After two and a half days packed with brilliant speakers, inspiring sessions and lots of great opportunities for relationship building, AFP congress has come to an end. Despite the fact I returned to an abundance of messages in my inbox and a 'to-do' list that seems to have no end, I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on some of the things I took out of the last three days. Here are the 5 most valuable things that I learned at congress:
1. Don't use statistics - they are truly a waste of space. Focus instead on your case for support. This is what will inspire people to give you money and support your cause.
2. STOP evaluating charities based on their admin costs or costs of fundraising. These are efficiency measures, NOT effectiveness measures. Non-profits should be measured based on their impact. And please take the pie charts out of your donor communications because it is only perpetuating the problem.
3. Get to the roots of your story and make it about a beneficiary, NOT your mission statement. Tell stories in all your communications: print, phone, DM, it doesn't matter.
4. They secret to raising more money is to spend more money. You have to be willing to take risks, which will also mean making mistakes. The most successful organizations have made loads of mistakes but by doing so have found things that really work.
5. Stop talking about your charity! Talk about your cause. Spend your time talking about the reason why people support you... I guarantee it has very little to do with you, and a lot to do with the people/animals/environment you serve.
Hats of to Mark and the rest of the team for a remarkable three days. I'm thrilled I was able to be a part of it.
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