Why The Founder Institute?

By Darryl Rettig and Renee Zau, Co-founders, DonationMatch Pretty much everyone is familiar with the movie The Karate Kid. The short story is that the protagonist, Daniel, was new to an area and was bullied by a bunch a local kids while trying to win the heart of a girl. Into his life steps a handyman, Mr. Miyagi. He instructs Daniel to wash and wax his car, then paint various items around his house. Daniel doesn't see how these tasks relate to effectively fighting back, but does them reluctantly. At a critical point in the movie, Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that the tasks he performed were actually practice in disguise, not a waste of time. He was being taught the necessary tools of success.

Going through Founder Institute often reminded us of The Karate Kid. Our mentors and our facilitator Jeanine Jacobson played the role of Mr. Miyagi; and we (Darryl and Renee, co-founders of DonationMatch) were Daniel. Every week we had presentations to watch, pitches to give, and about 30 hours of homework. While reviewing the homework assignments we'd say to each other: "Don’t we already know this?" "How does all this busy work help us?" And sometimes, "This doesn’t apply to our situation." But while completing each assignment, we inevitably would discover some critical bit of information that could increase our chances of success. Every task had a valid takeaway, and we learned that some of our assumptions were completely wrong. Whether it was from interviewing our customers, completing a financial model, or meeting one-on-one with mentors, we made improvements that likely would never have happened, or would have come too late for our long term success.

In the end, with the tools taught at FI, DonationMatch will be a better product for our customers, a stronger organization financially, and ultimately a more successful company. As we apply these principles going forward, we certainly won’t have all the answers, but we at least we’ll have a better idea of the questions to ask. This is not only a win for us, it's a win for our customers.

Cause Marketing & March's Cause Conference

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatchThe American Marketing Association's Cause Marketing Conference returns on March 20th. I'll be there bright and early to get a front seat for this year's keynote speaker, the "mother of cause marketing" herself, Carol Cone, whom PR Week called “arguably the most powerful and visible figure in the world of cause branding.”

Besides the speakers who always leave you with notebooks full of must-do's, another great feature of the conference is the Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship, awarded to a San Diego County college student. It's not too late to apply (deadline is Friday, February 22nd)!

If you're not fortunate enough to visit us in San Diego next month, here are some experts I follow year-round:

Joe Waters of Selfish Giving: After watching the cause-related Super Bowl ads he posted on his blog, you really should check out his Pinterest boards. They're one of the largest collections of cause marketing campaigns and ideas I've seen.

Susan Hyatt, author of Strategy for Good: Susan looks at working with nonprofits from the angle of Corporate Social Responsbility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy. Incidentally, she is putting on her own Strategy for Good Summit from February 25 - March 1, 2013 that is available as a phone or web cast. No travel necessary!

David Hessekiel of Cause Marketing Forum: The Knowledge Center of the Cause Marketing Forum website is THE place to start finding stats and develop a thorough basic knowledge of cause marketing. And his Annual CMF Conference, held in Chicago May 29-30, is on my bucket list (no joke!).

Which cause marketing thought leaders do you follow?

Don't Burn Out Your Volunteers

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch The inevitable happened. I suspected it was a possibility, but it still took me by surprise. "I just don't think I have it in me." Just like that, my son's elementary school's annual fundraiser was cancelled.

This isn't the first time I've seen a leading volunteer burn out, nor will it be the last. Imagine how much work it is to organize the equivalent of a wedding every year, then DOUBLE it. That's how many hours the average charitable fundraising event takes to plan (about 600 hours!) This will drain even the most experienced volunteers year after year, and we found some advice on alleviating pain:

Get Help. "Auctions are best enjoyed – and planned – with others.... Believe it or not, a good number of your best volunteers may not even have personal ties to the nonprofit, but instead have ties to the auction chair!" - Sherry Truhlar, Red Apple Auctions, from "Five Steps to a Great Fundraising Auction"

Stop the (PTO) Drama. Tim Sullivan of PTO Today addressed this in a blog post where he acknowledged the difficulties of authority or leadership in volunteer situations. He tackled this head-on with several suggestions.

Show Appreciation. While your committees are already securing prizes for auctions and raffles, why not add an ask for volunteer gifts, too? I love that the San Diego Zoo does a raffle at each of their Food & Wine Celebration planning meetings. Another idea? The same companies providing goodies for event swag bags will also often be happy to include extras for volunteers. After all, they are potential customers, too, and a little goodwill goes a long way.

Value Their Time. This has more to do with the tools you provide. It could be an app, software, or updated equipment that can save MANY hours of work or headaches. New products to help with event fundraising are being introduced constantly, including Planana for event sharing and DonationMatch for in-kind donation procurement. The best ones will reduce repetitive tasks, increase sales, and/or stay organized (i.e. prevent busy people from being overwhelmed.)

What helps you stay motivated? What have you done to successfully retain volunteers? We'd love to know in the comments below!

What's Happening: DonationMatch Behind the Scenes

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch [Updated 2/24/14: We are in the process of creating a new poster, as we have now surpassed getting $2.69 Million in goods to 1,000+ schools and nonprofit events. Learn more about receiving these benefits for the organization your support at DonationMatch.com}

If you didn't know, we at DonationMatch are known as a bootstrapped startup. This means we are self-funded, a fairly new company, and believe SO MUCH in the need for our tools and solutions that we currently work for no pay. Our mission classifies us a social enterprise. We've also been called disruptive (not good if you're a student, but great in business) because we're making non-cash marketing easily available to any size business and bringing non-cash donation procurement for nonprofit events online.

We've been a 1.5-person show for almost two years. Starting on Monday, October 15th, it will be two (both) of us working on DonationMatch full-time, and we're as excited as can be!

How's it going so far? We measure our success by the value we bring to our DonationMatch members and our total impact. Take a look and tell us what you think:

"It's a no-brainer."

"This is an amazing tool to get your business out there."

"We have had so many donation matches already. Every single one achieved so quickly and at the mere click of a button."

"Our name, our brand and our products have been introduced to 1000’s of potential customers that may have never known we existed. And... we barely lifted a finger!”

What are our next steps? In a nutshell: getting down to business and learning. Figuring out what features make the most difference to you. What problems can we solve? What can we improve? How do you make your decisions? What companies (small, big, and in-between) do you want to refer to DonationMatch? We'd also love to expand beyond the San Diego market. Members, look for your phones to ring!

So, if you notice it getting quiet for a while on this blog, it's because we're focused on improving your experience and results. But please call or email us if you want to talk - we're here to listen and learn from you. And  be sure to look for new members the next time you're on DonationMatch--we love seeing new win-win exchanges happening!

TWO Chances to Meet DonationMatch in Person this Weekend!

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch We've been fortunate enough to be invited to share DonationMatch at two exciting events this weekend in San Diego - Women 2.0's Founder Friday and TEDxAmericasFinestCity!

Here's the scoop, and it's not too late to RSVP. We'd love to meet you!

Women 2.0 Founder Friday San Diego Friday, July 13th from 6-9pm Sponsored by Procopio Details and RSVP to attend: http://founderfridaysd071312.eventbrite.com/

Founder Friday is a Women 2.0 monthly networking event organized in partnership with like-minded organizations and individuals. Open to aspiring and current entrepreneurs, technologists and investors, it is free to those who attend (this is an open event for females and males) to network and connect. Please note that you must be 21 or older to attend this Founder Friday. They'll be checking IDs at the door, so come prepared!

TEDxAmericasFinestCity Saturday, July 14th from 11am-9pm Details and Tickets: http://tedxamericasfinestcity.com/tickets

TEDxAFC brings the spirit of the TED-like conference to the people of San Diego, California. The intellectual stimulation of a TED talk combined with the experiential engagement of a interactive-carnival. TEDxAFC will be your opportunity to see what is really going on around us as we explore (RE)united ideas from speakers around our community. With so many inspirational things happening in San Diego it is hard to see it all at once… until now.

The Demo Lounge where DonationMatch is exhibiting will be open from 10:30am-1pm and 3-4pm.

We hope you can come say hi to us here in San Diego, and thanks for all your participation and support. We are very excited about where DonationMatch is headed, how much more we can do for our members, and seeing you grow with us!

- Renee & Darryl, Co-founders

Coming Soon: A Fresh Look and Features for DonationMatch

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch You've told us how easy DonationMatch makes getting more customers and event donors, how much time we've saved you, and how great it feels to both give and receive.  We've taken your feedback and are excited to announce that added features and a new look are COMING SOON! Why are we letting you know BEFORE we do the upgrade?  Our site will be unavailable during this transition, and we want you to be able to plan any important DonationMatch account activity around it.  The exact date/time isn't set yet, but it could happen as early as this Friday evening, May 11th, and we'll announce it as soon as we know with an email, on Facebook, on Twitter, AND here on our blog.

Thanks for all your support, and we look forward to seeing you online at DonationMatch!

Are You Ready for an Event?

6 steps to determine if a fundraising event is what your organization really needs

Guest Post by Krista Berry, Owner & Principal Consultant at KB Consulting

I recently had the pleasure of working with a small, energetic non-profit organization that originally contacted me to plan their first fundraising event. Like any event management professional, my first step before diving into the planning elements was to conduct a needs assessment so I could better understand the job.

After my first conversation with the board of directors it was very clear to me that the organization wasn’t ready for a big fundraising event (yet). I discovered that, like many organizations, the event was their solution to raise funds to sustain programs and operations, but they had some critical planning that needed to be addressed first, so they were uncertain how to proceed. As a non-profit consultant, I quickly adjusted my role and recommended they take the time to organize a board planning session to prioritize what they should do and what they should NOT do this year.

While an event can be a great way for non-profits to fundraise, it’s imperative that younger organizations take the time to complete a needs assessment before they start planning a big event to avoid getting in over their head.

Now it’s your turn! Answer these 6 questions to determine if a fundraising event is feasible for your organization this year:

• Why? The purpose of the event – this will be the foundation for any future planning.

• What? The desired outcome of the event.

• Who? The scope of audience and demographic info on attendees.

• When?  The desired season, date, day and hour that event will take place.

• Where? The desired physical location of event including destination/geographical area.

• How?  The plan to accomplish all of the event elements above.

After I completed these steps with my client they realized that what the organization really needed was a few “friend-raiser” events to recruit more people to serve on their board of directors and to support the organization’s programming. This was a more realistic next step and is also more in line with their 2012 goals. The needs assessment combined with a board planning session helped them create clear objectives for the organization to achieve before they start planning their first fundraising event. And the ROI (return on investment) will be a successful, sustainable event that will continue to grow every year as the organization grows!

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Krista Berry, MS is the Owner & Principal Consultant at KB Consulting specializing in innovative events, workshops and capacity building solutions for non-profits and communities. She has over 10 years of non-profit experience in both San Diego and New York City.

In-Kind Partnerships with Nonprofits, Part 2

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch My last post on this topic focused on opportunities tied to nonprofit events. Although these typically offer the most immediate exposure, they are often seasonal. Here are some ideas for in-kind charitable partnerships year-round:

1. Be a venue for gatherings. You don't have to be a hotel or restaurant to have a desirable place. Spa Gregorie's Del Mar offers a board room for small get-togethers and meetings. Curves women's fitness centers often host meetings for Chambers of Commerce, Zumba fundraisers, and members' clubs. The Microsoft Store has raised the retail bar for community outreach with store space and free group trainings. Invite a nonprofit over and show them you're friendly!
2. Give tools and support. PopChips started snacking habits in offices all over town with case giveaways. Microsoft Store free trainings make sure their software is used well. DonationMatch co-hosted a fundraising auction workshop with Red Apple Auctions to help nonprofits run better fundraising events. Though not "flashy," free assistance can put you at the top of a nonprofit's go-to list.
3. Offer services or samples for a donation. By cross-promoting with nonprofits, Aveda sets up their store, complete with signage, to give mini treatments in exchange for a 100% charitable donation.
4. A portion of sales helps, too.Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes advertises FunRaisers that donate 15% of related receipts on given nights to nonprofit groups. Macy's gives $1 for every stamped letter to Santa deposited in special letter boxes in their stores to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Even if you can't give something outright, a percentage can be enough.
5. Offer your expertise. Nonprofits small and large are always looking for specific professional talent in their volunteers. It's become so popular that websites like CatchaFire and VolunteerMatch (not affiliated with DonationMatch) were created to make better volunteer connections.
6. Not a lot of time? Even simply recognizing synergy within your own circles of friends and making introductions can lead to phenomenal results.

What are your success stories?  Please share about the positive impact that charitable partnering has made on your business!

Related articles

• In-kind Partnerships With Nonprofits, Part I (donationmatch.wordpress.com)

We Need More Efficient and Effective Nonprofits, Not More

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch Why compete when you can work together? "At a time when nonprofit organizations are being pushed to greater program efficiencies, mergers, and other administrative economies, why do boomer entrepreneurs seem to think that starting millions of brand-new entities is the most effective way to make a societal contribution? Why can’t they work through existing organizations to start their creative new programs, improve existing ones, or concentrate resources instead of multiplying administrative and overhead costs?"

Read the article on Philanthropy.com

In-kind Partnerships With Nonprofits, Part I

By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch A question posed in a LinkedIn group made me reflect on how many (typically small) businesses don't know how to use cause marketing, specifically in-kind (non-cash) marketing, to their advantage.  If you have a great product or service, one experience is all you need to convert newbies into customers, even raving fans.  How do you get yourself in front of more potential customers without "paying" for it?

1. Donate a package or certificate toward an auction, a raffle, or goodie bags.  Most event attendees love these, and donors often get publicized both before and after the event.  Look at donation request letters as opportunities to get hundreds, even thousands, of eyeballs on your brand. You can do online searches for event calendars, ask your employees and customers about organizations they support, check out community boards, or use DonationMatch (my site) to save time (we make connecting with events, sending pre-filled donation forms, and gift certificate delivery paperless and quick.)  One more reason to like auctions: prize winners are the most willing and able to pay more for it than anyone else. You just found your best customer in the room!
2. Provide event amenities (photography, food/beverage, decor, spa treatments, etc). For a furniture dealer, it could be VIP seating. Chocolates are popular party favors. I've seen HP and a photographer partner to make ornaments from photos with Santa. And who wouldn't appreciate mini spa treatments or makeup touch-ups from a local beauty product store, spa, or beauty school?
3. Help spread the word.  Your communications reach is another asset companies tend to forget about.  Employees, customers, followers, subscribers... they count.  Be familiar with events you choose to promote, make them a good fit for your customers, volunteer if possible, and the added awareness can add to a charitable fundraiser's attendance and success just as much as any monetary donation.

These opportunities are all tied to nonprofit events, my favorite kind, but may be seasonal or harder to find.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post that gives more everyday ways to help in-kind.

Why not take one lunch break to reach out and explore possibilities with a particularly interesting local organization? And register on DonationMatch to be notified of event opportunities in your market - it's still free in many cities.  I (and your local organizations) will love hearing from you!

The Savvy Behind Outrageously Profitable Fundraising Auctions is coming to San Diego!

REGISTRATION IS OPEN! What better way to kick off our DonationMatch blog than to announce our  first local event!  In partnership with San Diego Association of Nonprofits, DonationMatch is honored to host Sherry Truhlar of Red Apple Auctions in beautiful San Diego on November 9th at 8:30 a.m.  She'll be bringing her award-winning expertise and experience on fundraising event and auction success to Neighborhood House Association's centrally located auditorium in Kearny Mesa.  Who should attend?  Volunteers of fundraising event committees, event planners, nonprofit development departments, business owners and managers who want an inside look at how your in-kind donations are promoted, and those interested in making more San Diego nonprofit industry connections.  There will also be a free opportunity drawing for all attendees.

Admission is just $10, complimentary for SANDAN members and DonationMatch registered users (including staff and active volunteers). Register today!