Questions About Seamless Channel Integration for Fundraisers Answered

On March 2, FundRaising Success hosted a webinar titled, “Strategies for Seamless Integration Across Fundraising Channels.” Speakers included Tabetha Leinweber, director, direct marketing, Susan G Komen for the Cure; Craig Wood, founder and CEO, Clarity Group; Greg Fox, senior vice president, chief strategy officer, Merkle; and Angie Moore, general manager, nonprofit practice, Merkle.

Our speakers were able to answer a good number of questions submitted by attendees, but not all of them. Here are a few of the questions that went unanswered during the webinar and responses from some of the speakers.

Q: I am at a highly siloed organization — development, marketing/communications and IT. What are your five suggestions for creating a way forward to break down the barriers?

Craig Wood: Here are five things to do:

1. Create active and visible executive sponsorship. Senior executives need to be fully invested in the change, take charge and "cascade" the changes throughout the organization. Staff needs to see an aligned, enthusiastic and cohesive management team at the core of the effort.
2. Frequent and open communication about the need for change — identifying impacted groups, building awareness of the need, conveying risks of not changing, and “clear line of sight” to the business strategy that is consistent and easy to understand.
3. Empower and engage staff at all levels. Successful execution and implementation will come from employees clearly understanding their unique importance and role in being customer-centric along with midlevel managers and staff who are empowered to make a difference in the organization.
4. Stakeholder engagement and participation. Involve employees and stakeholders in many ways to engage them in the process, gather feedback and provide interactions that help reinforce the need for change.
5. Resistance management. Do not react to resistance with surprise — expect and plan for it. Actively understand the context for resistance, and proactively work to address the concerns and issues.

Q: Integrating communications — Who should "represent" the institution when you're reaching out across channel? The only good thing about silo communications is you can identify a PERSON associated with that program, i.e., e-mails, mail, etc.