“Get On Board” Engagement Strategies and Toolkit

Tips to get your Board even more inspired in 2019 and beyond.

Welcome “A-Board” to The Big Payback Tips to inspire your Board more even more in 2020 and beyond.

• Organizations with an inspired and engaged Board raised 2-3 times more dollars on their giving day than those without

• Engaged Boards attended planning meetings/calls, sponsored a matching fund, became social media ambassadors with simple and specific goals and had their own fundraising pages

• Board members are historically the best mission and brand

ambassadors - they are the best advocates for rallying the troops

• Board members are the most contagious community champions for their organization and know the most inspired movements come from equal parts fundraising and friend-raising. As key partners, they help the organization stand out above the rest

• Board members SPEAK FROM THE HEART and know the message - they understand this is the key motivator for helping people give

WHY we ENGAGE

Putting the FUN back in FUNdraising 1) Share with your Board the opportunities which The Big Payback can provide:

• recruitment of new donors and volunteers • stretching into wider demographics • increasing online exposure • providing educational resources and opportunities • improving donor analytics • accomplishing matching dollars • winning potential prize money, etc.

2) Encourage your Board to share their own personal stories about what first connected them to the organization, why they give, and help them to craft an inspiring message accordingly

3) Build a team spirit and chance to get to know each other and the mission better with a weekly or bi-weekly series of updates about the team’s progress as we march towards The Big Payback, and create clear steps of how to get and stay involved

Be Intentional. Set Obtainable Goals For Your Superheroes

• As the team establishes The Big Payback campaign strategy

for your organization, determine the strengths of the Board and how they can fine-tune their skills to help in the most engaging manner

• Shape the significance of your message with crisp messaging and storytelling of the organization

• Be realistic in setting the standards for your own organization - perhaps it’s simply to recruit new social media followers or solidify the giving level of the Board to 100%

• Make simple and specific action items at the beginning of the planning process with important roles each will play in the overall campaign

• Know the signs of Board fatigue or exhaustion of having to overcome the anxiety of having to ask for one more favor of their networks. Allow them to share best practices and be accountable with each other. Share how to overcome challenges by playing to everyone’s special

Tips for Creating Significance in the Storytelling of the Organization

• Provokes active listening and team participation • Build the foundation of your organization’s big picture and

long-term goals • Provide context and clear calls to action for each member • Empower supporters to join in and be a part of the story and

connect to the greater good • Become even more significant in the digital era of short

attention spans- gets to the heart Know the History through the Founding Story

• What motivated the founders to envision and initiate this

organization? • What was the founders’ personal connection to the mission? • What was the problem the founders originally wanted to solve? • What was the corresponding solution to that problem? • When, where and how did the organization come to life?

Story Is King

Recognizing and appreciating the stories of the people Board members, volunteers, donors, sponsors, recipients of programming, the community, etc …

• Who is already on board and passionate about the organization? • How is the mission supported and valued by the work you do for the

community? • How are people connected to your mission? • Are you motivating future recruitment of people to follow in these

inspired footsteps?

Key takeaways of story

• Storytelling allows active participation in your mission, instead of just processing

• Asking for constituent testimonials helps prospects connect with your cause

• Story allows the recipients of your good work to be the true heroes in the journey, not the cause itself- which supports the greater good immeasurably and infinitely

… And Story Is Most Definitely Queen

… AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Important CHECKLIST for Initial Engagement of Your Board for The Big Payback

Invite the Board to a kickoff phone call (or meeting) specifically

about The Big Payback at least one month, if not before, the event

Provide regular updates at meetings or through correspondence and social media posts (for example, ‘Thursday Thoughtfulness for The Big Payback’)

Share any and all helpful resources with them (templates, graphics, stats, elevator pitches, simple messaging, best practices, prizes, etc.)

Prepare them to for individual / peer-to-peer fundraisers and social ambassadors

Help them shape their elevator pitches for the mission

Ask them to help the organization pre-publicize the event to help build anticipation leading up to The Big Payback

Intentionally and continually emphasize the importance of participation

We can’t do this without you!

“K.I.S.S. Them” Strategy Keep. It. Simple. Superstars.

Remember story is everything, and simplicity is the answer! Be specific with these four asks of your Board:

• Advocate for your organization’s involvement in The Big Payback

• Create an individual fundraising page at www.TheBigPayback.org • Serve as an ambassador • Be a sponsor of a matching gift (or help recruit additional

matching grants)

Building Grassroots Advocacy and Engagement for the Mission

THREE WAYS to Engage Potential Friends and Fundraisers to Your Campaign 1. Find your passionate supporters with big voices and strong personal connections to help with The Big Payback

• Board Members • Volunteers • Staff Members • Other Participants or Beneficiaries in the Organization • Friends and Family

2. Where Passion Hits the Road of Compassion

• Start Early: Educate your fundraisers about The Big Payback as early as possible. Gauge interest and involvement to understand how fundraisers like to engage

• Be Clear: Share your goals for the day and how they can help you reach them accordingly. Set expectations for your fundraisers so they know what to do

• Make It Easy: Provide a guide or sample content/template for your fundraisers to use. Set up a time to meet with them to boost their confidence for the campaign

• Remember to Have Fun: We are all in this together. Dream about how we are changing the world

Building Grassroots Advocacy and Engagement for the Mission

THREE WAYS to Engage Potential Friends and Fundraisers to Your Campaign

(continued) 3. Asking for Money Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

• Turn supporters into fundraisers allows individuals to make a deeper and more meaningful connection to the cause

• Allow for the supporters and fundraiser to speak to the work you do and why it matters

• Being an ambassador for your mission, having purpose and meaning with a cause is something important to most volunteers and donors of an organization

• Encourage fundraisers to thank their extended network of supporters and donors, thus building expanded grassroots support

Creating A Personal Fundraising Page Peer-to-Peer Impact or Person to Person Giving (P2P)

Board members can help make an exponential difference by finding

• New Donors • More Donors • More Funds Raised • Enhanced Social Engagement • Updated Contact Information

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising also allows

• Board members to create their own fundraising page tied to the organization’s The Big Payback campaign

• Board members to share personal involvement and connection to the cause with additional networks

• Board members to engage in incentivized and friendly peer-to-peer competition amongst the team to drive even more engagement

What Are The Benefits Peer-to-Peer Giving? We like to call it THE “R.E.S.T” MODEL

REACH: Expands your reach to a new network of potential donors by tapping into your Board member’s personal and professional communities ENGAGEMENT: Establishes more vested interest in your organization through active supporter participation and involvement STEWARDSHIP: Provides an unique opportunity to engage with existing supporters by sharing their personal connections in an exciting format TRUST: Highlights your existing connections with passionate supporters, allowing donors and partners to grow even more confident in your cause Of course, peer-to-peer fundraising doesn’t just REST on these four pillars. To be the BEST, you should create an opportunity for fun , friendly competition and social sharing during The Big Payback!

Game Changing Ways to Help Your Board and Volunteers Become Ambassadors for Good

There are a number of ways to change the world

1. Engaging the local business community for impact; Partnerships could include:

• Encouraging Board members and partners to reach out to other

prominent community members or business owners • Leveraging connections to secure donations, matching funds or

other promotional opportunities • Sponsoring a match for donors or their asking their employees

to donate or contribute • Providing discounted space, good or services for events being

held to celebrate The Big Payback • In exchange for their support, offer to add their logo and

website link to your individual Big Payback profile page and social media posts

• Partners and sponsors can get in on the fun by tracking results throughout the exciting online giving day

Game Changing Ways to Help Your Board and Volunteers

Become Ambassadors for Good There are a number of ways to change the world: (continued)

2. Inspiring support in new ways around a common cause; Ambassadors work for the good of the people. Some of the most successful campaigns for The Big Payback come through a community rallying behind ONE theme/ONE wish/ONE inspiring message. There are a number examples of this working brilliantly by:

• The whole community for the specific cause rallies behind a common theme of the campaign (a specific project that needs to be funded)

• The passion for helping people behind one wish or one message is that it has the chance to inspire many

• Some of the greatest fundraising comes through having beneficiaries of the cause making the ask

• Individual fundraising pages could be shared infinitely by friends, family and community members because the messaging behind the one singular, thematic campaign is easy and clear and concise, thus sharing goodwill to infinity and beyond

Game Changing Ways to Help Your Board and Volunteers

Become Ambassadors for Good There are a number of ways to change the world: (continued)

3. See your mission in action; Your Board members can host volunteer opportunities in advance of The Big Payback, to recruit funds and to build friends

• Highlights the spirit of your cause and your volunteers by offering opportunities to get involved in a more meaningful way and to volunteer with the organization for The Big Payback (make calls, collect prizes, motivate others, etc)

• Provides an opportunity to take photos and videos to tell

a deeper story in order to share on social media for those who can’t make it or participate in person the day of the 24-hour giving event

• Creates something tangible for your supporters to actually

see on the day that makes them feel you are making a difference and building magic for generations to come

Game Changing Ways to Help Your Board and Volunteers Become Ambassadors for Good There are a number of ways to change the world: (continued)

4. Social media motivation; Develop your own social media challenge to encourage online engagement for The Big Payback campaign. The important thing here is not just about giving but also about building marketing efforts and driving social media numbers AND attracting a new audience of donors, such as millennials.

• Ask your donors to engage with you and your team by using consistent hashtag(s) in order for you to easily track on social media and also to reach a larger audience: Examples include: #BigPayback #GivingMatters

• As social ambassadors, the big world becomes smaller, and big returns come.

• The goal is to honorably leverage your Board members’ social networks and encourage them to like and share your content as well as post their own. In a nutshell, explain to them how more funds can be raised exponentially by simply stretching and reaching larger audiences. As they say, “the wider the base,

the higher the pyramid!”

Game Changing Ways to Help Your Board and Volunteers Become Ambassadors for Good

There are a number of ways to change the world: ( social media continued) • Develop a plan for the Board members. Give them a month’s “marketing plan”

whenever possible. Don’t surprise them at the last minute to ask them to post information on their social networks. It’s true that social media mandates longer term memory loss, everything is sudden and swift! But put together a thoughtful campaign that would cover options for what to do five weeks out, then four weeks, then three, two, one and then the days immediately preceding the event. Planning will be your friend when it comes to a successful campaign with your Board and volunteers.

• Knowing the data is important. If you don’t have a strong social media reach for your nonprofit but a certain number of your key Board members do, let them run with the social media push for that day with your guidance. Create your target audience, both of close donors and friends but also while targeting new donors and prospects, AND GO FOR IT! No matter what, develop clear objectives about what thresholds you want to hit and how as a team you can work to create success. Where you are limited, fill the holes. Play into celebrating the success of other nonprofits that day too. We are all in this together.

Social Ambassadors Rule

• Encourage Board members to swap out Facebook cover photos with The Big Payback graphic from your toolkit or replace it with a shot from your organization’s approved photographs. It is helpful to create a template for the Board to use in an email and with social media. Many organizations post template imagery on Facebook in order for easy sharing. Images can be found on the Toolkit page at www.thebigpayback.org.

• Charitable drives of this type work best on Facebook. There is data to support that. Remind your Board not to forget Twitter and Instagram if they are users on those platforms. Be very specific and consistent with your instructions: post The Big Payback graphics on your social media networks three times in the month leading up to the event or post (or repost, retweet or regram) the information the provided at least twice in the week leading up to the event.

• Remind your organization’s Board and network of constituents that this

is a one day event and having all hands on deck is paramount to successful campaigns. It becomes critical to communicate with your constituents throughout the days leading up to The Big Payback but ESPECIALLY on the actual event day! The communication and success stories become contagious throughout the day, so being prepared with specific tasks and jobs for your Board and volunteers is key.

Encourage Board members and volunteers to share The Big Payback email signature line for all correspondence for 3-to-4 weeks prior. Research shows that more emails are sent (and read) on Wednesdays than any other day of the week. No matter the scheduled day of the event, encourage your Board members to send at least one email on the closest Wednesday to The Big Payback as possible!

Create a calling tree or encourage personal calls for the Board members and volunteers for two-to-three days leading up to the event. Avoid having duplicate calls. This is extremely personal and highly effective!

Not only are emails and personal calls effective, so are one-on-one breakfasts, lunches and

dinners or meetings. Board members could host a breakfast the week of The Big Payback to drive engagement and excitement. House parties and happy hours are also known to be successful fundraisers and friend-raisers.

Personal videos and testimonials from smart phone cameras can create instant gratification

as well. There are successful stories of campaign managers for The Big Payback utilizing videos with personal heartfelt stories. Poignant and passionate pleas from Board members and partners

make for plenty of giving on The Big Payback. Coach the team on clear, concise messaging with targeted goals …“Will you support me by giving $25 to my favorite

cause today?” Peer-to-peer giving is extremely successful.

Checklist for Social Butterflies

Tag, You’re It! Who doesn’t love a great game of tag?

Some nonprofits around the country who participate in similar one-day giving campaigns have had specific success in playing the game of TAG with their boards.

TALK ABOUT GIVING The Board member (or volunteer) makes a gift and tags another person (or five people for example) in their social media messaging to exponentially increase giving. It is effective and rallies the troops for a transformational day! “I was challenged and I gave!” This is the most overheard statement of how people started donating to ALS as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge - one of the most successful social media campaigns for philanthropy of the last ten years. Board members say this is fun and can start a trajectory of bringing new people into the life of the organization and very often starts a path of annual giving!

Creative Matches Big Creativity Leads to Big Paybacks

One of the most effective tools for The Big Payback is a sponsored match. Matching funds drive additional dollars directly to the cause. This “matching dollar for dollar” type of campaign works in a number of ways:

• Encourages Board members and friends to contribute financially through a sponsored matching donation

• Utilizes funds in order to motivate donors to have a much greater impact on the day

• Features the matching opportunity right on your organization’s profile for donors to automatically see their match and how it helps

• A simple graphic could be created such as “Board of Trustees Match The Big Payback Gifts! Our generous Board of Trustees has offered to match every dollar raised up to $5,000! Give today to make an exponential impact!”

• There can also be a graphic of the match and how much funding is remaining to receive the match: “$4,850 remaining against the $5,000 match! Please give generously!”

• You may also find a corporate partner who will contribute $1 for every like to a post including their logo or affiliation which adds new energy to social media.

The choices are endless!

The Big Day is Here During the actual 24 hours of giving for The Big Payback: • Encourage your Board members to make reminder calls and share

socially through their networks

• Send your Board reminder emails and updates throughout the day with specific calls to action

• Update them on any prizes or matches for your organization on the horizon

• Share your progress as much as possible throughout the 24 hour day of giving

• Remind your Board that 100% giving by the Board helps the organization apply for other grants throughout the year. Requests always require the percentage of Board giving to the organization. There is no better day to give and to remind the Board to give than on this very special day

• Motivate Board members to join you for any in-person events you create around the day

After The Big Day

• Thank your Board members for their help and hard work! Send them personalized notes, host an ice-cream party at the organization, celebrate them through social media, etc… YOU CANNOT THANK YOUR KEY CONSTITUENTS ENOUGH! Go overboard in your generous thanking process!

• Share insights to your campaign success with your team.

• Host a debrief conference call to break down what you’ve learned and to request immediate feedback on how it could have gone even better so that the organization is even more prepared for next year.

• Ask your Board to personally thank your donors, especially if they participated in personal giving requests and individual donor pages! Have them help acknowledge donors of any level and to make phone calls to bigger donors, or new donors to the campaign. For some organizations, the group meets for ten extra minutes after the next Board meeting to write personalized letters or notes to the donors of The Big Payback.

• Consider other new ideas such as creating a “New Member of the Year” award or “The Big Payback Bonus Player of the Year” award for the Board member or volunteer who knocked it out of the park!

YOU ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

And that’s a wrap folks! But first a few key takeaways to set up this year’s Board campaign to a rousing success! Some additional points to remember as you embark upon this epic journey… • Every nonprofit board is different and so are the ways and methods in

which each Board member may specifically participate and help the organization reach the targeted goals

• Educating your Board about the importance of THE BIG PAYBACK early on can make a BIG difference in your success

• Providing clear calls to action and steps for success will motivate your Board members to actively participate as you tell the stories of success for the organization for this day of giving AND throughout the year

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY! Visit our help center and support page at www.thebigpayback.org/

Send us an email to thebigpayback@cfmt.org Chat with a member of The Big Payback Team

whenever you have questions or need a hand at 615-321-4939.