In honour of Halloween, today I share a story of a bizarre act of corporate generosity.  The Hampton Hotels chain based in Memphis, Tennessee recently swooped in to the town of Roland, Manitoba (population 350) to fix its hallowed monument, a 1,500 pound pumpkin. If this sounds odd, imagine how the chairman of the Roland Pumpkin Fair felt when he received a phone call offering assistance in sprucing up the pumpkin and the grounds it sits on: at first he thought it was a prank call and almost hung up. No word on how Hampton Hotels found out about the need, but according to newspaper reports, the Great Roland Pumpkin was the 34th monument it has helped restore in North America since it began the Save-A-Landmark program in 2000. It's worth mentioning, there is only one Hampton Hotel in the entire province of Manitoba, and it is not near the town. All that remains of the five Hampton staff from Memphis who flew in to save the pumpkin from graffiti and the elements is a small plaque that verifies Roland's pumpkin as the largest in the world. The hotel chain's marketing director states "it's about figuring out places that are quirky and fun" moreso that what communities can do for them. A random act of kindness isn't that mysterious after all... please add to my bizarre gifts collection by commenting here!

Endorsing and promoting a code of professional conduct sends a valuable message to your staff, volunteers, donors and clients. To work most effectively, it has to be linked to your vision, and must clearly set out what the organization stands for and how staff and board members uphold it. One of my clients takes theirs a step further and asks each new person using their non-profit services to sign a code of conduct that will guide their consumer-service provider relationship. I think this is a brilliant, yet simple, method of demonstrating commitment and vision in action.

I have had the fortunate experience of working with many organizations who understood the value of corporate social responsibility and were able to connect the dots between employee and professional expectations, regulatory compliance, customer service, governance, transparency and community involvement. While the cynics out there can find fault with motivations, the fact of the matter is that many consumers do consider these factors when making decisions. Like your donors, consumers have power.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals recently updated their Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of Professional Practice to recognize the role of businesses, like mine, that support fundraising and the non-profit sector. As a member and a consultant, I am pleased to be able to say that I follow this internationally accepted standard. I especially like the introduction - and am looking forward to seeing the yet-to-be-released guidelines:

Members of AFP are motivated by an inner drive to improve the quality of life through the causes they serve. They serve the ideal of philanthropy, are committed to the preservation and enhancement of volunteerism; and hold stewardship of these concepts as the overriding direction of their professional life.

Like many painstakingly-created policies, the best communications opportunity lies in the explaining! You can build an entire communications plan around how to introduce your policy and where it could be emphasized and reinforced. After spending so much time on establishing it, take the time to properly introduce and continually bring it to life. Your efforts will pay off.

Did you know that most of what you "say" in person is communicated by your body language and tone rather than by the words you speak? This can be a little disheartening when rolling out an announcement or big news to a staff audience. In this month's e-newsletter I provide four steps to success to help get around this challenge. Given the wealth of statistics that show employees are looking for leadership and direction from their employers, and notably, their senior management, there is no time like the present to brush up communications within your organization. Here's the first step from the article. If you'd like to receive the e-newsletter you can sign up here.

Step 1. Fail to plan, plan to fail

Planning is a journey, not a destination. The simple act of planning will bring forward issues and ideas you hadn’t thought of.

· Start with your objective in mind – although obvious, it’s easy to forget. The first step to any strategic communication is defining your objective. Each message you deliver should have a specific audience and purpose.

· Make a list of all of your audiences

· Identify the role each group plays in your initiative – will they be go-to people for inquiries once the project starts? Are they a link in the chain? Do they just need to know, but won’t be directly involved? Are they responsible for training other staff and volunteers? This helps identify what information each group will need. This might even cause you to rethink timing or order of information to each group, for example, brief department leaders or go-to people first.

· Identify the issues or concerns for each group – anticipate any positive or negative reactions, and make sure you have answers for each. Remember the first question each person will have is, how will this affect me?

· Identify the action you’d like to inspire in each group – everyone needs to know his or her responsibility in the process and what you are asking each of them to do.

Do you think it's guilt? Peer pressure? Compassion? Pride? Sorrow? Or is it because you were asked, you had some money available, and you philosophically and emotionally responded? The reasons are as individual as each of us but there are some ground rules worth remembering. As we enter the time of year when  many charities prepare their year-end appeals it's a good time to get back to basics on motivating donors. What you have done the rest of the year to communicate with your donors goes a lot further to inspire giving than a few well-crafted appeal packages, so hopefully this is not one of the few times that you've connected with your donors this year. Direct response gurus can provide statistically proven tips and techniques that will help you take your direct mail to the next level in this science. But first and foremost, your message has to appeal and inspire and your goal is not the cheque but the relationship. Here are some interesting links that may help you with your brainstorming process. 

Alan Sharpe says There's No Such Thing as a Fundraising Letter

Mal Warwick gives you 23 Reasons Why People Respond to Fundraising Appeals

Ken Burnett looks at the bigger picture in How to be 15 minutes ahead

 

If your organization is sitting on the fence and investing less in developing your internal team and communicating with your staff and volunteers than externally focused endeavours, a recent study again demonstrates that the lowest hanging fruit can yield the best results. The study found that despite emphasizing the importance of people assets, a staggering amount of employees don't feel their organizations or their senior management are doing enough to help them become fully engaged and contribute to their organizations' success. Towers Perrin’s Global Workforce Study not only provides some international benchmarks and comparisons but also concludes the importance of senior leaders demonstrating ‘inspiration, vision and commitment’ and that employees want to work for a company that is seen as a leader. The bottom line of the survey? That the organization itself, and specifically, senior leadership, is the most powerful influencer of employee engagement beyond employees’ personal values and traits. Another recent post, released prior to the survey, on Duct Tape Marketing puts it in another perspective: that if you are not “marketing” to attract and keep staff, and balancing this with an earned reputation for vision and leadership, you’ll be forced to compete by price, or salary, alone. Well said!