Each week I am planning to look at some of the stories and news that I found most interesting.  This space will include some sports, but not all of the sports stories that I normally follow in the areas of sports philanthropy, sports law, sports business, Jewish sports, concussions and otherwise.  If you want to see more of what I am following in those areas, let me know and I can point you to the best spots on my blog or various websites.  You will see that I love to find some of life’s little absurdities and point those out as well as other interesting stories that I follow.

MOTIVATIONAL IMAGES OF WEEK:

OTHER TOP IMAGES OF THE WEEK:

ROY’S RAMBLE:

• Buffalo Wild Wings.  I went to watch the Michigan State-Texas Tech game at Buffalo Wild Wings.  One of the few places now that has the sound on for the games.  Apparently BWW created new menus that the waiter said are supposed to remind you of a coaches clipboard.  Horrible idea. Very awkward and clumsy.   D-minus to the marketing staff.  Waiter said everyone hates them.

• Golf.      A friend treated me to the first round of golf we have played together in a few years. Beautiful day on Saturday and nice to be out there. We used to get in about 25 rounds a year together, but family and work seemed to get in the way the last couple of decades.  I always find some good things to laugh at on the golf course.  This day’s prime item was the way many golfers overestimate how far they can hit the ball.  We had a twosome in front of us that was waiting to hit until the group ahead of them was 300+ yards away.  I am not sure we saw either of them hit any ball 200 yards in the air. Most of them were dribblers or shanks.  On two par fives, they waited for the group to clear the green when they were at their tee shots—about 200 yards off the tee.  Still it is always great being out on the course even with clueless golfers.  I managed to scrape out a few pars and even knocked in a birdie. 

• Neuroplasticity training.              .               Last weekend I got certified in neuroplasticity training and will have more details and information for you about that service soon.  This will be a great benefit to so many organizations and so many individuals that could use the help getting their brain to function more efficiently.

• Cancelled meetings.      Many of us have busy schedules. We all recognize meetings get cancelled, rescheduled or arrivals may be delayed.  But it amazes me when someone fails to let you know that they won’t make a meeting until you email to confirm, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE OUT OF TOWN.   TWICE.  Hey, newsflash.  If you are out of town an hour before our meeting, you knew you were not going to make it that day.

• JT Foxx.  Until about a year ago, I had never heard of JT Foxx.  I attended one of his free events in Chicago last summer. He bills himself as The World’s #1 Wealth Coach.”  Though he comes across as cocky and though he can be hard on some of the attendees that he brings up for coaching, there can be no doubt about his work ethic.  He presents all around the world and opens up many of his events for free.  Having now attended my 4^th event of his, there can also be no doubt that he has some tremendous ideas and helps many people improve their lives.  He does it in a very different way to Tony Robbins, but the impact is very real.  You can read more details here.

• Fundraisers Forum.         Led by Rae Ringel, this was an outstanding event.  You read more details about it here, but if you work with non-profits or try to raise money, her presentations are fantastic and worth of a more detailed look.

• Vendor response. I am planning the Sports Philanthropy World Congress in August. As I was looking for venues for the event, I sent out emails inquiring about availability. It continues to amaze me how unresponsive many companies are, even when you are trying to give them business. One venue that was pitching me for business took over 10 days to provide any of the requested information via email (and even then, came back with only about half of what was requested). #VendorFail

• Final Four.           I hate seeing games decided by controversial endings.  The end of the Virginia/Auburn game was tremendous drama but the missed call on the double dribble will be questioned for a long time.  However, what about the missed grab before that?  Would that have cancelled the other missed call out?  The final call on the 3-point shot was the correct call and was explained very well by Gene Steratore.  He is one of the most articulate referees that we have seen on TV and continually provides great insight. This year’s tournament seems to have the largest collection of tight games that I have seen in many, many years.  It will be tough to top Virginia’s two improbably victories.

• Health Club Redux. You may have read my prior post about the 12 Most Absurd Things You See at the Health Club.” I may have to start a volume two. Today one elderly member kicked two teenagers out of the hot tub because they were not technically old enough, even though they were probably only a few months short of the age requirement. Mind you, plenty of space there. They were sitting quietly and talking.

One of the key elements to running a successful non-profit is the ability to raise funds.  But how do you do that in today’s competitive environment of fundraising?  Every donor is being reached multiple times per month seeking to get funds from them to support a myriad of worthy causes.

In speaking to many non-profits, we hear about these struggles, but we also hear some creative solutions and some interesting strategies.  So when we had the opportunity to participate in the Fundraisers Forum at the Spertus Museum in Chicago we jumped at the opportunity.

This third installment in the Fundraiser Forum series was led by Rae Ringel.  Rae has been a long-time trainer focusing on the best way to communicate with your organization’s donor base.   Rae provided some outstanding insight into how and why donors give.  While we cannot share her entire presentation with you, we would like to share some of the insights she gave us.

Rae took us through the process of how we ask for money, and why we tend to associate so many negative terms with fundraising, especially when we are doing great work to support terrific causes.

Among the many interesting facts she shared was the rapidly declining attention span in today’s world.  She pointed to the fact that 10 years ago, the average adult had an attention span of 12 minutes.  Now, that attention span has dwindled all the way down to 3 minutes.  So before you schedule a keynote speaker for a 30 minute time slot, beware!!

Each non-profit worker essentially serves three distinct roles:  1) Relationship builders/connectors; 2) Storytellers; and 3) Fundraisers.  She stressed that for every person, fundraising is a required part of the job description. 

As she transitioned into the substance of fundraising, she spoke about the importance of body language and posture and examined the reasons why we feel so uncomfortable asking people for money.  When Rae asked for the feelings associated with solicitation the responses consisted of:

• Anxiety
• Pressure
• Formal
• Transactional
• Phone
• Chutzpah
• Manipulation

Yet, when she asked for how the people felt about the cause they were raising money for, the results included:

• Pride
• Family
• Warmth
• Ethics
• Values
• Commitment

She helped the group transition the way they think and to consider themselves solicitors with the following traits:

• Relationship builder
• Enabler
• Advocate
• Educator
• Mission
• Connector
• Engagement
• Matchmaker
• Illuminary

Rae challenged us to take a new mindset around fundraising that consisted of: Leading, Empowering and Educating.  She recommended keeping these concepts in our minds as we went into a personal solicitation:

• I look forward to hearing what he/she cares about
• I am fortunate to have the opportunity to have this conversation with them
• I have the chance to make someone’s day
• I want to make them part of this success
• I can give other the opportunity to feel like they are a blessing to others

Before you get to the actual solicitation though, Rae emphasized that you have to know three things:  1) Yourself; 2) Your donor; and 3) Your product.

She recommended meeting in a donor’s space because you can learn so much about them from their home, office or other location in which they choose to host you.

Rae stressed the need to understand how credibility is established in relationships. She cited statistics that show that the factors which determine the credibility of another person are:

• 38% by voice tone and tempo
• 55% by body language
• 93% of building trust and credibility is communicated through the body and not through the words

Another interesting element of her presentation was the importance of asking open-ended questions like: What do you care about?” or What drives your giving?” or What’s Your Thing?”

She gave examples of how questions starting with Why” can sound more judgmental, as opposed to something along the lines of What compelled you to meet with me.”

Rae gave examples of how behind every complaint is an unarticulated request”.  This makes it even more important for the solicitor to ask the donor questions like What do you want?” or What do you need.”

She stressed that the most admired and respected leaders use conversations to enlist support and to get the people around them involved in creating a fundamentally new future.

She closed with the four elements of making a proper request:

1. What?saying exactly what you want
2. By When?Saying exactly when you want it
3. From Whom?Saying exactly from whom you want it
4. Conditions of Satisfaction?Saying exactly how you want it, stating your conditions of satisfaction.

Ultimately, the most important part of fundraising is to leave people in a good frame of mind.  Rae quoted Maya Angelou’s famous line I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

As you look around your fundraising strategies, we recommend having Rae present to your board or your stakeholders.  Her engaging presentations will provide them with great insight.  For more information about Rae, visit her website at www.ringelgroup.com

SMT Golf held a terrific promotional presentation at Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont, Illinois, on February 15, 2019.  Mike Tait does a terrific job of coming up with creative fundraising games and programs to help the organizations raise money for their particular causes. 

SMT runs over 300 events per year and Mike continues to come up with new ways to help the organizations secure more participation and make the events more fun for the golfers.

If you take a look at the specific games SMT puts together, you see that the organization can have a wide array of choices for their population. 

Over 50 event planners attended and were treated to a first-class lunch by Ruffled Feathers as they put out a great spread to showcase their event hosting capabilities.  Ruffled Feathers does a first class job at their events and you could easily see why it is a premier facility in the Chicago area.

If you are looking for innovative ideas for your golf event, SMT might have the answers.  While some may find the games gimmicky, only you can determine if they are a good fit for your golfing audience.  For your company outings and Chamber of Commerce type of events, I think their games fit pretty well.

However, if you host an event with a more serious contingent of golfers, their competitive spirit is unlikely to want to skip” playing several of the holes, even if the games provide the golfers with an artificially inflated scoring.

Most importantly, it is great to see golf season coming around the corner.  Winter has already been too long and we are anticipating even more snow ahead this coming week.