Make the first date count, and the relationship should be worthwhile.

By Tom Hurley

Knowing When it’s Time to Say Goodbye to Your Agency

In the old story of the Good Man who arrives at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter informs him that before commencing with his eternal reward, he gets one night to try out heaven and then one night to sample hell. Heaven was exactly as billed, but his one night in hell turned out to be a real surprise: Flames to be sure … but also dancing, drinking … a non-stop decadent bash.

When the Good Man met with St. Peter to be assigned his eternal reward, he said, “Gee, I’ve always lived my life to be rewarded in heaven, but frankly hell looks like more fun. That’s where I want to be.”

St. Peter didn’t quarrel with him. He gave the Good Man his pass and down he went. When he arrived for his permanent stay, the good fellow was shocked to see the scene had changed to the misery and horror he had always feared. When he complained to Lucifer that this wasn’t the scene he experienced the night before, Lucifer said, “Last night you were a prospect, tonight you’re a client!”

Of course, agency relationships never deteriorate that fast, but this little attempt at satire illustrates that time and situations can change.

So when is it time to throw in the towel and look for a new fundraising agency?

When the reason you hired the agency in the first place is gone. Maybe you were awed by the original presentation or the promises made by the new business team. Maybe the account services team was gung-ho for the first year or so, but now you seem to have to drag them along to keep projects moving.

When campaign results drop and no one seems to care or notice. True, most donor- and member-based organizations have experienced recent declines, particularly in donor acquisition and retention. Don’t blame your consultant for the way the world is going, but do hold him or her responsible for suggesting new strategies to keep your program on track.

When errors are made but no “make-good” is offered. First, ask yourself if your organization shares some blame. Was the donor file clean and did it actually match the record layout? Was the select you pulled for the telemarketing provider for the proper group? But if the error was really beyond your control, did the agency offer to do something to make you whole by offering to mail a second wave or make extra calls?

Most importantly, before you decide to pull the plug on an agency relationship, you must do two things:

Ask yourself if your organization really has been a good partner. Do you communicate freely when contacted? Are you clear and on time with your instructions to your consultants? Do you pay your invoices on time?
Have a heart-to-heart discussion. Just as with any employee, conduct an informal review. Be frank in discussing your needs, expectations and assessment of how you feel the relationship is going. As a managing director of a fundraising agency, I would much rather listen to criticism, respond to issues and then make the appropriate changes before situations get out of hand. — TH

Selecting a fundraising agency to build your donor or membership program can be a tough decision, with many factors to consider. It makes sense, then, to prepare a Request for Proposal that gives responding agencies the proper information and asks the right questions.

The RFP can sometimes be the official “first date” for most agency/nonprofit organization relationships. It sets the tone for the partnership and provides a road map for future success.

It doesn’t matter what you call it — Request for Proposal, Request for Quote or Request for Pricing — what’s critical is the strategic planning that goes into the document’s development. All too often, an agency wins an account only to find itself being replaced a year later.

An RFP has the singular mission of finding an agency that will best meet a nonprofit organization’s needs and marketing objectives, but it can vary greatly in terms of size and content. Some are brief and concise, while others require extensive documentation. RFPs can be created for specific projects or programs, or for multiple campaigns or multiple media channels. Sometimes an RFP will require strategy, tactics and projections for the long term (several years out).

Time-honored guidelines
While each RFP is unique, there are straightforward guidelines that will help you prepare a document for effectively matching your needs with agency offerings. Here are some tips:

1. Ask the right questions. While you’re looking for an agency to support you, it’s the people that work at the agency with whom you’ll be dealing on a daily basis. There has to be a synergy in overall philosophy, personality and work style for both parties to be productive and successful.

Ask questions that will offer insight into these important relationship-building traits. Recently, one major-market public television station asked our agency a series of open-ended questions about the state of the public TV industry. Clearly, the intent was to see if responding agencies understood public television’s challenges in addition to gauging competence in direct marketing.

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In the Trenches: The RFP Process