Be Our Guest: Jeff Lindauer

Our latest guest is Jeff Lindauer, Associate Vice President for Development with the Indiana University Foundation. He oversees annual giving for 7 of IU's 8 campuses, development research, data & reporting services, prospect management, events, donor relations & stewardship and the Indiana University Student Foundation.

He is also an IU alum who found the profession as a Telefund student caller and manager. And per Jeff... "If I ever win the lottery, I might go back to Telefund part-time. . . I loved that job!"

Jeff also maintains the Getting Giving blog and provides consulting services to a variety of institutions.

Obviously Jeff has a lot on his plate... so many thanks to him for taking part - enjoy his answers and provide your thoughts on his comments and his question for the group.

What is the biggest challenge your fundraising efforts currently face?

I think our biggest challenge has been the internal effect of the economy on our budget. Our funding structure is based on endowment, which led to a series of budget cuts on the program side over the past few years and then a reduction in force that has us completely rethinking how we allocate our resources. That whole ‘more with less’ thing is a reality for most organizations these days.

What are you doing to overcome these challenges?

We had to make some tough decisions. Some very talented people at all levels are no longer with us. The rest (also talented) are working hard to fill in for those who were caught in the RIF because we still need to do our very best work. We have big goals, and they didn’t get smaller with our budget cuts.

We’re making the organizational changes we need, we’re being more efficient and where necessary we are reducing or eliminating aspects of our program that aren’t mission critical. This is allowing us to continue to invest in those that are. And we sure are looking forward to the eventual return of better economic conditions.

Our hope is that we can come out of these economic times as a leaner, stronger fundraising program poised to best use any new resources that will become available in the future.

What is the most successful change/program implementation you have made in your current role?

We have been combining some of our programs, literature and events to accomplish two goals: cut costs and tell our story more broadly. Whether this is a series of fundraising pieces or several smaller events focused on different giving societies, we are trying whenever it makes sense to combine our efforts.

This does NOT mean we don’t have targeted activities or messaging. It DOES mean that certain aspects of our program had become too entrepreneurial. Think silos. Different logos, different paper stock, different ‘trinkets’- you name it. Whenever we could identify overlap or the potential to realize economies of scale, we looked to see if we could accomplish our goals while combining our efforts. There is still much to be done, but progress is being made and we’re seeing a positive effect.

Where do you see social-media’s best application for fundraising?

Relationship building. I’ll admit that I read Brian’s post back in April and I couldn’t agree more with his answer to this question. Social media fundraising just isn’t here yet. Email is growing and someday it might eclipse everything else, but we’re still seeing annual giving programs driven by fundamentals.

Online giving is different than social media. Online giving is simply another payment/solicitation method. Much of the success in the online channel comes from other aspects of the program driving people to the web to make payment. Make a pledge? Pay it online. No stamps? Give online. Surfing the web and looking for information about us? While you’re here, make a gift.

Social media can help build the relationship and educate the world about the good work your nonprofit is doing. Making the ask is something different, and often those campaigns that have a root in social media (forward this tweet and go here to give) generate $5 and $10 donors. I’m not sure that’s the best route to a successful fundraising program in the long-term. I could start my usual rant about participation rate being the worst metric ever invented in the fundraising profession, but that just wear me out. (DTM note: Amen, Jeff... amen!)

Whenever possible, I recommend looking to other parts of the organization to run the social media efforts and then get in on the conversation when you can. If your marketing/alumni relations/other areas are running Facebook or Twitter, etc. why duplicate that effort by adding more Twitter and Facebook accounts? Instead, work with those areas to leverage the conversation that is already happening.

What book / blog / twitter feed would you suggest fundraisers pay attention to?

I think for personal development, I’d recommend almost anything by Seth Godin – but let’s start with his latest, Linchpin.

I’m a Disney fanatic, so I’ll also recommend Be Our Guest. It’s a Disney guide to customer service that everyone should read.

What question would you find most useful for readers to answer?

With text messaging/fundraising being a current hot topic, I’m looking for examples of institutions who have been able to generate significant gifts via texting while at the same time capturing the donor’s information (name/address/phone/etc.) to build a long-term relationship. I remain skeptical about text giving and won’t enter the texting world until I can figure out how to facilitate long-term loyalty and build that proverbial pipeline of major gift donors. If anyone has concrete examples of a campaign that has been able to effectively capture donor information after an initial text gift, I’d love to know more!

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