Why Best Practices Will Hurt You

Sitting on a call today with representatives from a few different events, I was once again asked for "best practices" that will help to make an event successful.  I always have had a hard time with best practices...they seem like such a cop out...like you are saying if I just do what they are doing, I can be successful.  I believe that Jeff Brooks said it best: 

"Best Practices" are supposed to be about not making stupid mistakes.  Too often, thought, "best practices" end up meaning risk aversion and creativity avoidance.  It is great to know what you are doing.  But if you zero in completely on doing everything in the standard way, you won't achieve greatness.  You may avoid embarrassing errors, but you won't go beyond the middle.

Truer words have never been spoken.  In fundraising and in life, you cannot follow a set path...we must set our own ways.  It is important to know how others have tried and failed or tried and succeeded, but  to follow someone's exact steps will get you no where. 

If we never go beyond following other's paths, we will never find our own and our own innovative success.  Yes, I could give someone a manual for doing an event, a checklist for logistics, and job descriptions for volunteers, but I cannot give anyone the sure fire path for event fundraising or even career success.  We can only hope that one can spark some creativity and provide an environment where innovation and risk is rewarded and encouraged and failure while being innovative and trying something new is seen as part of the process of growth. 

Doing something innovative or amazing often means you don't know what you are doing, it's not a best practice.  And it might fail.  But it might succeed in a breakout way. - Jeff Brooks

Innovation is no longer a suggestion - it is a necessity.  We must work to stand out, we must aim to be the best or we will be left behind or left for our competition.  Taking risks is against our physical make up, but something we must overcome if we want to further our organization's mission and fundraising.  Sometimes we will fail, we will make stupid mistakes, we will not create best practices.  But that one time go beyond best and into the land of promising ideas could make all the difference in the world. 

Come On Baby Light My Fire....

I'm on this huge kick right now to find myself...find what it is that I want to do.  You see, I have alot of ideas and I've found I'm easily excitable especially when surrounded by others who have passion and creativity.  I've been working hard in the last few weeks to try and harness some of this excitement into actions...but the problem is that I have no idea where to start first. 

I came across Danielle Laporte while reading this.  I respected her writings and the way she views the world so I thought, why not...I'll give it a shot.  I registered for The Firestarter Sessions and am so excited for its official launch on May 12th!  I'm ready to commit to finding focus and putting ideas into action...ohh, I just had deja vue....I think that is a good sign. 

Join me, won't you...click below to learn more!  A portion of your tuition even goes to charity so it is a win win for sure.  You can even become an affiliate, like me and promote to help offset the costs of the sessions. 



She also sells awesome notecards here...self actualization and shopping.  Can your Monday get any better?

Event Based Fundraising - Sexy Sells

I spent some time today with a client who was running into some issues with market expansion for her fundraiser.  She had a good amount of people coming back, but not alot of new people that were willing to commit.  Her fundraiser has been around for a long time, has a long history, and has been seeing a bit of a decline over the last few years.  She was looking for advice for how to get people to get involved again. 

I hear this alot - an event stalls or people are falling off in involvement and support.  When you dig deeper as to why that is the case, most of the time is because the event hasn't evolved and the relationship has died.  the organization or the event specifically hasn't reinvented itself.   It is no longer sexy - and in a world where you are competing with so many other great organizations for dollars and time, sexy sells.

Think of it like a relationship - why do you think most marriages fail right around the seven year mark?  Because we are constantly reinventing ourselves.  Learning, growing, expanding who we are and who we want to be.  I once read (and I wish I could find it again) that our personalities are totally different every 7 years because of that very fact.  If we aren't doing it in concert with our partners, constantly getting to know each other, date each other, and romance each other, many relationships fall apart.  You wake up one day and don't even know each other.

As fundraisers, we need to look at our donors and participants the same way.  We need to keep talking, learning, and growing with each other.  Find new ways to connect.  Keep each other excited.  Expose each other to new opportunities to spread your message and reinvent your fund raising campaigns and events.  Learn about what is important to each other.  Keep it fresh, keep it new, keep it sexy. 

Get Over It Already - Social Media Fears for Nonprofits

Does something always need to have a strategy?  Can't you just jump in and do it and figure it out as you go?  That is basically how I feel about social media and I wish that more people would follow suit.  Specifically, I wish that more non profits, would quit talking, analyzing, waiting, and strategizing about it and just do it.  What is the worst that could happen?


It compromises our brand - Pardon my cynicism here, but how?  By you going directly to your customer, client, donor, etc. and telling them your message directly from you vs. having to pay for it in ads or beg for exposure in more traditional media outlets?  Also, think about it....if you can get directly to your client, donor, and customer in a new and different way you have their attention - and that attention can build affinity which they can pass on to there sphere of influence which can only further your message.

It costs too much -Cost is relative. In terms of dollars, it won't cost you a thing.  In terms of time - like anything, the time you put into it is a direct ratio to what you want to get out of it.  If you don't put in the time to build relationships, talk with your clients, customers, donors, whatever...you will never see the value.  BUT, if you invest the time in giving it a shot, the results could be a reach that goes well beyond what any marketer could hope for. 

What do we have to say - If your organization is worth being in existence, it has something to say.  Spreading your mission, telling your story, sharing your impact, interacting with people that could benefit, providing additional support to your clients, etc....providing access....those are things that say so much in not only what people can see, but also how they feel about your organization.

I don't understand it - What better way to understand it then by experiencing it.  Are you personally using programs like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, FriendFeed, etc?  If you are too scared to put your organization out there at first, then put yourself out there.  Get involved and experience the Web 2.0 world first hand.  That will give you a better way to explain to others the value that is out there for your organization.

Our people aren't on those things - WRONG!  Guess what, the people you work with are out there, the people you want to work with are out there, and your competition is out there.  If you aren't, you are going to get left behind.

So, what are you waiting for?  Do something, stop talking about it.  Get involved, give it a shot...what do you have to lose, outside of more dollars, more exposure, and furthering your mission!

My Social Media Evolution

My head hurts.  It has taken me awhile to admit this, but I can now say that I'm addicted to information and terrified of taking action. Blogs, Tweets, Fan Feeds, Ideas, Social Resumes, all of it.  I eat it up like Cookie Dough Egg Rolls....which if you haven't tried yet, you must.  But like this delicious treat, too information much can really make me sick.  I am so overwhelmed with options and ideas, I feel paralyzed to take action.

When I started out on the journey of networking in a virtual world, I wanted to connect with people from high school and college, have access to the deep thoughts of Ashton Kutcher, and maybe get Perez Hilton updates on my phone - you know, the really important stuff.  Then, as I started to get further into my career, I realized that I could use these same things I was using to creep on old boyfriends and snotty girls from college could be used in a more productive way - for good, not evil.

It evolved into connecting with like minded people outside of my sphere of influence...but my tastes were still not discerning.  I wanted to follow everyone that had anything to do with fundraising.  I tried to click on every last article that came up on my search of #nonprofit or #fundraising.  It was exhausting, educational, but most of all, a waste of time.  I got so hyped up about keeping up that I forgot that you cannot keep up.  Twitter, Facebook, and your Google Reader - although great places to go for inspiration and to organize your thoughts, are not meant to be followed line by line.

I worked so hard for so long to go back and catch up on every last tweet.  I have stressed out about having 1000+ in my Google Reader for weeks.  I created busy work and added things like "Check Facebook" and "Read Blogs" into my to do list just because I was so afraid of missing something - of being left out - of not knowing it all.

One day I woke up and realized just how ridiculous it all was.  I had 500+ friends on Facebook, hundreds of people I followed on Twitter, and too many blogs to count.  The thing I went into this entire process looking for - access to information -was the very thing that was making me feel overloaded.  I had too much access - too much information - and was so cluttered in my mind, I couldn't see straight.

After a few minor breakdowns, I now find myself cutting alot out.  I no longer follow someone on Twitter just because they follow me...I want to fill my life, my Inbox, and my Feed Reader with people I have a connection with, with people I admire, and people I can build a relationship with.  I want to read the writings and thoughts of people I know, or at least want to know.

I am working on turning off the noise and turning up the substance....and so far, my head feels much better.