The Intricacies of a Successful Sandbox

But the agency model for direct marketing was often one agency doing it all to create a streamlined approach to fundraising direct mail. This model also created opportunities for the nonprofit because it took less staff to manage one agency.

But then things started to change. There are lots of reasons why people think it changed ... perhaps it was the introduction of additional channels, the heavier focus on analytics or the fundraising challenges that seemed to occur every few years that wreaked havoc with our results. Whatever it was, a lot of nonprofits started looking at multi-agency relationships. This brought a whole host of changes to the scene. The staffing model at the nonprofit had to adjust to manage multiple agencies. Risk was perceived to be spread out but only if you still had "the best" in each of the areas you were managing. And there was the overarching benefit of new ideas brought to the table by having multiple partners thinking through your business challenges and opportunities.

Sounds good, right? Well, believe it or not, it can fail miserably. Over the years the industry has seemed to shift back and forth between the "agency of record" model and the "multi-agency" model with different players at the table.

One thing is for sure though, with the multi-agency model came a whole new set of requirements for both the nonprofit and the agencies. Nonprofits had to become master integrators. Agencies had to put aside a lot of feelings and ideas that were engrained from the past and be open to a new level of sharing and collaboration.

Let's be real though — not everyone plays well in a sandbox! So, here's my list of things for each side of the table to take into consideration to make it as successful as possible in that sandbox.