B is for beneficiary

D is for donor

F is for focus

June 2009

Newsletter #2

You came and we shared

Glen McQuirk – founder of Map 4 Life says: “You have 86 400 seconds each day to fulfill your purpose. What did you use them for today?”

Six months have gone – in a flash! Many of you used your time effectively. You used your 86 400 seconds every day to raise more funds, you took risks and tried “forgotten” methods of fundraising – telephone canvassing, resuscitating lapsed donors, planned events that have been put on hold for far too long. Well done, you have survived and beat the pessimists.

You came

Over the last 6 months I have met many extraordinary CEO’s, Directors, Board members, social workers, volunteers, members of office staff, fundraisers, consultants as well as funders. (All 575 of you!)

I met you in Tzaneen, Nelspruit, Heidelberg, Cape Town, Bronkhorstspruit, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Some of you I meet at my training sessions and others while doing in-house training, consulting and mentoring for your NPO.

Please contact me if you need these services at sandra@sandramillar.co.za

Many of you change lives – the lives of cancer patients, people living with HIV/Aids, children at risk and school children with special needs. The elderly and destitute are also cared for by you as are animals, the environment and the arts.

You represented such diverse NPO’s as the Vervet Monkey Foundation, Africa Institute for South Africa and an NPO working extremely hard to educate our population about the very real danger posed by Satanism.

… and we shared

We argued, debated, shared experiences and helped each other solve problems such as dealing with government departments, the lotto and writing effective funding proposals, ethics and economics. We discussed the merits of undertaking a proper fundraising audit – (not the auditing that deals with figures – the auditing that force us to look at where our donors come from – are they corporate donors, individuals, government departments etc and which areas of the donor pool have we not yet tapped into).

Workshops

 Of all the workshops I facilitated, An introduction to fundraising and Writing effective proposals remain the most popular. These were followed by Recruiting and retaining donors, Monitoring and evaluation, Strategic planning, Marketing and communication, Best practices in direct marketing and bequests. Please let me know which topics you would like me to add. Email me on sandra@sandramillar.co.za

Government funding

Judging by your evaluations the workshop facilitated by Asna Bhana, Securing government funding gave you valuable insight to the workings of government departments and how you can tap into the available funding. Your only gripe was that the workshop should be held over a full day as opposed to the current half day session.

Asna has been fighting and lobbying various government departments for more than a decade and she has vast amounts of experience and passion. She is an independent consultant and can be contacted at asna.bhana@optimisingcsi.co.za

National Lotteries Board

I become wary just typing this heading – the mention of the name makes me want to tear my hair out! I do not know when they will call for the charities lotto, but I will inform you as soon as I know and we will do as many workshops (on how to complete the forms) as we can. (Let me know if you spot it before I do)

My tip of the month – Strategic Plans

When I’m asked to “Write a Strategic Plan” I’m not always sure what is expected of me. I have drawn up a few guidelines that I’ve useful:

·         Who are my donors and prospects?

·         What is our unique benefit?

·         What are our core values?

·         Why are we doing this?

·         What are we hoping to accomplish?

·         What will the strategic plan cause the reader to think, feel or do?

I’m sure you have your own set of effective guidelines – please share them with us – by email sandra@sandramillar.co.za.

My book of the month

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

This is the third book written by Malcolm Gladwell.

Many of you enjoyed The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference. - which explains how years of well-intentioned intervention may have no impact at all, yet the right intervention – at just the right time – can start a cascade of change.

Then there was Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking – Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments and particular rules and principles.

But his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success is by far my favourite. It deals with – Why are people successful? The book will take you on an invigorating intellectual journey to show us what makes an extreme overachiever.

I loved the stories and the way he tells them. I loved the interesting facts and figures and the places the book took me to.

This is a book to read and reread often – just because it is such a joy!

Let us know what you are reading – sandra@sandramillar.co.za

Good luck, remember to have fun and laugh. Remember to congratulate yourself for the work you do.

And keep in touch

Sandra Millar

Ke nako

PO Box 12769

Queenswood

0121

South Africa

(T) +27 (0) 12 430 2630

(F) +27 (0) 12 430 7037

sandra@sandramillar.co.za

www.sandramillar.co.za