106. Rethink Employee Giving (Part 2) - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

7:48PM Apr 15, 2021

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Keywords:

campaign

people

employee

organization

talk

donor

projects

passion

giving

movement

impact

philanthropic

build

passionate

fun

hospice

powerful

conversation

piece

gift

Hey, I'm john.

And I'm Becky.

And this is the we are for good podcast.

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So let's get started.

Hey, Becky,

Happy Friday to everyone listening. Everyone in this room? Yes.

You came back in a four part series. That

means so much to add. in there, yes, we are talking about our favorite topic of all time that I I'm gonna be honest with you, I was literally sitting on my couch last week, after listening to this episode, thinking it would have been worth it to start this podcast just to talk about this topic. Because we want to create a movement and a revolution in the way that we are treating and valuing our employees. I love that

we're talking about employee giving. And we really do believe the greatest movement start from within. So activating your base in a really meaningful way, just takes your organization to a different level and gives you incredible way to talk about yourself, the belief of your community, and your mission that starts really, really close to home. So we just we just love this topic. If you're if you This is your first episode to listen to last week, we kicked off talking about really the mindsets and the core beliefs that are going to give you the foundational footwork to really build a movement, we're talking a lot about employee giving specifically, but this can be applied to any kind of movement that you're trying to create is the same principles, the same ideals, and just really things to help you get actionable. Today, we're going to get a little bit more in details, we're really talking about infrastructure. And before you run off hearing,

as we said, structure, we promise we're gonna make it fun.

Yeah, totally make it fun. So that's going to be this week, and then coming down the line that week three and four, we're gonna dive into campaign brand voice and tone, you know, we're gonna love that topic. And then week four, we're going to end out with how to stage how to run your campaign, and really the impact that you can create through it. So lots of good conversations headed your way over the next couple of weeks.

But we're gonna dive into a bunch of detail today about how to structure your campaign. And we do think the framework for what we're proposing here is it's very nuanced, and it's very disruptive. And of course, that's what we like about it. So yeah, and so it really pleases John's heart, that we rolled up what we're going to discuss today into what john would probably brand and put a logo around like the three P's of a campaign process, which is the people, the projects and the process. And I would also venture to say that it's going to be a thread of passion in there too. Because that is really the underpinning of why we are trying to look at this in a different way. We're not trying to just check the box. We've talked about this many times with our campaign, but it's about how do you take what really motivates someone that gets them inspired, that gets them activated? And it's really drawing into what is that passion? And how can you activate it for good in the space in which they work?

You are so dead on right? Because if you How do you mean technically the most well executed campaign, but if it's missing passion, if it's missing the heart, that connectivity, it's just going to be flat, y'all and it's not going to do what a true movement can can do when you activate people on their passion. So I'm so glad you set the tone that way.

Okay, so you're going to talk about one of your favorite TV shows that I've ever heard of in my life.

Please go

so we're making fun. Candace, my wife and I we like watching nonfiction television shows or documentaries. And it's really hard for us to get into some of the fiction stuff. So here we go.

John's at what he's saying is he's very constructive and learning all the time. And Becky's over here watching Game of Thrones and Richard. So please relate to GC. Yeah. Okay, so

if you've never heard of this TV show, it's called the Prophet. And there's a billionaire businessman named Marcus lemonis. And I love it because he shows up and he will go to across the country, and help business owners that are struggling, and they don't know why their business is not making money, or they can't keep staff or all these different problems. And he walks them through this framework. And I distinctly remember watching this show, getting so excited every week for the new episode of drop. And I just had this moment, this was probably six or seven years ago at this point, and said, Oh my gosh, the framework that he teaches for this is exactly the same framework that I would teach if I'm trying to help somebody understand where gaps could be in their employee giving campaign. And so his focus is people product and process. So really, the lineup of this is really close to that, but the idea is looking through through those lenses. The people have the projects of the processes you have in place, and how can you know refining those areas, tightening those areas, and focusing on tightening the screws could really transform your movement. And so today we're going to go through that, let me just give you a bird's eye view of where we're going. And then we're gonna dive into each of these topics, people is the heartbeat of connection, these are your boots on the ground, this is the way that you scale and grow your efforts. It always begins with people. So getting the people part of your campaign right is paramount projects is the philanthropic projects or case for support, there's campaigns that are gonna have a lot of specific impacts, and those are great too. Or maybe they're more general. But either way, it's about how you talk about the projects and the impact that your donor can make with their gift. And then the third is the process. This is the stuff that we love to be surrounded by team that geeks out on this, because this is not our favorite. But it's paramount to being successful is are you positioned to scale Are you positioned to follow through on your commitments, and are you positioned to really just run a campaign that can grow and take on a life of its own, but at the same time, not lose the pieces that make it work and make it impactful.

So I don't want you to feel you, the proverbial you whoever you are, at home listening to this, I don't want all of that to feel overwhelming to you. And you might even just be a one person shop or a very small shop that's trying to scale something that has a ton of employees within your organization. But we're saying that if you can ensure that all three of these areas are humming and firing on all cylinders at the same time. And it really is about planning and about intentionality. And making sure that again, everyone matters and that voices are at the table that matter. If you can kind of do this in a way that a conductor can conduct an entire orchestra, your campaign success will happen, there is no doubt about it.

Yeah. And at a minimum, you're going to have this network of people that at least know you better or closer to your mission or of how to get experience. So you can't lose by getting organized and rallying this way. Also, this feels overwhelming. We've put together a worksheet for you. So we're sanctuary. So in the show notes, this can link you to a bit, it'll help you walk through and think through for your movement, you're trying to start through these three categories. It's super practical. And it's like a checklist. If you like checking boxes, this worksheet is for you. I certainly

do. And I think that also john put together this great worksheet. And it'll help give you a baseline of where you need to be, you could check the boxes, you might already have an employee giving campaign that's going right now. And you might already have some of this going. But this is going to shore you up to kind of allow you to see those gaps that john referenced, and the way that you can maximize your impact to ensure that you are fully covered all the way down to the lowest possible process all the way up to the most important person in your campaign, which PS is probably not your CEO, it could be the most influential employee who has a really passionate story.

Okay, that was the perfect segue to jump straight into people. So without a doubt, we said this in the intro, but this is where your campaign lives and breathes. It's the heartbeat. It's It's where your campaign will either be successful, or were just fail flat. People have to be at the core of a movement. It just doesn't work any other way. So what we want to think about here, as you consider the people that are involved are do you have the right people serving within your campaign in a volunteer capacity and leadership capacities. And when we're recruiting, and I do think you need to recruit, especially in the beginning, you're going to have to seek out people that are could be leaders, maybe they don't see themselves as leaders, but you do. And this is a really great place to stretch people and give new opportunities for growth. But these are the things we ask, are they philanthropic? Are they passionate? Do they have the type of personality that wants to make a difference in plug in? Are they willing to share their own story, which I think that one's a powerful is a powerful one. Are they willing to serve others? Do they have energy? Do they have enthusiasm? Do they have respect to their peers? Notice we didn't say Are they a fundraiser, we talked about the relational aspects. We talked about how they show up in the world, we talk about the energy that they bring, because those are the keys. And honestly, we don't need to go on a tangent today. But that's why in the hiring process, I think is a whole different conversation for the type of people you're looking to be friends with fundraisers. We don't need to get so lost in the resume, but get lost in the way that they connect with people because that's what it really comes down to.

And I think something you said that was really smart was recruiting them. I mean, if we are truly cultivating I mean, again, we're back to these principles that we employ every single day if we are literally recruiting them. It's not just for campaign for this year's campaign. We're we're asking them to be in the long game with us. We want them to be an ambassador, a proponent of this campaign for a long duration of time. So think about how you can use their platform, their story, their passion, in a way that resonates with those around them. Because we all know that community is everything. And when you go into someone's space, they have a different network than I have. And the ability to flex that network allows the ripple to just keep going and going and going. And so I think when you start to look at your volunteer footprint, ask yourself, does it match the size and scope of our organization? Do we have enough volunteers to effectively reach every department across our organization? This is the number one problem we have found in a an employee campaign not having the ability to scale because you need a ton of feet on the street, again, to our last point last Friday, we were an organization of 10,000. And we were 10. Yeah. And in the organization, we needed so many little foot soldiers, who were believing in what we were trying to say, figuring out how the campaign resonated within their own story. And they found a way to be completely authentic to personalize it in their own network. It's just a really smart strategy.

It's super smart. And it tailors perfectly into something that's such a value of our organization, diversity, equity inclusion, does your volunteer structure look representative of your organization? I mean, this is why we aren't going to beat the drum, that it's only the leaders that you're trying to get involved. You're trying to get people involved at every level. So you want relatable people involved in the campaign, that are excited about it that understand the campaign. The next piece to under people is that Do you have the right training and coaching in place, because it's not a one and done thing? You know, I think a lot of people get it wrong, that you may recruit the right person. But if you don't stay in touch with them, and keep them motivated, engaged, and give them ideas of how to plug in and serve, you really can miss the mark. I mean, a campaign may be three or four weeks long. So they're going to need ideas, they're going to need stimulation and you know, recognition for when they're doing wonderful things or when good things are happening and just to stay connected. So do you have all those pieces in place?

I love that point, john. And it also supports the idea that we've got to find the right fit for every person who wants to be a part of the campaign. And being able to see every one of your volunteers for who they are. Some may be high extroverts, some may be more content with kind of being in the background. And there is a space that everyone can dive into your campaign. Some of them might want to share their story and stand up in front of a group of their peers within a department and share their passion story. Some may decide they want to run a T shirt booth, some people may feel more comfortable just being in the background writing thank you notes, we could have some really incredible Jen's ears, or millennials that work within the campaign who are excellent at making videos or capturing photos that we can use to just, you know, plant the seeds of engagement. Find a way to see your people for their gifts for the things that they want to give to the campaign and activate them in that way. And that will take your projects to the next level.

Love it. So this conversation today is not long enough to unpack all the you know, pieces that you want to think through with people. But that worksheet that we're dropping in the show notes will help you think through the different levels, because it's about trying to activate people at every level of your organization. So definitely identifying leaders throughout. And when I say leaders, again, don't hear me as you're only recruiting your top brass folks, people who can be a leader in the movement that just are passionate that can, you know, rally the troops, Okay, ready to jump into projects,

I am been ready my whole life go for it go.

So projects, when we use that term, we're talking about the philanthropic case for support the projects that you're funding, and ultimately the impact that your campaign is going to bring. And I want to throw it back to one of the key core values that we unpacked that we believe in any philanthropic movement is that you're not just trying to get donors you're trying to get believers. And one of the most Surefire ways to find a believer is to allow them to see and experience the tangible impacts of philanthropy. And this conversation is not to, you know, say anything against unrestricted giving, because I think this can completely thread into this. Yeah. But for the employee campaign, where people are walking down the halls of your organization, think of like a higher ed institution or healthcare, something that we have a lot of employees to activate, when you can tie their giving to a really specific outcome project that's touching a patient or a student, or whoever the project is impacting when they see that something happens within them,

and when they can touch it. Yeah, I mean, Never before have you had such a massive group of donors who have the ability to see with their eyes and touch with their finger, the exact thing that they are purchasing. It is a very powerful, powerful thing powerful. And so I do love this idea of having a concrete project to wrap around all of your passions. So for example, because I think it's easier to talk about these things when you can actually visualize them. You know, when we had a passion project that was hospice, you know, you might think that it's hard to wrap some projects around hospice, but the very first year that we had our employee giving campaign, they said to us, we really need a playground out at the hospice house. And you know, we have a lot of families that are coming in the family wants to sit with their loved one in their final hours, but there's no place for the kids to go, where they're not going to be distracting. And so we ended up saying for $25,000, we could build this incredible playground outside the hospice house. And oh, by the way, this is about how many people that we think will benefit from it. And for a donor who's very passionate about hospice, you transport them back to that place where they can see that that has a tangible impact in what's happening right there in that moment of life for that individual. And for them to see, oh, if I give to this 300 people are going to benefit in the next year, it is a game changer in the way that they can actually see concrete impact to their gift,

there's power in that specificity and, and power in I think of that project years later. Because the way that you can recognize and thank the donors that contributed to it, it just has that ripple effect. And it builds the culture of liquid our employees have done and funded and all these families year after year is very, very powerful.

And of course, you know, we're going to tell you later on that you need to put a logo and a brand on each of those items, because we want you know an employee to recognize that this thing that they're seeing was brought to be because of employee philanthropy, that is a powerful, powerful thing super powerful.

Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor who happens to be one of our favorite companies virtuous, you know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see an activate donors at every level. And virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM. virtuous helps charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising. And we love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized donor engagement. Sound like virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org Follow the link in our show notes. As you're thinking through the projects to select for your campaign, here's just a few things that we think through. Does it have philanthropic appeal? I mean, obviously, this is your for fundraisers. So we're always thinking through the lens of is it something that we can talk about? Does it seem like something that really is going to help people that's really going to create an impact that people can identify with? Can you talk about it, you know, is there a story that you can make it more relatable? And are people excited about this? I think, you know, we talk about this a lot. But enthusiasm is real in areas, it's something that people are going to want to rally around and give have their own dollars to support, it's got to be urgent, it's got to feel necessary. And it's got to inspire, you know, passion around it.

And I think the thing that I noticed, john, when we were doing a deep dive into the research of what other people were doing is there a lot of just default projects and employee giving. And a lot of them just did nothing to motivate me at all, you know, whether it was just a general fund that people give to there is nothing compelling about a general fund unless you can talk about the tangible concrete outcomes that have come from it in the employee assistance, fun, which is a great fun that any organization would have. But if you haven't been a beneficiary of it, if you don't have a story that can bring it to life, it's gonna fall on deaf ears. So we've got to figure out what are the projects that are employee driven, not handed to us down from administration that says we could use a little lift in this fun, that's not going to speak to a donor's heart. And then the real challenge in the culture shift becomes teaching those fun champions, the people who are in charge of spending down those dollars that they've got to spend within a year,

I literally think of it as like an hourglass with legs like chasing, like, you've got to think we need to get these dollars into motion as fast as possible. And I'm looking at you healthcare and higher ed things, the world where things move incredibly slow. It just can't happen. Like you've got to work through the processes to make spending happen faster.

And we're here to tell you, your ops people, your fun champions are going to come at this kicking and screaming, you will have to drag them along with you. I mean, I want to be completely real here. That spinning quickly is not a part of many organizations, cultures. But if you can hardwire someone to understand that they need to start thinking about it early, we already have the project. We already have the bids. We already know the impact. We literally just have to buy it. And the sooner we can buy it, the more we can show impact and have stories. It's such a great cyclical effect.

I agree. And if you think we just had a guest on the other day that that encouraged us, I think it was lirica. Monique, to think about stewardship first. You know, if you think about how is This project going to allow us to really think and show our donors what this did. That's a really powerful tool, especially as we're trying to build believers, if you're thinking through that lens, okay, step process,

this is where we tap out. But is your campaign position to scale, that's really what I would encourage you to think through because anybody can kind of hobnob something together to just get through. But if you're really thinking about building a movement that's going to change the world, or it's going to revolutionize your healthcare organization, or wherever you're at, you have to think like, how can we systemize? And how can we grow, because you can't just do every little thing on its own, like as a one off forever. So as we think about the different processes that need to be in place, these are the things that are the glue that holds things together, they're stumbling blocks, that if you don't have them, they're gonna make your campaign crumble their internal processes that you want to refine. And a couple of them that I think we'll call out today that are really specific gift processing, it's got to start with that right. Employee giving gives you a really unique giving modes to tap into. And I think you know, some of the most powerful or the most powerful is payroll deduction. It's it's absolutely synced. It's how employees think and kind of a two week increment or monthly increment, whatever it works for your organization. But not just looking at payroll giving it which is really just monthly giving, right, so a lot of the same mindsets and ways that we approach monthly giving. And we have an amazing conversation coming up with a carousel oh my gosh, charity, godfather of monthly giving, and until under charity, water,

hold on to your butts for that one, because it's going to be an amazing

conversation. But I mean, if you don't believe in the power of what recurring revenue does, just wait, and stay tuned for that conversation, because that's what's cool is this is built around a recurring revenue model. So just at its at its core, it's very scalable, and it's very plays into our core values of playing the long game. But the other piece of gift processing, we don't want you to miss is paid time off. So PTO, whatever you call it at your organization, this turned into be a six figure, you know, revenue generator for us annually, with just people giving back their unused hours. So what this means is, call up your local HR person, build a friendship, talk through the power of what this could be, get your leadership invested in this decision. This one decision could cost you $100,000. For a campaign seriously, there's people at your organization that have been there a really long time that are giving away their hours, I guarantee you, if they could turn that into a gift, if they could gift those hours, and it turns into a donation, I can still close my eyes and picture the joy on people's faces, that they could I'm Marla, right. They get a Marla that she would give and I don't think she'd mind me saying this 100 hours, 100 hours, you know, of donation annually to this campaign, because she had banked so many hours over the years. But for her to feel the pride to be giving it that level to send them that she's passionate about in this unique way to give. It's just so powerful, I have chills.

And it allows someone who could have never dreamed that they would ever be a major gift donor to an organization, the luxury of being just that because you're leveraging these unique ways of giving. And so we're really talking about being flexible, and making giving so accessible, making it as frictionless as possible, that no one has to struggle to be a part of this, you know, it is that payroll giving, it's the paid time off, we're accepting cash or cheques, gifting kind, whatever it is. crypto, apparently, you can give crypto now. And so it's just about what how can you make online giving in person giving as available and accessible as possible, because there are people I know in our organization, you know, there were physicians who were not employed employed by the organization. And so they couldn't technically give monthly giving, but they still wanted to be a part of the movement. They wanted to support their nurses and all of the staff that work within their offices. And so you have to make giving an easy for anyone meet them where they're at.

I love it. So the other piece that I would say is really look at data. And this is not a glamorous one to talk about. But if you're gonna scale, you have got to be really, really tight on your data. Not just with employee giving either, but employee giving gives you this opportunity to have 1000s of employees giving in a really short amount of time if you're at a big organization. And so making sure that the data is clean, and really leveraging the sweat, I think is powerful is leveraging the connectivity to HR. If you're at a big system, your database is probably separate from your HR system in dish buy lots of good reasons that it's separate. But for this campaign, work with the HR team because just by doing something as simple as sinking, you know an employee We ID number with the giving record, it could maybe make your lineup of data tons more effective and efficient, and making sure that you have the correct contact information. Because remember, employees are donors, they you should treat them and steward them as if they are just as important as every other donor. So you do that by having the data that's clean, so you know how to talk to them, you know, what their nickname is, all of those things.

And that just makes them feel seen known. Heard that you understand what they're passionate about. And I just think you need to get out your mixer, make some chocolate chip cookies, and go over and make friends with HR because there could be some resistance on having to do such a heavy load initially, as you're kind of launching this new initiative. And we need them to be our BFFs we need our IT teams to be rpfs. Because we want all of that data as it's exchanging hands to be so clean and accurate, that it's going to inspire trust. The other thing that I will say as a pro tip is find an org chart for your hospital system that outlines who the leaders are, who are all the departments, this is going to be a really helpful first step to mapping out the core people that you need to get on board with your plan and leveraging that data that

john talked about will be a key way to do that. And then you know, this is kind of following up on how projects connect to processes. But everything that's in your stewardship wheelhouse, how can you make that into a system? You know, we come from a campaign that was unique, we had 25 projects a year, oh my gosh, over 10 years, think about we had 250 projects were administering just through this program. So if it was not a well oiled machine, if you don't figure out how to scale and how to do things at scale, you're going to be held back in what your ability is to make it custom to make it special. And to make it you know, this kind of giving experience that creates rabid fans, which is what we talked about. So building in all of those pieces is really going to be powerful. Just one of those triggers, you know, after the campaign ends, what does that mean? What from a stewardship trigger standpoint, when that item is purchased? When it arrives? What does that trigger, like kind of, you know, thank you notes and all those pieces. So really getting this right, is going to help you with retention, it's going to help you with engagement. And it's the right thing to do too.

And it's fun, like have embrace wimzie. With it, I can think of one year where we had all of our 25 passions like square off March Madness style in a bracket with sumo wrestling, we like slapped their passion on to the belly of the sumo wrestler, and had them like war with each other. I know it is like sparring. It sounds kind of barbaric. But it was the most fun, we brought out food trucks. I mean, this is certainly a pre COVID world. But it's like the ability to bring everybody together in community. We're all talking about the success of the campaign, we're sharing our passion for whatever our projects are. And it's just a great way to just make it so fun and something that people want to be a part of.

Okay, Becky started with something that I think we need to close with passion. So we can talk all day long about all the infrastructure that's in place. And we truly have put together this worksheet that's going to give you a lot more detail than we could talk through in today's podcast episode and get that in the show notes today. But where and how can you build passion for this campaign. And I think we've threaded this throughout the conversation. But if you don't approach your employee giving campaign in this unique way, to truly build believers, to build rabid fans, to choose inspiring projects that move people and tell the stories of the people on the front lines and what it matters to them and how it's impacted their family. Those are the things as we look back, you know, we our campaign has raised millions of dollars and cluded 10,000 plus employees and giving over the years. But the core of what it comes back to is the reason that it worked is because there was passion at its core. And those are the things that we say it becomes recession proof, and that it becomes

COVID proof. They had a hugely successful campaign in the midst of COVID which shocked even me.

Yeah, it's just because it becomes cultural. And I think it is so fascinating that even the talk of postponing the campaign at this point, people don't want to, because it's so much of a fabric because it's a passion, people feel connected to it. And that's what your aim is to create. Here. Again, we're creating a movement. And I don't want it to sound like we don't care about the dollars because obviously the dollars power all of this. But it really is about something deeper than just the dollar just about connection. And in the context of employee giving. That means engagement in your workforce. That means people that are more happy and more fulfilled in what they're doing day to day. So such an important important place to invest

and the passion piece. If you do it right, the dollars worth will follow I promise and I want to give everybody a little piece of homework today. That you can do right now, if you're trying to figure out how can I start with passion? How can I mobilize this? Start with yourself, looking inside yourself and say, Why do I love working here? What is the moment that spoke to me as a as a human being where I got to see the miracle of our work unfold right in front of me, find that story. Look into the detail of it, figure out how you would share that if you were going to go talk about the campaign, that is exactly where you should start. And as you're starting to galvanize the support and starting to get this arsenal of stories, that's the best place to start. Why are you passionate about our about our organization? Why are you passionate about this one particular area of our business, I can assure you, it will be the most incredible social experiment that will bind you to the person that you are asking. And if you're someone who is loving this conversation, if you are drinking the kool aid of which we are serving here, an employee giving, I just want to tease everybody and let you know, john and I are working very very hard alongside our awesome production hero Julie to build a full scale employee giving campaign masterclass workshop, and we're going to be diving into the tenets and the core principles of all of this at a very, very deep level, we have a ton of freebies and resources that we're going to pair with how to outline this, how to set up your insert infrastructure, and how to have a campaign that feels good and produces well. So keep your eyes open and know that we're going to be dropping that soon. But yeah, I mean, it's just I love revisiting this conversation every time I do agree with my early sentiment that if we had just started a podcast to talk about employee giving, it would have been enough for me.

So friends, people, projects, process and passion. You got this.

You got it.

Thanks for listening to today's conversation discussing the infrastructure of your campaigns. If you're excited to dive in further, we've linked a ton of helpful resources into the show notes. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free and you can join today at weird for good, calm backslash. Hello. One more thing. If you liked what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and Your support helps more people find our community. Thanks, friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Rumi boys. Thanks for being here.