Building Fundraising Infrastructure for the North Dakota Center for Nursing

Building fundraising infrastructure for the North Dakota Center for Nursing.

Meeting Notes

December 9, 2014

3:00 – 4:30PM CST

Project Goal: Develop a global approach to integration of health care facilities and other donors into future funding strategies of the North Dakota Center for Nursing.

Meeting Start:3:03 PMMeeting Ended:4:13 PM

Participants: Evelyn Quigley, Chris Peterson, Nancy Johnson, Kyle Martin, Patricia Moulton, Beverly Peterson

Group Chair: Evelyn Quigley

1. Introductions:

1. Review notes from last meeting in November. No changes to the meeting notes from November. Nancy moved approval, Chris Peterson seconded the motion. The motion passed.

November Meeting Notes

1. Co-Chair for this group- Evelyn has agreed to continue as Co-chair. We need someone willing to serve with her.

1. Strategy: Participate in Giving Hearts Day.

• Create implementation plan for Giving Hearts Day which is February 12th. High promotion of the event. Aim for the video award and the greatest number of donor cities.

Marketing plan includes strategies for targeting past donors, leadership team members, board members and all nurses. What role for this committee?

Draft Marketing Plan

Draft Branding

Possible Video Template:

2014 Giving Hearts Day Donors

2014 Giving Hearts Day Materials

Group Discussion about marketing plan:

Need to make sure we emphasize that in order to receive our match we need to reach the $2,500 of $10 for all of our messages.

The group thought we should call all donors. Julie Baustad moved and Beverly seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Patricia and Kyle will email out board members a procedure, script and the numbers during Giving Hearts Day.

Group discussion about logo:

The group suggested that the tagline should be: Show your love for nursing. Support our ten efforts for nurses in 2015 for $10.

The group liked the second option for the logo with the heart substituting out the logo for the center as it makes it a special day.

Group discussion about video:

We will put together the video using a countdown template and will countdown the 10 initiatives.

The video will include pictures of 10 nurses with a piece of a paper with the Giving Hearts Day logo on it. Will put out a call for nurses to submit pictures of themselves with a piece of paper with the Giving Hearts Day logo at the bottom in the December enewsletter and in facebook and have submissions by January 10th. Hope to have photos of nurses from across the state. Would be a good way to get nurses engaged.

Julie will test this out with Kyle a week from today as she has a large staff meeting.

• Send out thank you cards, seek feedback from event. Engage board and leadership team in writing thank you notes.All of these are included in marketing plan.
• A strategy that was reviewed at the Training event was that they made calls to donors the day of the event. Maybe set a level- such as $50 and a procedure to maybe have board members/committee members ready to call on Giving Hearts Day. The training manual even includes a script. This resulted in repeat donations.
• Last year we sent cards to all donors afterwards. Still have some left.
• Customize Giving Hearts Day system to send a more robust email thank you directly after they donate.

1. Strategy: Continue Implementation of charitable strategy- start working on developing rest of strategy. Training Center

High Impact Fundraising Booklet

• Telling Your Story/Attracting Donors- Giving Hearts Day- we are going to a new website platform- good time to make changes in this page if we have any

Funding Page

The group liked the current funding page and thought it was easy to follow.

Donor Tracking Spreadsheet

Review the Next Gift Strategy- page 14- need to develop this program including a standardized receipt and thank you strategy.

The group discussed the need to have a standard thank you letter and end of year letter that includes all of their donations for the year.

Nancy will send copies of letters she has received to Patricia to utilize when she drafts ours.

Evelyn will send Patricia her copy of the end of year listing of donations that Patricia will use to draft one.

Patricia will send out both drafts to the group to look at and provide feedback.

January send out the end of year letter.

The group thought that we should have telephone calls to all donors by Patricia within 24-48 hours of the donation. This is what we will do during Giving Hearts Day too- but with board members and committee member assistance.

• Sustaining Donors- Page 16-20 in FundingLogic High Impact Fundraising Booklet

Review concept for sustaining donors- page 16

Initial steps for Sustaining Donors Development:

1. Create a case statement for the sustaining donors.
2. Develop a sustaining donors brochure.
3. Develop a sustaining donors welcome packet.
4. Develop a viable prospect list.
5. Conduct face-to-face visits with prospective donors.

Sustaining Donors would be asked to commit to an annual gift at a specific level that they cancel in writing and can do at any time- maximum gift of $1,000 (giving options could be $250, $500 or $1,000). This helps build a smart network of partners to establish predictable and compounding revenue stream.

We could focus more on this at the March meeting.

Important to have a clearly defined strategic direction- there might be something that would create a passion for donating.

• Raising Major Gifts- suggest developing some general procedures for when a donor has a desire to give a major gift- a passive program

• Planned Giving Program- suggest developing a passive program- so that this is an option. This could include putting information on how to do this on website.

• Meet with Funding Logic to gather feedback/assistance- Perhaps do this after we have developed our full plans next Spring?

Plan next meeting in March- focus on first two weeks of March for a meeting scheduler

2014-2015 Workplan: Group Meetings in August, October, December, March

Year/Annual Goal / Activities / Month
Responsible Person(s) / Activity Completion Status
Continue Implementation of charitable strategy. / Determine need for sponsorships for NDCN events and develop plan for obtaining sponsors. / August-September
Workgroup/Patricia / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Review status of implementation of charitable strategy for internal operations (telling your story and attracting donors) / August-September
Workgroup/Patricia / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Develop implementation plans for external operations (sustaining donors, raising major gifts and planned giving as needed). Start to implement targeted strategies. / October-June
Workgroup/Patricia / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Meet with Funding Logic to gather feedback/assistance. / August-June
Patricia/Group chair / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Apply to participate in Giving Hearts Day. / Complete application and attendee required training session. / October-November
Patricia/Kyle / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Create implementation plan for Giving Hearts Day which is February 12th. Develop plan for board involvement and the leadership team. / October – January
Patricia, Kyle and workgroup / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
High promotion of the event. Aim for the video award and the greatest number of donor cities. / January- February 12th
Kyle / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
Send out thank you cards, seek feedback from event. Engage board and leadership team in writing thank you notes. / February-May
Patricia / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
List donations on website. Develop recognition item/awards for those that donate TBD. / February-May / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%
2015-2016
Impact Nonprofit membership, charitable strategy, evaluate plan, Giving Hearts day