109. Rethink Employee Giving (Part 3) - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

2:28PM Apr 23, 2021

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Keywords:

people

campaign

story

create

employee

donors

organization

passion

movement

set

words

branding

virtuous

building

storytelling

humanize

share

stool

becky

photography

Hey, I'm john.

And I'm Becky.

And this is the we are for good podcast.

nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

So welcome to the good community, where nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Howdy, Becky, it's Friday, Friday is here. It's Friday,

it's EGC, Part three week, and we are talking about our favorite topic and our favorite component of our favorite topic. It's like my birthday.

So if that's too many acronyms and too many code words for you, this is our third week of our employee giving campaign series. And we are diving into campaign brand, like one of our favorite topics. And that's going to encompass all things visual, verbal, all the things

we're marketers, we love everything about the marketing process. But we recognize that not everybody I'm in nonprofit understands the core tenants. And I have to tell you, most people probably think that branding is a logo. And we're here to tell you, it is so much more.

And it can totally help you in fundraising because we're marketers disguised as fundraiser we are, which means we are going to leverage and teach you today, everything we know not everything we know, but at least a good

25 minutes of what we know on this topic

of using the power of branding, to connect with your donor base and your future donors and tell a story like you've never told before. Okay, so let me quote one of our favorite beeps that we don't really know in real life, but we hope to someday, Seth Godin. And if you haven't read his book, this is marketing, go ahead and pick it up. It's so cute to it. So I need one. Yep. But he says a brand is not what you say about you. It's what others say about you. And I think that that is a powerful thing, because we like to think that we're controlling this narrative, and that we're controlling all these pieces. And that's creating this perception, when it's actually just the opposite. We can control what we can control. But at the end of the day, it's how it's received, how it's perceived, what people actually think is happening is reality for those around us and those donors and prospective donors. So we really need to lean into that. And I think this conversation, I know, we always are beating this drum always comes back to our core values. And I really, that's where I'd love to take this conversation is because if you listen to Episode One of this series, just a couple episodes back, we talked about how the values have to be threaded through your campaign. And if you are essential to core value number one, everyone matters, then you are bought in at a very core level, that you want to tell the story of every one of the people that are going to be part of this. So it's no longer about you. It's about the people that make this campaign. And when you when you start to reflect that back in a different way. It changes the narrative completely.

And I don't want to use SERP and say that ethos is not as important as branding, because to me, they're completely interchangeable. But I'm just here to say that you can build the most incredible structure of a campaign, you could have the most beautiful marketing materials. But if you don't have the heart and the soul of your campaign, baked into your branding, into your voice into your storytelling, it's just a campaign. And what we're saying today is we don't want you to just build an employee giving campaign, we want you to build a movement. And if you can make believers out of your employees, these people who are front frontline, you know, to your mission, working in the space every day seeing the miracles within the wall, I am telling you that it is going to create something that's experiential, and it's going to launch you into a philanthropic movement that you could have never perceived. So love this topic cannot wait to dive in.

So where do we dive in? I think the best place to start and you know, we're talking about employee giving, however, I really want to put this lens that if you don't have if you're not activating an employee campaign, think of this as a movement that you're building because the same principles apply here. The first one is seek to disrupt. And I want to you know, double click on this or double tap in the day of I

was just thinking I want to put some emoji clapping hands on that fit phrase seek to disrupt

because your number one place to start is understanding the landscape of what people are looking at, and where there's digging, you need to zag. Now I'm not saying you have to sit down and do a full on SWOT analysis, although probably wouldn't be a bad idea. True, but just look there's a reason why targets red and happy and Walmart is blue and they try to be happy. Right? There's a reason why you walk in and you have a certain feel when you go into target. versus Walmart, and I'm not hating on Walmart, it's just a different feel. It's

Taco Bell and chick fil a, it's like you go to chick fil a, there are flowers on the table, they're telling you, it's my pleasure, the experience is different. And

the customers feel differently as a result. And that's what we're trying to create here. So when you're trying to disrupt, and we're looking at this, from a branding point of view, you want to look around, and if we're looking at an employee campaign, it's fairly easy to probably make a list of what other internal campaigns are happening. You know, there may be a few community organizations that come in throughout the year to run a campaign, there may be some campaigns by HR to update your address or whatever maybe they're doing, get immunizations, or whatever those kind of campaigns may be. So look at those and seek to be different. And I think we always crack up at this, especially in healthcare and higher ed, I hate to always pick on you guys, but just being warm, just being human, and just using real people is probably gonna set you apart. That's disruptive. Isn't it? Funny that that makes you disruptive? Yeah, but it's true. And what do I mean by that is where there's a chance to humanize. And we talk about this all the time is, is simplify humanize tell a great story, anywhere where you can humanize your campaign, your movement, that's gonna set you apart if every other, you know, campaign is using a stock photo, and they're using real corporate e type language, this is your chance to be conversational, and to use faces that people know and appreciate, and make it fun, you know, like maybe set it up differently than what people are expecting to see.

And then you create a completely distinct point of view. When you do that, the this the campaign feels like a special moment in time. And people are curious because it will make you pause and stopping your steps. If you see something that's radically different than everything else that comes through your inbox, that's in all of your elevators, or in your cafeteria, wherever you gather. And so we want to talk about how you control the controllables. And so these are the components of a campaign. And john, I wonder if you want to dive in, because you are the branding King, when it comes to naming your campaign,

not picking at all, but happy to discuss this because I love this. And I think this is part of setting the tone for how your campaigns going to really endear themselves to people because you want it to feel like something that they have ownership of. And I think an employee campaign is unique in that, because people feel a lot of pride when they participate. And so if you create a brand that they can associate that they want to associate with, it becomes something that they just obviously want to carve out money to invest in, they want to be it to be part of their story. And that's what you're going for. So even when you're naming your campaign is the first thing I want to talk through, is you want it to be something that invites people into the story. So don't make it so sterile, make it something that's human, you know, invite people into the campaign with that, when you name something, it seems to be something that people can identify. So it's shorter is always better, something that stands apart is always better.

Is there something in your core values? Are there certain words that people could lift up? If I were saying if I saw a campaign that said achieving excellence, those are like empty vessel words to

asleep between the words achieving an X, okay,

great wake back up, because I'm going to bring a little bit more color to it. Because that's the point there could be keywords and your values and your mission and your vision. There could be just fun, whimsical parts of your organization that are infused into the culture, you know, and make it fun, make it interesting, and again, to John's point, make it something that feels personal that somebody could hitch their wagon to

Absolutely. The second one I want to dive into is photography. And I start with photography, because especially in today's world, the visual aspect of your campaign graphics are not what what's ultimately going to connect with people, people connect with people. And so investing in your photography is probably the best hack that I can impart on you. You have you're running a campaign that you're trying to get a certain group of people involved with an employee campaign. So use those people, you know, use relatable people that are, you know, people that are just your average everyday person at your organization. We're not saying line up the CEO in their suit, grinning at the camera. I'm saying, find a person that is Beloved, find a person that's been there a really long time find somebody that's just relatable as heck are kind of the mama bear of the group. That's the type of person that if you take a photo that's humanized of that person, not only using real faces makes it relatable, but it also secretly shows that they're endorsing the campaign and not saying be tricky about that. I mean, obviously you're telling them what this is for, but when you use the power of real people, and you invest a little bit too To get great photography, I promise you immediately This is going to set you apart, people are going to talk about it, people are going to share it, people are going to hang it up in their office if they know them. And just all of those extra things that you get just as a bonus, you know, before we even have talked about getting organized around how to spread it. I love

that. And even just thinking about the power of one person being featured in a photo in their network, their supporters, their friends, you already have the entire segment of that group bought in by virtue of loving that person. And if you can kind of put that on steroids in the nicest way. And the the metaphorical way, you talk about putting 10 people in, that's 10 networks that we could have never gotten into without using that person as a conduit to our message.

It's absolutely right. And so just a hack for you is that you can spend less than $100 and set up a photo booth wherever you're at. Get a roll of paper, I'm not kidding, get on Amazon, or your local photography store, support local whenever you can. And you can find just a oversize roll of paper, get a color that stands out, john loves gray, roll this paper, put people in front of it and take photos and natural light. And let me tell you friends, just doing that you have an iconic look, you have an opportunity to run a ton of people through that and an opportunity put it close by where people you know, walk by or maybe congregate. Get a lot of people in a short amount of time. And all of a sudden you've got all these wonderful marketing images, Turn up the music, make it fun, make it engaging, get people laughing, dancing, smiling, joking, whatever it may be

talking about their passion and talking about what they love about the organization

100%. And that's all of a sudden, you have got a visual brand that didn't cost that much to execute, but it becomes iconic at your place.

And the thing I love the most about that is you don't have to find another brand next year or another theme. The theme is community. The theme is not Casino Royale it's not we're having a Hawaiian theme to our employee giving campaign. This is the theme and the theme is people and john has this great little example that He has given in the past where he says For $40, you can set up the visual of your campaign. With the backdrop we got a stool, we got a can of spray paint, and spray painted the stool white. And it's like the simplicity of someone even video walking onto that set. And the set is is literally a stool in a really powerful backdrop. And it's and it just frames the person as the most important thing. And there you go. You don't have to think up a new theme idea every single year,

totally. And then you can even take it up a notch. You know, we put graphics with what we called passions. And passions were just representative of the different areas that you could invest in

like so if you want to burn heart cancer, I think about something in higher ed, it could be college, a business, Student Affairs, graduates, yeah, scholarships, whatever it is research.

So we put those icons just on like little sticks. And people like gravitate towards these little icons. And it's hilarious. But that takes your photo booth to a different level, it gives you this opportunity for people to show off what they love, you can achieve this by people holding up signs about what they're they could fill in a blank or fill in a chalkboard or something like that. But truly keep it simple. If you if you're starting with little to no budget, just getting the photography of real people that are relatable sharing their story, that's where you want to go.

And the thing that I want to just impart with people is what we did not expect. And when we tied those passions to the campaign, it made it so personal to the employee donor, and the way that they owned that passion. And throughout the year was staggering and humbling. They would put it on things, you know, and of course, we would equip them naturally with things that they could use throughout the year and E signatures and bad drills and things like that that showed their passion. But the level of pride and ownership that they had in their passion year after year, made them show up for that Care Area more and more every year. It's amazing what a visual can do to tether someone to your mission. 100% Okay, so I want to dive a little bit into video. And I think this is an intimidating thing for a lot of people and we recognize that not everyone listening right now has a full scale videography department like we did at our healthcare institution, but I'm here to tell you, if you don't have in house or budgetary capabilities to getting video, that's okay. And actually I kind of love it. You know, we we love high end production. Of course we do. And I think everybody would probably gravitate toward that. But the wrongness of having an unedited iPhone video. There's something really powerful in that and for anyone that's ever looked at Tick Tock or even Anything on Facebook, it's like, there are powerful videos of testimony out there. And it doesn't have to be produced because it's about the words, and it's about the human. So remind yourself that we need to tell someone's story, we need to tell someone's story well, and it's entirely more powerful to have them share it themselves. And when you leverage video, you're able to capture things we could never capture. If we were writing down, you know, their story on their own, their body language, their tone of voice, their word choice, the way that they pause, it allows you to layer in music, or contextual words over the video. And by virtue of pulling all of that together, we are literally taking the end user on a journey along with them, and it's a very emotional journey. So use that video, take your $40 set up, grab your iPhone if you need to. I mean, we are literally videotaping this conversation right now via iPhones that is going on YouTube. It can be done and we're here to cheer you on and tell you it can be done cheaply and easily.

Taken 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. Suddenly virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org Follow the link in our show notes. Okay, that's the perfect segue to talk about online. And here's what I really want to say here is that your employee giving campaign can be the base for your annual giving campaign Say

it again, that is so important. I need everybody to hear that again.

Okay. Your employee giving campaign can be the base for your annual giving campaign,

working smarter, not harder.

So you're creating this incredible movement, you're trying to get people connected to their story, we're building believers, why would we go and recreate the wheel in trying to talk outside of our walls, and to be able to say, we have 1000 donors that are our employees that are invested in this mission? What a powerful testimony to take to the community. So it blows my mind that there's so much of this happening behind the internet wall, behind in the secret places of a quarter of a big, you know, organization, talk about your employee giving outside of the campaign and doing it online, is the best way to do that people want to see the investment of the people that work there. And this is a beautiful way to do it.

And it's about creating shareable content. We don't want to just keep this story, you know, within our walls to your point, john, we want to push it out. Because if this is the base of our story, and giving starts at home giving starts with the family, we began to take that story and invite others to come in and join that movement. And that is the power of making sure that this is not within your own walls. This is simply the beginning. Okay,

this is a transition point, because I think we need to talk about voice. And we want to go deep here for a second. And I have to tell Becky this all the time, she has a natural gift of being able to pull story out of people, because I think that is really key to just creating Connect, connection and creating compelling content. And so we're really asking Becky to teach us your ways, and how you can really create compelling content by just drawing stories out in people. And so here's a little mini masterclass.

Oh, I don't know that it's a masterclass. But I will just say that my favorite thing in the world is hearing someone's story. And I am so like work, like laser focused in on an individual when they show up, they are brave enough to share components of their story with me. And so if you can kind of just set your mind mentally as you walk into these interviews, by being human, opening up your heart in your ears at the exact same time, knowing that whatever script you're bringing into this situation does not have to go line by line through your script, you may not even ask all of the questions on your script. Because if you are totally in tune to who you are visiting with, then you're going to know that the conversation is going to be fluid. And it's going to take some pivots by virtue of what they tell you that is going to be unexpected, that's going to be entirely heartfelt and honestly very compelling. So So here's a question for everybody that's listening. How would you define your organization's voice today? When you get communications from your organization? How does it feel? How would you describe that voice? If it's formal or cold, or just very buttoned up politically correct, man Do you have an opportunity with your employee giving campaign, and that is the place that we want to strive to be different and set ourselves apart. So let's simplify. Let's humanize, let's have a well paced story. Let's make it very simple. I'm going to say simple, every other word, make it selectively I ajijic activity. That's a word I just made up. Because I can remember so many times when I've been writing and nonprofit, I've had top brass, tell me to pull back the adverbs and adjectives. And I'm telling you, that is the part that brings color and emotion to this world, because we can actually create a story that has some vibrancy, some lights and some warmth. We want it to be poignant. And then we want to layer that story. So when you go into your campaign voice, you really have two different there's a fork and the way that you can tell this story. One level is high level campaign communication speak. And that is basically what is the campaign about that needs to be quick and poignant, simple. Again, you know, our campaign speak. And our key message was so simple it was Find your passion, consider giving there. That's it. And the amount was not even mentioned, we never had a goal, it was really about the act of giving. So that's step one with your voice. Step two, my favorite part is the testimonial. It's incredibly powerful, because there's something to be said about seeing someone that you have seen in the elevator, in maybe the cafeteria line, or wherever you all mingle within your organization, I understand there could be people that have five people in their organization, and they're like, oh, they're just around the corner. But if you have an organization that has some depth, and some bench, you kind of see a lot of these people throughout your day to day, but when they walk in, sit on that stool, and share their story, and we see them the real them for the first time. We all empathize, we're all brought to vulnerability. And when they place their heart, their heart on the line, and then they create a dotted line to why I give it crate creates a an instantly powerful movement of connection, and you feel drawn to them. And that is what we are trying to capture. And that is what we are trying to push out and make people want to be a part of that movement and that feeling.

And if I can just say cuz you've zoomed back, you know, rewind and listen to that a few times, because it's so good. But the core value of we're trying to grow believers, this is where I think so many people cheapen the experience, this is an opportunity to connect to people's hearts and purpose and passion. Because otherwise, it's a waste of effort to just try to get to some participation level. But if you can tell those type of stories, that's inviting people into a different level of philanthropy with you. And that level of engagement brings passion, and is a movement building type of activity.

Oh, 100%. And I just think that one of the common missteps people make when they go into interview, is how they they feel so prepared. And they and then a have done all their homework, and they have that list of questions, and we have a shot list of what we want to get. And that takes away from the experience. And you probably wouldn't have a question on there that says, How did that make you feel? You know, and maybe you do, but, you know, when you ask someone to share their story, and they get through the whole thing, and you say, How are you feeling in that moment, it creates this pause at where you're almost holding your breath, because you understand that what someone is about to share about this experience is going to be at an incredibly deep level. And so be open to pivoting to really hearing the person that you're talking to come in at with great honor and sanctity. I mean, those are big words. But I honestly think that that is the thing that will draw people in, and it will empower others to want to share their story too. So we got to transition into storytelling. Storytelling is the heart of connecting prospective donors to your campaign, that can be in the written form. It can be in photo to John's point, it can be in video, it's whatever medium they want to ensure that our existing donors are reminded about the reasons they choose to give to us. So we talk a lot about mom's kitchen table. And that's the space we're trying to create when we want to sit down. It's almost like having a mug of coffee and just talking with your friend. So how do we recreate that safety, that intimacy, that empathy, that connection, because everything is going to flow down from that. So we would be completely remiss if we did not tell a story of an employee who was at our former organization. And we're not going to share her name because we want to keep that confidential but she was an incredible woman who worked in the IT department. She had a very personal story as it related to breast cancer. And we went to her because we had been recommended her name buys at one of these beloved employee leaders who was in the organization. And we said, Would you consider sharing that story in a way that would connect people to what the experiences was like for you and your family. And I think that she was a little cautious in the beginning. And I remember her walking onto the set and, and just kind of looking around and being a little nervous. And so we did some warm up questions. And she told her story. And it was a beautiful story of, of overcoming the spear that she had and resiliency and how it helped her family kind of grow together. Well, we took that story, we infused it into the campaign, and all of a sudden, she feels like a rock star. Because every you know, 1000s of people are starting to watch the story. They're watching it play out, people are coming up to her in her cubicle and sharing personal stories and their family as it related to that. And we watched her open up like a little flower. And I remember seeing this in the interview, the more we talked, the more we cared about her, the more she could feel that we cared about this being a wonderful experience for her, the story got richer. And then once it was lat launched, the affirmation that she received, made her empowered. And so from that moment, I think that was year two or three of our campaign, she became a rabid fan. And she would go out and kind of just laud the campaign, and galvanize support from all kinds of people that she knew because she believed in the power of it. And so storytelling isn't just a conduit to philanthropy. I think storytelling can also be a conduit to volunteerism, to ambassadorship to advocacy, it has so many layers, please do it well,

and by creating a brand that people can plug their story into. It created this engagement with her that lasted for years, and honestly lit a fire in the IT department. I remember just seeing so many people stepping into the campaign that had never stepped forward and

supportive her and in support of the cancer passion area it whether they had a connection to it or not, they were being a support to her. And that is where community can really be everything in this campaign.

Okay, so how do we sum this up? I feel like there are some challenges to take action today.

Okay, so here's some questions we want you to ponder. Going back to last week's challenge. Have you shared your story yet? Have you shared that in a way that's public? It doesn't have to be on a stage in front of hundreds of people, it could just be with one other individual, it could be in a staff meeting. That's the first one to ask yourself, how have we brought people to love our mission? Have we been storytelling well, leading up to this campaign? How are we going to take those stories and infuse them in everything that we do? And the last one, Have you listened to somebody else's story? Have you asked them to share it. And I'm just here to tell you there is power in giving someone a microphone, and allowing them to say it in their own words at their own pace with their own tenor. So those are three quick things that you can do today. And those will set up and tee up your employee giving campaign in a way that will humanize inspire and build believers.

Well, but he's put together a really awesome list if you want to sit down and interview somebody and really flex this muscle and grow this muscle of just how to pull story out of people. And so we'll drop that in the show notes. You can grab it, it's seven interview questions. But please don't miss the forest for the trees of that. The core of it is yes, this is the best laid plan of questions. But listen, because what's going to be said could take you to a place that you didn't even see coming that could be the most poignant moment of connection, empathy building and storytelling. That was never planned for it just happened. And I think that's where the best come from.

So have we changed your mind about what a campaign campaign brand is? Think about your all of it, your voice, your storytelling, your visuals, your multi channel, all of it goes into building this incredible movement that will lead to not only the dollars coming in which we can guarantee will come in, but the movements that you are going to make that will be cultural, impacting culture impacting and just humanizing the base of people who work on the frontlines of your mission.

Because after all, the brand is what they say it is.

Way to tie it back. That was really smart. Thanks for listening,

friends.

Thanks for listening to today's conversation around the branding and voice of your campaigns. Don't miss the seven interview questions to humanize a story freebie in 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 missions than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community it's free and you can join today at we are for goods comm backslash Hello One more thing if you loved 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. Boom. Have a great week, everyone.