Fundraisers as Salespeople? Three voices on the similarities and differences between fundraising and sales.

Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate Got plans for National Estate Planning Awareness Week?

Answers on Grant Proposals (If nonprofits were brutally honest!)

The Business Side of Charity

Businessman Bob Madonna was itching for a chance to take

what he had learned about sales and marketing and try it

in the nonprofit sector.

SEPTEMBER 2018

GIVING TOMORROW SEPTEMBER 2018 | 3

4 From the CEO The Queen of Soul didn't have a will

5 Editor’s Note Two helpful questions

6 Your Voice Fundraising as sales?

7 Survey Says Does your boss help or hinder your planned giving efforts?

15 Technical Toolbox The Goldilocks Rule

16 Q and A With a Porsche salesman Roland Schwagerl

20 Good to Know Numbers that make you go hmm...

21 Ask the Expert CRUTs, CRATs and 529s

22 Call To Action Six action steps for September

8 National Estate Planning Awareness Week Are you ready?

10 Cover Story What happens when you run a nonprofit with business savvy

14 The Planned Giving Newsletter Yea or nay?

18 Screen Door Conversations When you're just about to leave and the donor brings up that acreage on the lake ...

19 Answers on Grant Proposals (If nonprofits were brutally honest!)

IN EVERY ISSUE FEATURES THIS MONTH

10 1815

TABLE OF CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 2018

Planned Giving. Yesterday. by Viken Mikaelian

You know me—I’m all about planned giving, tomorrow. I focus on gifts that come tomorrow (although the benefits to the giver are immediate). What about planned giving yesterday, though? Where did this concept of deferred giving originate?

Read the rest at www.planned.gifts/yesterday

FROM THE BLOG

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GROUND Breaking studies

POWERFUL SEARCH. VALIDATE. TARGET

ACCURATE. ACTIONABLE DATA. THE NATION'S LARGEST

CHARITABLE GIVING DATABASE

MAJOR PROSPECTS DYNAMIC SEARCH TECHNOLOGY MAPS

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8

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page 22

10 | GIVING TOMORROW

The Business Side of Charity BY KAREN MARTIN

Bob Madonna and his first wife wanted children. When they learned they couldn’t conceive naturally, they

decided to adopt. But where to begin? It was 1980, pre-Internet.

Eventually they found a support group that helped couples adopt, but the process was difficult. Too difficult, it seemed to Bob. With such a great need, for birth mothers and hopeful adoptive parents, it seemed to him there should be more and better resources.

Bob met up with a man who was trying to start a nonprofit to facilitate adoptions. They recruited a few friends and pooled their money. They put up billboards near train trestles in the Philadelphia area advertising free housing and medical care for birth mothers who wanted to place their children for adoption.

“We were business people,” says Bob. “We did what we knew how to do—advertise.”

And it worked. Within three years Golden Cradle Adoption had grown to be one of the most successful adoption agencies in the United States. It was featured on Good Morning America and 60 Minutes.

Bob took a few things away from the experience that would stick with him for life:

First, and most importantly, two chil-dren—Ryan and Mandy, now in their 30s.

Second, says Bob, “The experience taught me ‘wow—you really can make a difference in the world.’ ”

Third, Bob realized that business princi-ples he was using every day in his job could also have great results for charity.

From Businessman to Board MemberBob’s career began on a bottom rung at Bell Atlantic, which eventually became Verizon.

“I was the Italian kid with minimal education,” he says.

But he studied the company’s organiza-tional charts and soon knew just about everyone’s name in the Pennsylvania division of the company. He started a football pool

that became popular with the executives in his building.

“I started making friends with the people who were being promoted so I could understand what they were doing right.”

One day, his boss pulled him aside. “He told me I had a lot of potential and encour-aged me to drop the pool and go back to college and get my Bachelors degree. I took his advice.”

After school, Bob’s career took off. He was promoted several times, advancing on a fast track from a vocational position to manager. After 10 years of moving up within the engineering department, Bob took a job in marketing and continued his upward motion in the company.

In addition to a successful career, Bell Atlantic gave Bob something else: a passion

for volunteering in his community. Bell expected their employees to volunteer on one of the company’s community relations teams. Bob loved it.

By 2001 Bob had left the corporate world, remarried, and started a company from scratch. His business took off, and he was approaching a stage in life when he could start thinking about a comfortable retirement.

And yet, he says, “I always had this yen to apply what I learned in sales and marketing to the nonprofit world.”

Bob and Deborah celebrated 18 years of marriage last month.

Bob Madonna and Surrey members in Media, PA. Clockwise from left: Edna, Teresa and Kay.

COVER STORY

“I always had this yen to apply what I learned in sales and marketing to the nonprofit world.”

GIVING TOMORROW SEPTEMBER 2018 | 11

Bob Madonna and Surrey members in Media, PA. Clockwise from left: Edna, Teresa and Kay.

The Way We Think About Charity is Dead WrongHighlights from Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk: Uncharitable

We have two rulebooks. We have one for the nonprofit sector, and one for the rest of the economic world. It discriminates against the nonprofit sector in five areas:

1. CompensationIn the for-profit sector, the more value you produce, the more money you can make. But we don't like nonprofits to use money to incentivize people to produce more in social service.

2. Advertising and marketingWe tell the for-profit sector, "Spend, spend, spend on advertising, until the last dollar no longer produces a penny of value." But we don't like to see our donations spent on advertising in charity.

3. Risk takingNonprofits are reluctant to attempt any brave, daring, giant-scale new fundraising endeavors, for fear that if the thing fails, their reputations will be dragged through the mud. Well, you and I know when you prohibit failure, you kill innovation.

4. TimeAmazon went for six years without returning any profit to investors, and people had patience. They knew there was a long-term objective down the line. If a nonprofit organization ever had a dream of building magnificent scale that required that for six years, no money was going to go to the needy, we would expect a crucifixion.

5. Profit The for-profit sector can pay people profits in order to attract their capital for their new ideas, but you can’t pay profits in a nonprofit sector, so the for-profit sector has a lock on the multi-trillion-dollar capital markets, and the nonprofit sector is starved for growth and risk and idea capital. •

He missed the nonprofit world and being connected to the community, so he began volunteering on local nonprofit boards. Over the next 15 years or so, he would serve on nine different boards. He also began inter-viewing for nonprofit CEO positions.

“I was always the number two person,” he says. “I was the business guy, the outsider. I always lost out to ‘mission people’—folks who had been in the nonprofit world all their lives.”

Then in January 2016, after six months of interviewing and role-playing, a nonprofit gave the business guy a chance. Bob was appointed to be the new President and CEO of Surrey Services for Seniors, a nonprofit in the Philadelphia area that helps older adults continue to live as as engaged members of the community.

Screaming for the ElderlyAll Bob’s nonprofit experience up to that point had been working with children. Now, as the head guy for a senior services organiza-

12 | GIVING TOMORROW

tion, he found himself facing a learning curve. “The only thing I knew about aging is that I

was getting old!” What he learned in those early days on the

job quickly turned him into an advocate for older people—in particular, older people who are at risk of leading isolated lives. A third of Americans over 65 live alone; half of people over 85 live alone.

“When people can't drive they’re isolated. A lot of times people don't have family in the area. They’re totally by themselves.”

He cites some sobering statistics: • The highest rate of successful suicides

is men over 75.• Isolation significantly increases the risk

of heart disease and stroke.• Loneliness can accelerate cognitive

decline in older adults. • Isolated individuals are twice as likely

to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions.

“Every other group of people are so strong in their advocacy, screaming for their rights,” says Bob. “Nobody screams for the elderly.”-Bob considers it his #1 job as CEO to be a voice for the elderly and for Surrey Services. He does at least one public talk every week.

“In successful nonprofits, the leader is visible. People know who he or she is,” says Bob. “I hire people to do the work, then my job is to get out there and make it easier for them. I’ll talk to anybody. It’s not about me... it’s for Surrey.”

Nonprofit Innovation One of the first things Bob did as the new CEO was ask all the board members of Surrey Services to watch Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk, “Uncharitable.”

In the talk, which has been viewed by 4.5 million people, Pallotta calls for more freedom for nonprofits to take bigger risks—on par with what is expected from businesses.

If charities are to solve the world’s greatest social problems, he says, they must have the space to dream big, spend money and take risks.

Bob loves the Pallotta approach. And at last he has his chance to test out business and sales strategies in the nonprofit world. Bob talks about—and embraces—the “six dirty words” in the nonprofit world—competition, marketing, collaboration, sales, risk and advertising.

Clockwise from left: Bob and his son Ryan with the Phillie Phanatic, mascot for the Philadelphia Phillies; Surrey staff (L to R) Steve Trubey, Caryn Fallon, Bob Madonna, Kathleen Sanger, Christina Wagoner, Christi Seidel, Vicki Weiss, Mary LePera; Bill, a driver for Surrey Services.

“I hire people to do the work, then my job is to get out there and make it easier for them. I’ll talk to anybody. It’s not about me... it’s for Surrey.”

GIVING TOMORROW SEPTEMBER 2018 | 13

CompetitionBob remembers passing out blank cards to his board members and asking them, “How many 501c3s do you think there are in our area?”

People wrote down their guesses: 1,000? 2,500? Maybe 4,000?

Then Bob revealed the correct answer: 43,700.

“If we have that many competitors all begging for money, we have to get above the fray!”

Marketing“Having a really good marketing person is just as important as a good development person. You have to have awareness first.”

The easiest marketing tactic, says Bob, is to go into a public setting and give a talk. “I’m asking all 23 board members to give one talk next year.”

CollaborationAt the same time he views other nonprofits in the area as competition for funding, Bob is also pursuing collaboration with them. Later this year he’s inviting various nonprofits to come together at Surrey and talk about how to work together.

“Let’s promote each other’s programs, create complementary services, make sure our galas don’t fall on the same date,” he says. “In the business world that’s why you have trade associations. That’s not customary in the nonprofit world.”

RiskOne of the things that attracted Bob to Surrey Services was how the board embraced the same “fail quickly” axiom that was encour-aged when Bob worked in the business sector. He was given freedom to try just about anything—and he has.

Bob decided to try a simple fundraising method that had been successful at another organization where he had served on the board. They put little coin banks at conve-nience stores and got a third of the change. It was a large metropolitan area, and it worked out great.

Bob thought he’d give it a try at Surrey. “I got a bunch of banks, distributed them all over. It failed.”

Bob put a lot of time and energy into another non-starter that really surprised him when it didn’t take off.

“I tried to make relationships with religious institutions in the area. I thought that would be natural. We could help drive their people around, get them to church on Sundays, etc. But it seemed like they were afraid if we did good will to their members, they’d stop giving there.”

The flops don’t bother Bob. “You can’t be afraid to try new things,” he says. •

Clockwise from left: Bob at a public speaking engagement; Ken, a volunteer in the Surrey café; Lady and her Surrey Home Care Services companion Margaret using the computer at Surrey in Devon, PA.

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