Answer:

In response to your question below:

 

The unit system is strictly for the balance of what you have to raise.

 

When you create your projected annual budget, you put in all projected expenses, (those expenses which may or may not be, you also put them in, taking worst case scenario) You then insert all projected Income, those you know you can rely upon, Membership, High Holidays, Tuition, Program participation etc. (those items of income which may or may not actually materialize you don't put in, again taking the worst case scenario) Once you know your total projected expense and your total projected income the balance or the "deficit" becomes your fundraising goal (you can add some more to that number and round it up to match the unit you would like to create)

 

The amount of the unit should be what you feel you can ask and get from most of your better donors, so a Shliach just starting out would set as a unit not more than $1,200. Being on Shlichus several years you can make that unit $1,500, more years on Shlichus you can bring it up to $1,800 and so on.

Your top 10 or so donors you will ask to give multiple units as many as 20, 15, 10 and slowly work your way down.

Answer:

Your question requires an in-depth understanding of how to deal with the million-dollar question, “how do I maximize my time and be most productive?” I’m going to give you a tip, rather than go into the depth of understanding how to allocate time to various projects and tasks and how to prioritize.

The tip:

Be goal oriented.

When you come in to your office in the morning and you feel overwhelmed with tasks: responding to emails, following up on phone calls, sending personal thank you letters, dealing with piled up mail which requires attention, scheduled meetings and more, usually this feeling causes you to waste a lot of time, because whatever you begin to do you feel there is still so much more to be done, your not sure if this is the right thing to do first and you end up moving from one thing to another and not really doing much to complete any of the items your dealing with rather touching upon items and not completing them and then jumping to another item and there again not completing that item, which becomes a vicious negative cycle, at the end of the day you feel you worked so hard and you’re not really sure what you accomplished because even those items you dealt with there is still so much left open-ended.

The best thing you can do in this situation is take a small piece of paper and write down several items you want to accomplish TODAY. It may not even be the highest level priority, but the mere fact that you will make a list of items to be done today and then you begin to do one at a time from A to Z make sure to finish it completely before moving to the next item, in no time will you feel in control and as a result you will most likely complete the list and then do some more.

 

Here is what I received recently:

Dear Rabbi Brod,

I recently heard a recorded lecture of yours about hatzlocho b'zman and found it extremely valuable and helpful. It is amazing how revolutionary such basic advice can be when it is expressed so clearly and decisively by someone who really gets it. Thank you.

Rabbi Yisroel Glick

Answer:

Fear can come from a number of reasons;

Lack of Skill,

Lack of confidence

Rejection, and more.

From my experience the greatest Fear Shluchim face (consciously or sub-consciously) is not knowing when to ask, how to ask and how much to ask, these are all items which if you prepare yourself properly in advance with a full plan for the year, after you created your budget, most of those items fade away:

1. You know when to ask, because your asking only once a year for an annual commitment, as such the larger the potential donor is the closer to the beginning of the new fiscal year you want to obtain his commitment for the year.


2. You know how much to ask because in your plan you identified all your potential donors and put reasonable amounts next to each as a set goal (this you did based on past giving, potential and relationship), How to ask becomes a little more complicated because even after you have your act together you still need to learn how to ask, my advice would be to read some books on salesmanship, take a Seminar on sales or the like, with time your experience becomes your best teacher on how to make a successful ask.

Read below what a Shliach writes to me on this subject.

Reb Yisroel, I’m sending you this email to thank you because your fundraising principles have made a big difference in my attitude towards fundraising. I started reading your articles in compass magazine, and the idea of an organized annual campaign resonated with me much more than going from program to program.

A friend of mine also quoted your ideas which kept you in the back of my mind. A few months ago, as I continued reading your column in the compass I decided that I was going to implement it and began creating a budget.

In the last few weeks I started calling and I’ve shown the presentation to several baalei battim, some who were already giving and some who I’d never met. So far, I’ve not received a single no. I’ve received commitments of about $6,000 more than I was already receiving from these people, with several more meetings already in the schedule. With a total annual budget of about $65,000, that’s quite significant!

The biggest miracle though, is that I actually picked up the phone and called. I never had the confidence to talk about money, even with people who I knew, Kal vchomer people whom I’ve never met. Now that I have this system, I won’t say it’s the easiest thing but I have the confidence knowing that my presentation speaks for itself. I’m not the one asking, the moisad is doing the ask. And for that I’m really grateful.

 

Rabbi Yosef Rivkin

Chabad of Red Rock

702-217-2170

Answer:

In response to your question below, I will try to address this matter which is of great importance to all Shluchim involved in raising money, because this is at the core or professional donor cultivation which is a pre-requisite to building long term relationships and growing donors gifts from year to year

My response is a general one, as there are always exceptions but here is the general approach worthwhile following, taking into account that you want it to be simplified:

Divide your entire list into three categories;

1. Mega potential donors - to be cultivated on a very personal 'retail' level.

2. Unit donors - to be cultivated frequently but on a more 'wholesale' level.

2. General mass donors - technical cultivation.

Detail:

1. Mega potential donors: are those who you keep an on-going personal, genuine and creative relationship. Making sure to activate one of the most important rules in general and specifically with professional  cultivation  "Always record your next step immediately" this has to be done religiously, consistently and with dedication of thought process, that's why we call it the 'retail' process. Usually this type of cultivation is done to just a few people, not more than 10 or so. 

2. Unit donors: these are your donors who contribute at least one (or half) a unit annually. They are to be cultivated with a system to keep them informed regularly of what you're up to, accomplishments, new goals etc. of course not to overdo it and NOT to send long text, but rather pictures and captions and thanking them for making all this possible. These regular emails should be done so the donor really feels it's a personal email and not a mass one. You can do it by every once in a while adding something personal at the beginning or end of the email. Usually this type of cultivation is done to as many donors as you have, giving at least one (or half) unit, from my experience anywhere between 10/20  and 50 donors. You most certainly can send these emails to the Mega potential donors as well, ALWAYS with a personal note with it, so it's very clear that it's truly personal. The unit donors also must receive from time to time a phone call, either wishing them a good Yom Tov, inviting them to an event etc.

3. General mass donors: they are the ones who send in something for the Calendar, a High Holiday gift, Yahrzeit, Yizkor appeal, Yearend campaign, Raffle purchasers  and of course the popular Charidy campaign, they are to receive several emails throughout the year, could be a quarterly email, again no long text rather impressive pictures and short captions and thanking them for being supporters of Chabad.

You will always be looking who from level 3 could and should be brought up to level 2, even though this donor is not yet a unit donor but does have the potential and therefore you want to do the cultivation as if he is already a unit donor, the same goes for bringing up a level 2 to 1 even if that person is not yet a Mega donor but does have that potential.

What's important is that numbers 2 and 3 should be planned in advance and put into your calendar at the beginning of the year so you set a good schedule of events for each category.

As mentioned in the beginning, this is a general good structure to follow, if you or any Shliach has any further questions I will be happy to address them.

The truth is that ANY structure, weather the one outlined above or one you want to do either in more or less detail, is ok as long as it's consistent with a plan for the full fiscal year.

Hatzlocho Rabo.         

Answer:

In response to your question how to define a donor unit " Since mosdos have wildly varying budgets"

 

While it's true that mosdos have budgets ranging from 100 thousand (usually just starting) to several million (with many Educational institutions) and anywhere in between, usually several hundred thousand, that is exactly the reason that a unit is not a set number, but rather relative to what you need to raise, here are several examples. (this is very general, and must be suited to each place according to the realities in his situation)

 

You need to raise $180,000 then a unit is $1,800 and you need to raise 100 units (half a unit would be $900.00) you are looking to raise from 10 units and down. 1 donor at 10 units 1or2 donors at 5 and from here you work your way down and 1 unit will be the most you want to attract anywhere from 20 to

50 such donors. Also two half units makes up a full unit, so you may have potential donors not ready yet for a full unit but can get them in for half a unit.

 

You need to raise $360,000 Then a unit can still be $1,800 but now you will need to raise 200 units, or if your at a level where you've been around for a while and already have a good number of $3,600 donors and up then you can have a unit at $3,600 and half a unit at $1,800

 

If you need to raise half a million you can choose what amount your unit will be, it can be $5,000 if you're up to that level or $2,500 or even

$1,800 and round up the fundraising goal to $504,000 a total of 280 units, of course in this case there would have to be many donors at levels of 10 units 7 units 5 units and maybe one at 30 units a total of $54,000

 

Usually the one top level donor we strive to be somewhere in the 10% level of the entire fundraising goal.

 

BTW a Shliach just starting and needs to raise only $60,000 then a unit can be $1,000 to raise 60 units or $1,200 and raise 50 units.

 

The very important item to know is that this is NOT a gimmick to get a donor to give you money and more then he may have given otherwise, this is a chart derived AFTER working very hard at creating a true, honest budget and you really know what you need that need becomes your fundraising goal and then you divide it into units and then you go seeking the donors to help you reach your goal.