Here's a video snippet from the HBO show, Entourage. Matt Damon and Bono are featured as they ask Vince (played by Adrian Grenier) to make a gift to their favorite cause (a children's hunger charity).
Now I wouldn't actually suggest you ask the way Matt Damon does here, but there are some lessons embedded in the video.
Among them:
Total absence of call reluctance (since he believes in his cause, Matt Damon asks everyone!)
Asking for involvement in addition to monetary support
Persistence and the importance of follow-up
Importance of making your own gift first (because donors, even if they don't ask, will KNOW in their gut whether you've done your part)
Framing the ask amount in relation to capacity and what other leadership donors have given
Ask as part of a team, in person (see how much more effective the ask gets when LeBron James joins Matt in the ask)
How to make it past gate-keepers ("He Jason Bourne-d me!")
Linking back to the cause when making the ask ("it's for the kids!")
Warning: Some crude language here. Click here to watch.
Twenty years. It actually doesn't seem all that long ago. Or maybe it does.
It was a Monday. It was a red-letter day for me. I was promoted to a VP position in charge of all fund-raising for the American Heart Association in California. And my boss was sending me later in the week to an American Management Association course on leadership (which was huge in a corporate culture that self-importantly leaned toward in-house training).
I was working in Burlingame, just south of the SFO Airport and maybe ten miles from Candlestick Park. I was sitting at my desk, listening to a voicemail, a congratulatory message, as I recall. It was just after 5:00 p.m. The third game of the "Battle of the Bay" 1989 World Series -- with the SF Giants playing the Oakland A's -- was just underway.
And the earth moved! Boy, did it move! I got up from my desk to move to the doorframe, where I saw my office neighbor Kent had done the same. Inexplicably, I was still holding the phone (never one to let an earthquake interrupt the message I was listening to!), though moments later, the phone went dead. Chandeliers were swaying back and forth; file drawers slid in and out of their cabinet. It seemed to last forever. Actually, it was only 15 seconds.
When things settled down, we walked downstairs and outside to check on things. Across the street was the Amfac Hotel, 12 stories as I recall. But the top couple of stories of the center tower were crumpled in at a twisted angle, and water was shooting up maybe 30 to 40 feet in the air, as though someone was standing on the roof, aiming a fire hose straight up. Dozens (hundreds?) of people were streaming out of the hotel's exits.
That's when I knew this was a BIG earthquake.
The parking lot at my office became a makeshift emergency headquarters, with ambulances and police vehicles swarming around the scene. About an hour later, my car was no longer blocked in the lot, so I could leave to go home, about a 15 mile trip back into San Francisco, where we lived in a flat in the West Portal neighborhood. The power was out as were the traffic signals. Volunteers tried to direct traffic, and drivers seemed to exercise appropriate caution. By the time I got home, it was pretty dark. Feeling my way through the darkened space, I found pictures fallen off the wall and bookcases that "walked" about a foot from their usual spot, but overall, not very much damage.
Kevin had been at school in Walnut Creek in the East Bay. The Bay Bridge was, of course, closed -- and would be for several weeks after. So, instead of a 34 mile trip that usually took 45 minutes, he had to go south almost all the way to San Jose and back up to SF, a 90+ mile trip that took him about three hours.
In Oakland, the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway, where about a one-mile section of the top deck buckled and fell, would become an indelible image of quake. Only later would we find out that a friend of ours, Cathy Scarpa, had been in the front seat of the UCSF-furnished vanpool vehicle. There were eight people in the van.
The van had gone airborne off the broken upper deck, then slammed head-on into part of the structure before dropping into the rubble of the double-deck structure. Cathy's head had gone through the windshield; her legs were jammed up into the engine. The impact had severed her seat from the floor.
Five people in the van were killed. Cathy, miraculously, lived. She had head injuries, her legs and feet had been badly broken, her liver lacerated and her right arm cut to the bone.She was in and out of the hospital for nine months and endured at least 20 surgeries related to the crash.
The toll: 63 dead, 42 of them on the Nimitz.
So much has changed in these twenty years. The Bay Bridge is still in the process of being retro-fitted. The Nimitz Freeway has been replaced. As part of my 29 year non-profit career, I've been a "fund raiser" for exactly twenty years, as of October 17. Learned so much, it seems much longer than twenty years ago. Kevin and I now live in Oakland. Cathy Scarpa now lives in Grass Valley with her partner Kay, miles away from the Bay Area. Who can blame her?
Below is a brief collection of live footage captured during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in San Francisco, which was created by the U.S. Geological Survey. It might be unsettling, but it isn't gory, or anything. It reminds me I need to be better prepared for the "Big One."
We could joke and call it Philanthropy-Light. Or Giving-Digest. But our nation's top-selling newspaper has launched its newest online community, and its theme is charity, good causes, giving, and giving back.
No small audience: the print and online editions of USA TODAY reach more than 5 million a day. Here's how they're positioning the online community:
Kindness is your daily source of inspiration and guide to making a difference in fresh and exciting ways, no matter where you are. Each day, this site will unearth unique stories of giving with exclusive interviews, fresh takes on news stories, plenty of tips, and links to interesting resources. But we're also building a community, and we look forward to hearing from you.
The community can be found here. You can see a lot there, but of course, you have to register and all that to participate in commenting, connecting, blogging, posting in (or creating) forums ... the usual social networking stuff. But it's all under the USA TODAY brand. No doubt there will be an on-going promotion of it. Who knows? Maybe it will become a generalized philanthropy portal for those who are interested, attracting donors and organizations alike.
(USA TODAY also published its third annual philanthropy section in the newspaper, entitled "Sharing in the USA.")
One year ago this weekend, I was married to my partner of 23 years. I'm celebrating this first anniversary, feeling joy, anger, disappointment, and hope.
Joy, because I am married to a wonderful man with so much love to share.
Anger, because of last year's Prop 8 election result, and the California Supreme Court's subsequent upholding of the stripping away of a right from a group, because a slim majority of the public wanted it so.
Disappointment, because while I am still legally married (the Court didn't nullify my marriage), I feel a bit like a freed slave. I have my rights, but my brothers and sisters in my community don't have theirs.
And hope. Hope, because today is Coming Out Day and tomorrow, thousands will march in Washington and elsewhere, for equality ... demanding equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.
If you want to see what a gay wedding looks like (well, my gay wedding anyway), click on the video links below.
Part 1 is the ceremony.
Part 2 is the reception.
Moving and ordinary at the same time. I've been married one year as of Sunday, October 11. And the world hasn't wobbled off of its axis. The sanctity, validity, and meaning of hetero-marriages in California weren't threatened by my marriage.
Glad to celebrate. Sad that others don't have the same right.
Equal protection, as guaranteed under the 14th Amendment. We will accept no less and will work until it is achieved. We should not have to beg or bargain for the right to work our jobs and go to school free of harassment and discrimination, the right to safety in our daily lives, the right to equitable healthcare, the right to marry, and the right to serve in the military openly.
In 1992 the U.S. Congress proclaimed Customer Service Week a nationally recognized event, celebrated annually during the first full week in October.
Of course, this makes about as much sense as having a seperate Customer Service Department. EVERY week should be Customer Service Week, just as responsibility for customer service should rest with everyone in your organization, not just one department. For your organization, providing really great customer service can be THE difference between thriving and going extinct.
There are lots of ways to encourage a culture of service in your organization. Ways that won't work include:
Writing a memo Making a speech Imposing new behavior standards ("Smile, dammit!")
Genuine change happens when people buy in. A way to start that is to have a simple conversation about it.
So on this occasion, let me offer you something for free. Here's an exercise to help you get the conversation started. Use it at your next staff meeting, or even in the lunch room.
There's two pages of quotes about customer service, meeting needs, reputation, and trust(they're all related, you know). Have people read through the quotes and then, in pairs or small groups, share which one they most responded to. I can almost guarantee an enthusiastic conversation will ensue, and perhaps some altered notions about who is responsible for keeping the customer.
Helping you understand how to help people experience the joy of giving to their favorite causes. With 30 years of senior leadership experience in philanthropy, including executive management, I specialize in leading people to ask others personally for significant gifts to impact their charitable cause.
I possess broad knowledge of major and planned giving concepts -- acquired through 14 years of successful practice -- but my real specialty is organization change management.
Here's a video snippet from the HBO show, Entourage. Matt Damon and Bono are featured as they ask Vince (played by Adrian Grenier) to make a gift to their favorite cause (a children's hunger charity).
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