A THEORY of CHANGE… and a theory of changing your donor acquisition strategy… and of changing diapers.

      You’ve almost certainly encountered a   “Theory of Change!”  if you’ve been around non-profit fundraising for any amount of time. If you haven’t, I bet your grant writer has. How about a Logic Model? You are likely familiar with that one. They’re pretty much the same, but a “Theory of Change!” is much grander in scope, or at least supposed to be. They were annoying back then. They’ve gotten much better and more useful now and I always applaud some evolution.  I encountered “theory of Change” for the first time in 2010 at a big reveal meeting required by one of the local health foundations.

   At the time, I was supposed to be on paternity leave.

   There was a commercial a couple of years ago, I can’t remember what it was for, but the tag line was “guys just do things differently.”  In this commercial a dad is changing his baby’s diaper as quickly as he can and when he’s finished he clicks a stopwatch and celebrates that he beat his best time. He’d made it a competition and supposedly guys are more competitive and can relate to that.

 I don’t know. At least 3 of the 4 most competitive people I ever met were women but, yeah. Not only could I relate to trying to beat my best time on a diaper change, I have to admit that,

     Yeah. I TOTALLY DID THAT! If you have better than 39 seconds send me an email!

     But I kind of depended on changing diapers at the time for mental health reasons. I have to admit, I struggled with Paternity leave. It was just me. My wife took the first 6 weeks, I took my leave the second six weeks and in that way, on two social services salaries and a friend who took two weeks, we were able to avoid the crushing cost of daycare for 14 whole weeks. But during my 6 weeks, my beautiful baby son, slept so much that I started reallllllly needing to feel more useful. So when he woke up and needed a diaper change, there was something I could do!

     Something simple but necessary that you know you can do well is a wonderful thing for most people in non-profits. So many times we are faced with just not knowing for sure what to do or how to do it perfectly. We have to figure how to solve a problem or we stare at a blank screen and our task is to type until the blank screen turns into general operating funds.  Whaahhh! Can’t I just change a diaper? I know how to do that and it would clearly do some benefit to my community! Way better.

    Anyway, I was struggling with the lack of activity and intelligent interaction on paternity leave and went to this foundation’s Theory of Change Presentation.  I took the baby. He was extremely popular. About 18 people passed him around the room holding him while I took notes and the program officers seethed. It was great.

   The Theory of Change though, was interesting. As I said, it’s just a logic model that starts with  “We Believe.”  We Believe that if we make these inputs (in their case some specific grants) and do these activities (except, they weren’t going to do the activities. The grantees were. They were just going to prescribe them if organizations wanted the money they would have to follow their prescription) then we will start to see these measurable changes in the health of our community and those will lead to these even bigger and better changes. Voila! A theory of Change. One that will lead to less heart disease, less obesity and diabetes, less smoking and its evil effects, less…   

     You get it. And you can see all of things wrong with that from grantor/grantee power dynamics to root cause ignorance to ignoring the voice of the people working on the frontlines who know what really will and really won’t work. All of those and more were definitely wrong with that particular theory of change.

     But, I applaud first steps. I always will because:

1.      A bad version always beats a blank page. It can be revised into something good. Blank pages do squat.

2.      Thinking through how it might work and turning that into a strategy, almost always beats winging it.

   You know what? They learned from that and really did get slightly better. More impactfully, a few other foundations around town learned from that and did WAY better. So, the bad version got revised and first strategies got informed by real results and frontline feedback and a few measurably good things eventually happened. The good things took a lot longer than expected, but they happened.

     Almost any written out, thought through, first version of an actual strategy will do a lot more good than throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick. I threw things I hoped were sticky at the wall for most of my life. It can wear you out! I ended up with a frozen shoulder and three months of physical therapy I threw so much at the wall. I even threw one of those diapers at the wall in frustration. You’d think at least that would stick!

    Nope. My life, my work, my happiness- none of it improved until I made a true strategy, a theory of change, a list of inputs and activities designed to lead to short and long term outcomes.

            A THEORY (STRATEGY) OF DONOR ACQUISITION.

    When I ask non-profits where their new donors come from, either, they only have guesses, or they only have one channel they are sure of. If they do have a channel they are sure of, I ask them what (NOT what they’ve done, BUT) what they do on a REGULAR BASIS  (specific inputs and activities) to first, increase the volume in that channel, and second, branch to other channels. Never met, worked for or with one who had a good answer.  There is no Theory of Change. No “if we do these things, at these times, every year, month, week, whatever, we will get more donors.” 

      So… uh… think that through. It starts with figuring out where your donors come from in the first place. Your going to have to ask. A lot of them. If possible, all of them. You’re whole job is to ask for things, Fundraiser. Ask this.

     I asked myself: what parts of paternity leave make me feel good? Changing the diaper! I feel like I did a good job, at a needed task, and had a clear positive result!

     Then I asked myself how I could make that even better. For me, that was make it a competition and time myself. Then I even started experimenting with how I might get the diaper changes to happen at more opportune times. That uh… didn’t work.    At all.    None.   If you figured that out, for goodness sake email me!

      So do this much.   

Three Steps to start any Fundraising Strategy

 Step 1. Using donor acquisition as a an example, first, figure out where they come from. Is it events?  Your Marketing? Converting volunteers? What is it?

     Step 2.  Then list some activities you can do every month to grow the main one, and start on other channels. List the inputs in cash, or time, or people, or equipment or whatever it might be that will be necessary to do those activities.

     When you’re finished you will have a Theory of Change for Donor Acquisition!  And you won’t need physical therapy for throwing stuff at the wall so much! And your whole operation will change diapers in a flash!

     Step 3. Then one more step! Just one. The important one. It’s how bad versions lead to great versions. Put a date on the calendar six months and then a year from now to evaluate how it well it worked. Did you get more new donors than before in this channel? How about this one?  What activities were really effective? Which ones should you cut or change because they stank like a dirty diaper?  And if you’re really into it, how will the activities and inputs and channels change when you reach a certain amount of donors or new donors per month?

Essentially,

       Have a strategy for revising your strategy.

 That’s how good gets great or, my preferred version: how right gets righteous! 

And if you don’t have time for that or want some guidance, I’d be pleased to help. I have a process where we can do it together, and not just for donor acquisition, but a theory of events, of retention, of developing major gifts, and entire fundraising programs. Reach out any time and keep fighting the good fight.