK to high-five yourself if you’re flying solo on this). If you really want your teammates to help you again next year, gift them little treats or coffee shop gift cards the next day to thank them. And that’s how you do it. But what should it look like? I’ve written a few samples that should help you figure out how to adapt this tactic to your organization, including what types of information in the database to eyeball for each donor so you can personalize them more – such as repeat GiveBIG participation, artistic engagement in performances or exhibits, and more. The most important goal is to ensure that it sounds like it came from a real human (because it did!), and that it contains at least one detail particular to the donor. These examples assume that you’ve chosen to forward the gift notification back to the donor, so you don’t have to mention the gift amount again, and the context is obvious to the donor immediately. An arts organization might write… “Hi Mary – thank you so much for this amazing donation! You also just brought us closer to completing our matching gift challenge. I hope you’re enjoying your subscription this season. Thanks again for supporting TheaterXYZ on GiveBIG! Have a great day! Ariel” An education advocacy group might write… “Hi Jamie – thank you so much! This is really wonderful. It feels so good to see our community coming together around early childhood learning in real time. Thanks for being on our team for the third GiveBIG in a row! Warmly, Ariel” A few final thoughts: If you’re having trouble finding teammates to participate, try gamifying the process to create an incentive. For example, offer a desirable prize to whoever can demonstrate the fastest turnaround time between receiving a notification and sending the instant stewardship email.  The email timestamps make it easy to prove. While speed is of the essence, you’re also a human, not a robot, which is kind of the whole point of this activity. So of course it’s alright if you miss the 90-second window for a gift because you needed a bio-break, or because your executive director had a time-sensitive question. It’s fine if you can turn these around within 5 minutes rather than 90 seconds. I just happen to know 90 seconds is generally possible, because I’ve done it myself, over and over. Some large organizations have thousands of GiveBIG donors, and some smaller organizations have very few staff. If you’re worried about having the capacity to execute instant stewardship for all GiveBIG donors for any reason, it’s fine to focus this effort on certain donor segments. Create a donor pyramid from your past GiveBIG data to look at how many donors you’ve had at each level, find the level where the number of donors giving that amount drops dramatically, and use that as the floor for instant stewardship outreach. Go ahead and steward your pre-schedules now to get them done! That can lighten your day-of load. Voila! Instant stewardship – a powerful tool for donor retention and making the absolute most of an opportunity like GiveBIG. Now, ask yourself: since instant stewardship of online donors only takes 90 seconds, and notifications of your regular online gifts also get pushed to you… why not execute instant stewardship for online gifts year-round? Happy fundraising!

This article was written by Ariel Glassman. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. After six years, many nonprofits in Seattle and King County seem to have their GiveBIG action plans down pat. But as the number of nonprofits competing for donor dollars grows, organizations should continuously evolve their practices and increase the sophistication of their campaigns. Chances are, even the most tried-and-true, dependable GiveBIG and giving day campaigns could use a little freshening up. GiveBIG comes at a busy time of year for most nonprofits. The prospect of adding something new to your campaign might not be so appealing. But there’s one tactic that is so effective and efficient that I recommend it to every single client. You’re probably thinking there has to be a catch. It’s probably expensive, annoying to plan, and/or overly complicated to execute. Right? Nope. This activity: Costs nothing Is fast, easy, and fun to do Helps you in the short and long term Works for nonprofits of any budget or staff size Works for nonprofits operating in any mission space or impact sector Can improve your internal culture of philanthropy (yes, really) Is over when GiveBIG is over (phew!) So, what is this magical unicorn, this fairy dust-sprinkled activity? I’m so glad you asked. It’s instant stewardship. If you attended my “Making the Most of GiveBIG” workshop at the Seattle Foundation last month, you heard me ring this particular bell over and over. Instant stewardship is the practice of sending each of your giving day donors a customized email thank-you from a real human within 90 seconds after the push notification of the gift arrives.  It takes the concept of stewardship – the care and feeding of your donors through demonstrations of gratitude and impact – and dramatically accelerates the usual timeline. Stewardship drives retention. I probably don’t need to tell you how important donor retention is to the health of your fundraising program and achieving your mission. Spoiler alert: It’s really important. Retention of giving day donors requires special attention because 30-60% of them will be new. GiveBIG is a huge opportunity to acquire new donors. Unfortunately, new donors are hard to keep. Only 19% of an organization’s new donors make a second gift. Ouch. But if you can get that second gift, 63% of these returning donors will keep giving beyond that point. That’s huge, and that’s where the majority of your fundraising revenue comes from. That’s why stewardship is so important, and even more important for opportunities that bring you new donors – like GiveBIG. You need to intervene to ensure that they’re on the path to their second gift. But new research shows that it’s not enough just to thank and steward donors. Online engagement has a half-life of about 24 hours, so response time matters. According to fundraising communications expert (and one of my professional heroes) Tom Ahern, new donors who get a personal thank-you within 48 hours are 4 times more likely to make that all-important second gift. Waiting even one day after GiveBIG to personally thank a donor cuts the impact of the thank-you in half. If you wait two days, that thank-you reaches only a quarter of its full potential; and so on and so forth. This is why the speed of stewardship is so important. Instant stewardship can also help build your internal culture of philanthropy and make your job easier in the long run. Non-fundraising staff often resist participating in development work, usually because they think fundraising is all about asking, and they fear being expected to make asks. This barrier to a genuinely participatory culture of philanthropy can be difficult to overcome. Change sticks when it’s incremental; you have to let people dip their toes in new waters before asking them to dive in.  And they have to be shown, not told. Instant stewardship during a giving day like GiveBIG is an opportunity to give resistant or tentative non-fundraising staff an easy, early win in the juiciest part of the fundraising cycle – thanking donors! The process can be managed in a way that allows you to delegate some of this (easy, fun, quick) activity to non-fundraisers in your organization, and show them how good it feels to be part of your organization’s gratitude machine. That quick taste of initial success can build their confidence and openness towards fundraising in the future. That’s why you should execute instant stewardship for your giving day donors. Click here for the second post in this series – a step-by-step tutorial for flawless execution of instant stewardship on giving days.

Ostara is happy announce that the winner of our Service Grant is Kids4Peace! Their organization brings together Muslim, Jewish, Christian and other youth for interfaith dialogues and leadership development. As a global interfaith youth movement, they are dedicated to ending conflict and inspiring hope in divided societies around the world. Kids4Peace accomplishes these goals through two key initiatives: the Kids4Peace Community and Kids4Peace Outreach. The Kids4Peace Community consists of youth in grades 6-12 who take part in summer and school-year programs, featuring monthly meetings, overnight retreats, intensive summer experiences, and community service projects. Kids4Peace Outreach consists of a range of programs that reach the broader Seattle community through workshops, public events, and other special opportunities. Ostara is looking forward to working with Kids4Peace to help maximize the impact of their already amazing work. In addition, we’re happy to announce that for the 3 runners up – AGE UP, Skate Like a Girl, and Tasveer – Ostara will offer a fundraising workshop with their teams to show our appreciation for what they do. In this two-hour training, Ostara Founder and CEO Kyle Halmrast will highlight both basic and more advanced fundraising concepts, with work around relationship cultivation, engagement techniques, moves management execution, and storytelling. We’re looking forward to giving back to the amazing work that our community is doing. Thanks so much to everyone who applied!

We are excited to announce that Ostara will partner with the Seattle Foundation to help nonprofit organizations make the most of their GiveBIG campaigns in 2017! Our Senior Consultant and individual giving expert Ariel Glassman will spend 90 minutes sharing tips on elevating your campaign strategy, navigating the new giving platform and other new elements of GiveBIG, leveraging the new one-to-one matching gift structure, and creating donor communications that stand out in a crowd. Details: Wednesday April 5th 2:00 – 3:30pm The Seattle Foundation 1601 Fifth Avenue, Ste 1900 Seattle, WA 98101 This workshop is free, with a maximum capacity of 80 people. RSVP now before it fills up! To RSVP, please email heartandscience@seattlefoundation.org with your name and the name of your organization!

This article was written by Ariel Glassman. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. It’s January – the time of year when many fundraisers are burned out from the busy December fundraising sprint. And thus, it’s a time of year when many fundraisers decide to look for new jobs. Your organization may find itself looking for a new development director, come February or March. Our sector already knows that development staff turnover is costly. The retraining costs for a fundraising role after turnover equal around 25-33% of the salary costs for that role. This doesn’t include the opportunity cost around whatever revenue might have been raised in that time period if the organization had been fully staffed. For so many reasons, it’s imperative to keep effective fundraisers around and satisfied in their work. Fundraiser retention starts with making the right hire in the first place. That’s a no-brainer, right? But it turns out that hiring for development positions is hard – really hard. And not just because fundraising is hard (which it is). It’s difficult because fundraising is an experiential profession that, by its nature, happens to be full of eloquent communicators. Development pros are great talkers; it’s in our nature. We know how to generate contributions from tough-minded business people and soft-hearted grandmothers alike; we can run circles around standard job interviews. Often, the key to hiring a great development director is the ability to separate those who can just talk the talk from those who can truly walk the walk. What’s the hitch? Most of the time, that’s not something you can do without having done it yourself. The problem lies with who hires a development director. It is imperative to have people involved in the interviewing process with direct experience and systematic participation in the hard work of fundraising. It’s easy to be swayed by a resume full of results without context, or by a smooth personality. Even the most strategic and hard-working search committees can have a sizeable blind spot around hiring fundraisers. Ostara has developed five tried-and-true interview questions for development directors to help you sort out the doers from the schmoozers: 1. How would you go about learning more about [insert your organization’s sector or mission space] so you can work more effectively with donors in this mission space? Why ask? Unless your organization is sitting pretty on a pile of cash, any fundraiser you hire – especially at the leadership level – will need to hit the ground running. But unless they have significant experience in your specific slice of the nonprofit sector, they probably don’t have enough knowledge of your mission and your impact yet to go toe-to-toe with sophisticated major donors. Fundraisers need to know as much about program work as your program staff, and you want to make sure that the person you hire knows how get up to speed quickly so they can dive in. This is one of the upsides to fundraisers that have jumped around a lot, or who have spent time consulting – they have practice getting up to speed quickly. What to look for in their answer: Some candidates will look to books, magazines, websites, or articles; some will start with speaking to experts or leaders in the field. Others will balance those approaches, or come up with something totally out of left field that you’ve never thought of before. There’s no right answer in general, but one of these styles might be a better fit for your organizational culture or your specific sector. The best way to get up to speed after joining an infectious disease research institute is probably not how you would get up to speed at a performing arts center. Think through what’s best for your organization before you ask this question in the interviews. 2. Tell us about the gift you are most proud of securing. Why are you proud of this gift? How did you structure the giving opportunity, and how did you cultivate and solicit the donor? Why ask? Asking for a specific anecdote or example of a key fundraising activity will tell you much more than a conceptual conversation about that skill. Lots of fundraisers can tell you what moves management is; far fewer actually do it well. A great director of development or major gifts officer will be able to unpack their process for you in detail. It’s important to understand the level of critical thinking and intentionality they apply to donor relationship development. This question really helps identify those whose experiences have prepared them to lead and beat their goals. And, how fundraisers defines their success, and what they are proud of, is crucial to understanding how they set goals, approach their work and stay motivated. What to look for in their answer: Many fundraisers will choose the example of the largest gift they have closed. That’s fine – after all, fundraisers need to bring results, and there’s no shame in celebrating big wins. But truly great fundraisers are purposeful and donor-centric. Some of the best fundraisers I’ve hired chose to talk about gifts that were not necessarily their largest, but that allowed their organization to accomplish something long-awaited or important. Others chose gifts that they could tell were the most meaningful to that donor. Either of these types of answers is a good sign that the candidate understands what it means to be donor-centric. Extra points go to examples that include partnership with their executive director, board members, development committee members, and/or other volunteers in cultivating and soliciting the gift. Though you need them to be effective solicitors themselves, great fundraisers recognize that donor development is often a team sport. They know when to bring volunteers in to help close the gift. 3. Tell us about a mistake you made that impacted a donor or other important organizational relationship, and how you recovered from it or addressed the situation. In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently? Why ask? Mistakes happen. Development professionals are human. It’s great to have an example of how someone recognizes and rectifies their own mistakes, and to hear how comfortable they are acknowledging their own imperfection. This question fundamentally acknowledges that no one is perfect, and tells savvy candidates as much about your organization’s culture as it tells you about their self-awareness and humility. It communicates that once on the job, they’ll be allowed to make mistakes and grow from it. What to look for in their answer: Self-awareness about the gravity of the mistake; the instinct to be honest with other organizational leadership (like the executive director or board member connected to the donor) about the mistake; a collaborative problem-solving style; and a donor-centric approach to mitigating the impact of the mistake. 4. What have you learned from previous supervisors or managers that has informed how you lead and manage a team? Why ask? Most nonprofit sector employees never receive training and education in how to lead and manage teams, because professional development is costly. As fundraisers advance their careers and grow their skills, they often receive promotions or pursue new positions that put them in a management role at the leadership level without any formal or informal preparation for leading a team. The only example most have is their own former supervisors, who most likely also didn’t have formal training. This phenomenon means nonprofits need to dig deep on management style for leadership-level positions during interviews (and be prepared to offer professional development support for management skills). What to look for in their answer: Evidence of prior critical thinking about management and leadership; an articulation of what worked and did not work for them; and a clear articulation of their own intended management style. There’s no right answer here, but listen carefully for an orientation towards trust, frequent communication, and a positive rather than punitive approach. 5. What’s your superpower, and what’s your kryptonite? And why? Why ask? This is another way to ask the standard question about strengths and weaknesses, which any candidates prepare to answer. But the casual and fun verbiage of this question will catch many off guard and produce a more authentic answer – especially if you throw it in between more serious questions. What to look for in their answer: A “kryptonite” that is actually a weakness or flaw, rather than a way to turn a weakness into a strength. Of course, a good fundraiser can spin their weakness into an upside; a great fundraiser will allow themselves to be vulnerable. If necessary, dig deeper and ask why something has become their superpower or kryptonite. Self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses is important in a field that is based on understanding and connecting with others. PS: Once you make a hire – there’s no shortage of great advice out there about how to retain your talented fundraisers.

No one can predict what the 2016 election results will mean for our nonprofit community. There is fear and so much uncertainty. Will there be cuts in federal spending for social service programs – and if so, how deep will they be? Will major gifts sharply decline if President-Elect Trump succeeds in securing the cap on tax deductions for individual charitable giving that he proposed on the campaign trail? How will the nonprofit sector handle demand from patients in need if the Affordable Care Act is repealed? At the same time, we have seen a surge in support for progressive causes. The American Civil Liberties Union raised $7.2 million in the five days after the election. In The Atlantic, Cecile Richards – the president of Planned Parenthood –  described an “unprecedented outpouring of support,” with 80,000 donations made in the three days after the election. The Atlantic also reported that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) saw a “simply unprecedented” spike of 500 volunteer applications in the days after the election. The 2016 election is a unique moment in American history. But it shares an undeniable aftermath with the wake of the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks: an alarming rise in hateful speech and acts. In 2001, it was fear of and violence against Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs and South Asians. Today, it is a heart-wrenching combination of words and deeds against LGBTQ people, African-Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, immigrants, and other marginalized and oppressed populations. In the months after 9/11, Seattle responded to a rising climate of hate and fear with innovation, tenacity, and compassion. In fact, at least three extraordinary Seattle-based nonprofits that now work effectively to promote tolerance and understanding were founded in the months following 9/11: OneAmerica:  Originally named Hate Free Zone, OneAmerica was founded directly after the 9/11 attacks by Pramila Jayapal and others in response to hate crimes and discrimination targeting Arabs, Muslims, East Africans and South Asians. With base groups in 11 Washington cities, OneAmerica is now the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State, and has registered more than 40,000 immigrant voters. Tasveer: Rita Meher and Farah Nousheen founded Tasveer in 2002 to “provide a platform for South Asians to engage and express ourselves, and dispel stereotypes of us in the mainstream media and community.” Tasveer’s first festival showed just a dozen films. Today, Tasveer produces the largest South Asian film festival in the country, and events like Yoni Ki Baat, “The Vagina Monologues” in Hindi.  “Our work was important [after 9/11] and now again after Presidential election, to stand against in the wake of hateful sentiments and xenophobia,” says Meher. OneWorld Now!: One World Now! (OWN) brings foreign language skills, leadership training, and study abroad opportunities to youth without access to such opportunities. Students in high-need schools learn Chinese, Arabic, or Korean, and have the chance to study abroad in these cultures. Founder Kristen Hayden wrote in the OWN blog: “Tired of complaining about the inequity and injustice in our nation’s public schools leadership and foreign-policy, we launched OneWorldNow! after the tragic events of 9/11 as a good-faith effort to be ‘part of the solution’.” The Ostara Group wants to be part of the solution too. Our work has always supported organizations in our community fighting injustice, but in the wake of this election, we specifically aim to help the next great nonprofit whose mission promotes peace and understanding in a time of fear. To that end, we are offering our first Service Grant: 25 hours of free consulting services on an application basis, to either: Individuals in Washington State who want to start a new nonprofit to promote understanding, encourage compassion, and dispel stereotypes. We are particularly interested in ventures that help groups of people who have historically not seen eye to eye come together in new ways. Existing nonprofits in Washington State with budgets less than $300,000 in 2015 may also apply for support of their on-going work (or new projects) that promote understanding, encourage compassion, and dispel stereotypes. True inspiration arises from our most challenging moments. We offer this Service Grant to encourage the profoundly meaningful ideas you are working on, and support your ability to play an important part in elevating our culture, society, economy, and values. Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this work – we look forward to hearing from you! Sincerely, Team Ostara Ali, Ariel, Bailey, Casey, Ella, Forrest, Jackie, Karen, Kyle, Kye, Peter, Rebecca, Sarah and Talia To apply to our service grant, please submit the form below. We recommend drafting your answers in separate document and pasting them into the form itself. Submissions will be accepted through 5 pm on January 31, 2017; our decision will be announced by March 31, 2017.

This article was written by Ariel Glassman. She is no longer with Ostara, but we want to preserve this piece so that you can learn from her and from the work she did while part of the Ostara team. The 2016 presidential election has thrown the nonprofit sector a huge year-end curveball. There’s no consensus on how a Trump presidency will affect the nonprofit sector. No one knows what’s next. But before we can get to what’s next, as a sector, we have to get through what’s now: the month of December, when US nonprofits usually raise 25-30% of their annual philanthropic dollars. Which is why the most common question I’m hearing from client organizations right now is “Can we leverage the election to help raise more money? And should we? How?” Sure, political and advocacy organizations are reaping the rewards of charging full steam ahead with election-focused messaging. That makes sense. But where does that leave other types of nonprofits – the arts organizations, the social service agencies, and the education groups – who also need a strong December finish to succeed in 2017? Some nonprofits are deciding to “keep calm and carry on” with the year-end campaign they planned before the election.  Some are plagued by indecision. If your organization falls in either category right now, here are three reasons why you shouldn’t shy away from talking about the election in your fundraising. This is what an authentic conversation with your donors looks like right now. In 2016, fundraising is a war of attrition in an attention economy. The best fundraising rides the wave of what’s already relevant to donors, and few things could be more relevant right now. If you’re talking about changing the world without acknowledging the uncertainty the 2016 election brings to the community you serve, you’ll seem tone deaf and out of touch. Your supporters need to feel like they can make an impact right now. Donors and volunteers give to nonprofits because they want to accomplish something good. You are that something good, and your supporters are awesome people who took action on an issue that mattered to them. And right now, many feel demoralized and lost. They feel out of control. Give them something genuinely motivating to help you with, and their donation will give them back a slice of their agency, and be a force for good. Never forget that your outreach is not a burden to potential donors – it’s an opportunity. You already have the ingredients you need. How can your messaging highlight the relevance of your mission? Think back to why your donors support you in the first place, and work from there. You already have the tools to make the case: What do they accomplish by giving to you? How will your actions continue to serve the community in spite of the fear and uncertainty this election has brought forth? What would the world look like if the election results compromise your impact and your ability to fulfill your mission? How can people help ensure that your organization succeeds and continues to provide critical services to the community? This is an important moment for our sector. Organizations working in every mission space will be impacted by the coming shifts, and many will be more necessary for your communities than before. Art of all kinds will remain critical for dissent and protest. Health care will continue to pose immense challenges to patients, families, and medical professionals, requiring continued innovation to improve health for all. Demand for social services will skyrocket. The list goes on. Nonprofits are more relevant now than ever. Each of you can contribute your time, energy, and passion towards strengthening the donor base that supports the community at large. You can show your donors where they fit into the bigger picture – that they can take action that matters. And that’s what they need right now. It’s an honor and a privilege to help organizations take on this challenge. We applaud you for getting up every day to do this work and make change, and we’re with you every step of the way.