AFP Conference Roundup: International Fundraising Pro Advises Organizations to 'Get Sexy'

Fundraisers do the greatest job in the world. They transform capital for good and help people make the world a better place. But to maximize their impact, they need to take advantage of changes in the way people are mobilized and the plethora of tools now at their fingertips.

This was the crux of the message delivered by Jon Duschinsky in his session, "The Flat Philanthropic World," at the 46th AFP International Conference on Fundraising held last week in New Orleans.

Duschinsky is a founding member of the Cascaid fundraising group in the U.K. and founder of bethechange, an international network of independent fundraising and nonprofit specialists.

Today, nonprofits can actually look ahead toward the world that they want to see tomorrow and help people create it, thanks to the amazing tools that are at their disposal and that, 20 years ago, people couldn't have dreamed of.

These tools have made it possible for individuals — like countries and companies before them — to be their own global brands.

But getting a handle on the "flat" world — where technology has taken the physical boundaries off of personal and business interactions — requires something of a mind shift for organizations. A few things that Duschinsky said have changed are:

* The world where companies and organizations shout messages at the masses is gone, replaced by a world where customers and donors are demanding dictators.

* Individuals have the capacity to change the world and choices in how they want to do it. Donors want to see how the world is becoming a better place thanks to them.

* What used to be a triangular relationship made up of donor, charity and beneficiary now is a direct relationship between donor and beneficiary, facilitated by a platform (hosted by a nonprofit, such as a Web site).

* Boundaries that used to exist between the first sector (government), the second sector (business), the third sector (nonprofit) and even the fourth sector (media) are beginning to blur. Now charities are saying, "We can be media too. We can tell people what's going on in the world."

* The charity business model is changing as well, becoming more like for-profit businesses, with many organizations now creating programs that make profits to subsidize the work they're doing.

But nonprofits aren't the only ones blurring the lines, Duschinsky said. For example, Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" is an awareness and fundraising campaign centered around self-esteem spearheaded by the for-profit, which is owned by Unilever, one of the largest companies in the world.

Duschinsky said Dove chose this cause not just because of its affinity with the work it does, but also because it looked around the world and saw that it was a cause that wasn't being represented by any large organizations.

* The relative impact of money is dropping. Change is now affected through communities, he said. The difference between Live Aid and Live 8 is evidence of this. Live Aid was about monetary donations for a cause. Live 8, 20 years later, was about lending your voice to join in a movement.

Duschinsky challenged attendees to use the self-organizing tools now available to facilitate a movement of people who share their visions. To achieve this, he recommended all organizations implement the following six-stage plan:

1. Revisit the business model so the people organizations serve get more out of the services offered. The first priority of an organization should be its beneficiaries, not the organization itself, Duschinsky said.

Re-evaluate the services your organization is providing and focus your energy on the things that you do best, the things you do better than anyone. Duschinsky suggested making a two-column chart with "Best" on the left side and "Rest" on the right. Get your team together, and ask them what it is that you do better than anyone on the planet and write it on the left side of the chart. Then think of all of the other things you do and write them on the right side of the column. Are you spending most of your time and energy on the things that no one does better than you?

"You can't afford to be mediocre," he said. "We can do better. We have to do better because lives are depending on it."

2. Get sexy. What makes people sexy is the fact that they're imperfect, Duschinsky said. So stop trying to be all things to all people. Find out what it is about your organization that makes you really sexy (i.e., different, passionate) and then shout about it.

3. Be bold. Be proud about what you do, and challenge yourself about the way things work. The flat world doesn't work in silos, Duschinsky said. It works horizontally.

4. Tell stories. Stories are the best way to get people to understand the issues you face and the action you want them to take.

5. Find talent. Technology on its own doesn't help, Duschinsky said. You need to hire people who know what to do with it.

6. Get horizontal. Look at how many hierarchical layers there are in your organization from top to bottom? How many staff do you have? Duschinsky suggested that organizations decrease the horizontal layers that lay between staff and top leadership, and streamline their leadership structures.