YWCA Global Campaign: Power to Change
Nairobi, Kenya

By Susan Packard Orr
Keynote address

Good Afternoon

Thank you for that very generous introduction. Compared to the commitment and long hours that all of you give to the work of the YWCA, I have done nothing!

It is indeed a very great honor and pleasure to be here with all of you today. You are a great inspiration. It's a wonderful moment celebrating the Power to Change Campaign.

Little did I know when I met Musimbi 5 years ago, that my journey with her would bring me to her home country to meet so many of her colleagues and friends in the YWCA.

And I could not have imagined that she would one day move to my hometown - but that is what is going to happen soon.

Unlike many of you, my affiliation with the YWCA, and with Musimbi is very short.

Of course I knew of the YWCA. Every American has heard of the YWCA - even if we sometimes get it confused with the male counterpart and subject of a famous song we all know and love.

But, like most people who have not been directly involved, I really had no idea of the depth and scope of your amazing world spanning organization.

Then in 2002 I attended a conference of US National YWCA Executive Directors in Maine.

I was there hoping to interest associations in our fund raising software, not to become a YWCA volunteer or supporter.

But as I listened to the discussions of the work of the YWCA both within the US and around the world, I got hooked.

There was some discussion on an upcoming campaign, so I offered to speak at one of the sessions about major gift fundraising.

I spoke from the point of view of a fundraising volunteer who has worked for a number of organizations during successful campaigns.

Later in the conference a delegation of women came to visit me in my hotel room to explain the 'Power to Change' campaign.

They asked if I would help with this campaign by joining the steering committee.
I had to think about this for a bit.

Usually campaign volunteer leadership comes from long term commitment to an organization.I certainly didn't have that.

Your steering committee members should already be major donors and I had never given any money to any YWCA.

On the other hand, I do have quite a bit of experience in capital campaigns.
And I actually enjoy helping important causes raise money.

Plus it came at a time when I was really examining my personal philanthropy.

We all tend to give gifts to organizations that are good at asking, often at the expense of others who are more deserving or more in tune with our values.

For example, I am a trustee at Stanford University, and believe me, they are experts at
asking for money. Of course I have no obligation to response, given my trusteeship role.

I also give to my high school, my church, my local Children's hospital and other
organisations in my home community. These are all worthy causes, and I will continue to support them.

But when I ask myself, or my children, what the big issues are in the world, we agree that they aren't local to California, and, with all due respect to Stanford, they also aren't solved by having a marginally better university in Palo Alto.

Issues of poverty, HIV and AIDS, gender inequality, social injustice and violence all over the world - these seem intractable.

These are the issues we find ourselves wishing we could impact some how.

But it is extremely difficult to look at the myriad groups around the globe working on
these and to make any kind of informed judgment about how to invest to make any real difference.

So, when I heard Musimbi describe the programs of the World YWCA, I was really excited.

I don't need to tell all of you about this - you know because you are the YWCA. But I
had no idea.

So when I was asked to help out, I thought:

This is what I have been looking for: a way to sue my experience in fund raising to help this incredible organisation that has such an impact in so many places.

So I agreed. And here we are.

Of course I am not alone in my desire to find ways to support people who are working on solving some of the world's big problems.

These issues have come to the fore in recent years - and there has been much publicity about efforts to work on them.

Anyone who pays attention, even in self-absorbed America, knows about the Millennium Development Goals, the Global Fund from Malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS, the Gates Foundation, and celebrity champions of global work, like Bono and President Clinton.

But these efforts seem to operate on a different place. They have taken on the enormous issues of poverty and disease, and are aiming to invest billions of dollars in solving them.
And that is what it will take - billions.

For the ordinary citizen of the world, who may have some resources to contribute, but nothing on that scale, your work with the YWCA is an ideal prospect for support.

Your potential for impact is huge - geographically your reach is second to none.

The range of your programs has something for everyone - girls education, HIV and AIDS, domestic violence, micro credit, leadership development.The list goes on and on.

So when I signed up to help with the campaign, I knew we could find generous donors who would be thrilled to support your work.

I quickly discovered however, that this campaign is very different from any of the others I have been involved in.

Before I explain some of those differences, let me first outline what I think you need for a successful fundraising campaign:

I would mention five factors

1. A compelling vision.

What are you going to accomplish?
Is it transformational? Big gifts follow big ideas.
Is it easy to understand?

2. Institutional Advocates

People inside the organisation who can explain the vision
People with credibility who your donors trust will be able to execute the big ideas
People like Musimbi

3. Dedicated volunteer leadership
People who have the capacity to make a major gift themselves
People who are well connected
People who are visible - whom others want to be around

4. Professional fundraising staff or consultants
The right staff can make all the difference in the world

5. Prospects
Individual prospects - people to talk about making a gift!

How did the 'Power to Change' Campaign do when measured against these factors?

It certainly has a compelling vision - 25 million women and girls all over the globe!

It has Musimbi and many of you strong advocates with credibility.

However, there were some factors that, in my opinion, made this campaign particularly challenging.

1. This is a global campaign. You can't easily take the prospects to see the work.

When I worked on raising money for our Children's Hospital, I could take prospects to visit the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with the Chair of Pediatrics.

It was easy to see the impact of the hospital on the lives of those babies and their families.

For a global campaign, you have to find prospects with a broader vision than their own communities.

You have to tell your story from a distance.

It's harder to give donor's visibility locally among their peers when you acknowledge their gifts.

2. This is for endowment. The use of funds is harder to explain than if it were for programs or buildings.

The variety of programs that might be funded over the years makes it harder to appeal to someone who has a narrow interest in one aspect of the work.

This makes it even more critical to explain the plan for the use of these funds
and to have some measurable outcomes in the plan.

Some donors like to see their names on things with endowment.

3 The initial effort was with foundations and corporations. But the vast majority of
philanthropy comes from individuals.

Foundations and corporations very, very rarely give to endowment.

4. The data about individual donors and relationships is spread all over the world and it not easily accessible to campaign planners.

It is difficult to build a prospect list. There appeared to be reluctance on the part of local associations to share their donor information with the campaign but these local donors should be the prime prospects.

5. Musimbi is an incredibly inspirational speaker, and when I had her out in California, we were often successful. But she was usually in Geneva, sad to say.

So in spite of all of these factors, how did we manage to have the success we did?

As I mentioned already, the vast majority of philanthropy comes from individuals.

That is true in spite of what you read about the Gates Foundation and other large institutional donors.
In the US in 2006:

$295 billion was given away in charitable donations
76% came from individuals
Over 70% of all US households

Your ability to tap into this bounty is determined by your success in developing the right relationships with these individuals.

Now, it is really fantastic that so many individuals contributed to the campaign.
Women form all over the world each gave what they could to participate in this effort - to be part of the power to change.

These gifts tell a powerful story about the depth of commitment to the organisation and they inspire others to stretch in their giving.

But if you wish to raise large amounts of money, you must also be successful in bringing in large gifts.
You must think big when you are raising money for a big campaign.

I have seen organizations transformed by the realization that there are people who will happily make substantial gifts.

But you have to identify these people and the develop the right relationships.

So, what should you look for?

An individual's suitability for a major gift asks is determined by the three C's. Concern, connection and capacity.

Concern: We may all have generalized concerns about the state of the world, but most people recognize that we cannot do everything for everybody.

Most of us have some areas that speak to our values more deeply than others.

Some people focus on their own communities, perhaps emphasizing homelessness or education.
Others are moved by hunger in Africa or global warming.

Still others believe that arts or natural places are fundamental to our spiritual well being.

Your donors for the most part come from the group of people who have a special concern a
bout your mission - people who share the values of the YWCA.

I say "for the most part" because some donors will give because a friend ask them to or because they wanted to attend a certain event.

While all donations are welcome, major gifts will likely come only from those who have deeply held concern for your particular focus.

The second C is Connection: It is crucial to understand what, if any, connection a prospect has to your organisation.

Have they been a donor in the past? Have they or a member of their family belonged to your association?

Have they attended events that you have held?

Do they have close friends who are on your board or otherwise closely linked to your organisation?
If there is no existing connection, it may be very difficult to establish one. However, this is a required first step.

Connections can start small, and with the proper cultivation, can grow and thrive.

As you nourish these connections, it is important to understand the nature of the concern that a prospect has for your mission.

For example, their concern may be related to the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa or it may be focused on women's education and empowerment.

Perhaps they are enthusiastic about micro credit loans or combating violence.

Whatever the concern, it needs to be included explicitly as the connection is built.

The final C is Capacity: This is the code word for wealth, the capacity to make a major gift.

This is the least important of the three C's, for without concern and connection, no amount of capacity is going to motivate a major gift for the YWCA.

However, that does not mean capacity should be ignored.

The knowledge you can collect about your prospects' wealth can determine where you should spend your limited time in building the all important connections.

It is also critical for deciding what level of giving you might reasonably except, assuming all the other important groundwork has been laid.

So major-gift fund raising is a matter of uncovering the shared concerns and nurturing the connection with people who have capacity.

Sometimes its frustrating and disappointing, when you can't convince someone else of the importance of something you feel so passionately about.

But mostly it is very satisfying to know you can actually help impact the mess that is the world.
I know there has been some concern in the local associations about protecting your biggest donors from the campaign, because of the fear that they will give to the campaign rather than to their local YWCA.

I truly believe the opposite is much more likely.

Once a donor has given to a cause in a a big way, that cause rises to the top on their list of priorities.
They feel invested, and when they are approached again, they are even more responsive than they were the first time around.

If they give a major gift to the world campaign, they will become more wedded to your association, more interested, and much more likely to make a larger gift to you – because they know think of the YWCA as one of their most important causes, rather than just one of many.

As I have said, I believe that every fundraising campaign succeeds only by attracting gifts from individuals.

And those individuals must come largely from women who have been consistent supporters of the organisation over time. That is the group that all campaigns rely on.
Today we are celebrating the success of the Power to Change Campaign at reaching the milestone.
This is a great achievement and a fine first step.

But this milestone is still not unusual at all. Remember the $295 billion last year in the US?
It has taken some time to raise these funds, but it hasn't been rocket science - really, we're just following the usual way of using relationships.

But I have to say, that you deserve so much more than this.

So I hope you won't stop now.

I can only speak to the fund raising landscape in the US. But I can tell you that there are many, many people there with great capacity who truly care about the same things that you care about.
They just don't know about you.

So keep telling your stories and keep looking for those who have a deep concern for your causes - who share your values.
And then carefully build connections with them.

If you believe in the larger cause and the need for the World YWCA to have resources to share across the globe, then you need to connect your local donors to the larger vision.

Remember that this doesn't mean you will lose their connection to you - you will only strengthen it.
They will see that be working with you, and with 25 million other women and girls, we all have the Power to Change the world in ways we can hardly imagine!