This month AuSAE welcomes Rod Auton, Chief Executive Officer at Crane Association New Zealand as our Member in Focus. Rod recently spoke with AuSAE about Crane Association New Zealand's membership strategies and their biggest challenges. Plus, exciting projects underway for the Association. 

Can you tell us a bit about Crane Association New Zealand and the goals they strive to achieve?

The mission of the Crane Association is to provide one clear voice, advocating with regulators, authorities and industry partners to provide a safe and efficient crane industry for our members and our community.

The Association places a great deal of importance on training and safety and has succeeded in raising the standards of operation and efficiency across the face of the crane industry.

By supporting its members in these and other operational objectives the New Zealand crane industry has become an international benchmark of success in these areas.

The Association is the voice of the crane industry and recognised by the New Zealand government and the general public alike as the official representative on all matters relating to the safety and operation of cranes.

What are the Crane Association New Zealand's most successful membership strategies to increase engagement and membership retention? 

The not-for-profit sector is notorious for the lack of member engagement and traditionally it always the few that strive for the majority. Our philosophy is that anyone who pays their subscription is engaged whether it be overtly or covertly. There are two methods that places the Association firmly in the minds of the members, a personal call asking how they are and if they have any issues that we can help with, and a face to face meeting at their place of work. I have embedded both of these practices in the culture of the Association.

What do you personally feel has been the biggest challenge that the Crane Association New Zealand has has overcome in your time with the organisation? 

The biggest challenge has been moving the organisation from an entity that works in the shadows achieving the minimum standards to one that now collaborates at the forefront of the industry and now sets the standards. I now work collaboratively within the regulatory framework and are setting the compliance standards whereas for other industries, authorities and agencies are still having to create legislation to achieve compliance.  

How does the future look for the Crane Association New Zealand (or what exciting projects are underway at Crane Association New Zealand)?

The Association has had steady growth over the last three years in all key performance areas. In the next 18 months we are implementing a competency licencing system for crane operators, and we will be moving some of our paper based resources like the Crane Safety Manual into the digital App environment. We also have some of our key legislation undergoing reviews now that the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 has been released and we will be involved in the writing of the Terms of Reference and Scopes for those.

What would you say to someone starting out in the not-for-profit with a view to become a future leader?

Your professional development will determine where you end up. A not-for-profit leader requires far more skills than the commercial or corporate sector. One of the founding skills is the capturing and analysis of data as that provides the basis of all not-for-profit activity. It is needed for the scrutiny of finances, membership, strategy, lobbying and administration. The majority of your decisions are then made from a robust footing that can stand up to scrutiny at all levels across all sectors.

Why not come along to Convene Q, being held on Tuesday, July 26 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) from 9am - 4pm and meet with a broad range of event providers, face-to-face in one location.

Whether you’re looking to source venues, hotels, attractions, speakers, exhibition equipment or AV for your next business event, we’ll have over 80 exhibitors who can assist with your requirements.

It’s free to attend so you can maximise exhibitor meetings, network, enjoy the Convene Knowledge Programme and of course the BCEC’s catering.

Famil Programme for Hosted Buyers

Get out and about and explore what solutions Queensland has to offer for your business event planning. We have very limited spaces remaining for buyers to join the Tangalooma and Brisbane Area famil programmes. We recommend registering today to secure your spot.

You have the option to register as a Fully Hosted Buyer if you are coming from out of state, or as a Semi Hosted Buyer or Day Buyer if you are local. We would love to see you there.

Click here to register!

AuSAE represents over 10,000 individual leaders working in not-for-profit organisations throughout Australasia and currently engage with 2000 Association professionals in the not-for-profit sector in New Zealand.

The Incorporated Societies Bill, AuSAE has run a series of member meetings throughout the country, to support understanding of the bill. As an incorporated society, AuSAE in New Zealand represent over 200 professional, trade and industry associations and membership based organisations.

AuSAE is pleased to provide its submission to the draft ‘Incorporated Societies Bill’. AuSAE supports the intent of the bill that aims to have a more up-to-date and robust legislation of the sector. We do note that this bill will require more work from the legal profession in the short term. However it will provide a long term benefit for the incorporated societies sector. 

The overwhelming member feedback has been in support of the new proposed act, supported with some changes and amendments to the bill. Members can download the submission by clicking here. 

AuSAE welcomes the opportunity to provide further information and to work with officials to positively influence outcomes relating to the areas highlighted. In the event an occasion exists to elaborate further on comments made within the submission, we relish the chance to meet with the committee and to share ideas and discuss our experiences.

For further enquiries or any questions on the submission, please contact AuSAE's General Manager of New Zealand, Brett Jeffery on brett@ausae.org.au.

Enterprise Care has commenced their annual Not for Profit Remuneration Survey. 

This valued Not for Profit Remuneration Report is the major source of sector salary and benefits data for the NFP sector in Australia. The Report ensures that your organisation's salaries and remuneration packages are competitive. It is widely used to benchmark salaries and to conduct annual performance and remuneration reviews.

Completing the remuneration survey 

• All CEOs, Board members, managers, and staff of NFPs throughout Australia are encouraged to contribute and so benefit both themselves and the whole sector.
• The Survey is open from now until Monday 01 August 2016.
• This year, all respondents are specially invited to participate in the Governance Intelligence® Salary & Benefits Health Check (see details at end of Survey).
• All respondents go into a PRIZE draw (see details at end of Survey). 

Respondent Discount

In appreciation, completing the Survey entitles you to purchase The 2016/17 Not for Profit Remuneration Report for only $99 (options will appear at end of Survey).

Security of responses

Enterprise Care respects and upholds your rights to privacy protection under the National Privacy Principles contained in Privacy Legislation. Aggregated responses only are used and no identifiable information is disclosed. Your trust is one of our most important considerations.

Finally...

All questions about the Survey please telephone Enterprise Care on (03) 8862 6315. We look forward to your contribution and to helping you with compensation strategies through The 2016/17 Not for Profit Remuneration Report.

Click here to commence survey. 

Associations strive to prepare volunteer leaders before their first board meeting. But as one CEO learned, a check-in after the meeting can help too.

Board orientation is typically perceived as a one-way street. New volunteer leaders arrive at the association, and established leaders do whatever they feel is enough to give them the lay of the land and help ensure the newbies don’t feel confused or alienated.

The flaw with that process, though, is that it assumes the established hands know what’s going to keep people from feeling confused or alienated. Luckily, there’s a simple (if perhaps underused) tactic to address that: Ask them.

Charles Cohon, CAE, CEO and president of the Manufacturers’ Agents National Association, recently discussed how he addresses this issue with his board. In “Exit Interviews and Fresh Eyes Conversations,” Cohon points out that most organizations reflexively schedule interviews with staffers or volunteers who are leaving the organization. (It’s not a bad idea for longtime members who are retiring, either.) The same instinct should kick in with new board members as well, he says.

“A new board member will see things in their first board meeting that a veteran might dismiss as routine,” he writes. “In your business a new employee or a new rep/principal relationship puts ‘fresh eyes’ on your firm and may reveal problems or opportunities that were hiding in plain sight, but only if you ask.”

A “fresh eyes” conversation doesn’t include the same questions as in an exit interview, or have the same goals, however. “Exit interviews with seasoned board veterans capture the view of someone who has repeatedly been trained on standard operating procedure and who has repeatedly observed standard operating procedure,” Cohon told me. “They have a deep, highly-textured understanding of the current state, which is valuable to capture, but years of board service and acculturation may have to some degree numbed them to possibilities outside the current state.” Newer board members are “more likely to notice idiosyncrasies in our standard operating procedures that a more veteran board member might take for granted.”

The suggestions that emerge from an entrance interview can be modest, such as a recommendation for a different room layout. But in a Collaborate post on the topic, Cohon said that respondents also had thoughts about what kinds of information would be helpful to include in board orientation in future meetings.

To that end, it can help to keep the “fresh eyes” conversation open-ended, unlike exit interviews where there are usually hot topics. “If I ask a question about the layout of the meeting room I will get an answer about the layout of the meeting room,” he writes. “And once I take the conversation in that direction I may never get the opportunity to circle back and get that member’s real top-of-mind issue, which could have something to do with being cut off during debate, a getting passed over for a committee assignment, or confusion about Nose In, Fingers Out (NIFO).”

And in moments like that, it pays to hush up for a moment: “Learn to be comfortable with uncomfortable silences,” says Cohon. “If there was something left unsaid the urge to fill that uncomfortable silence may be just enough motivation to have that person volunteer new insights that you might never have otherwise uncovered.”

In her 2014 Harvard Business Review article, “The Key to a Better Board: Team Dynamics,” Solange Charas highlights the importance of routine communication among and with board members—especially since the most effective board members are often people who aren’t seasoned “insiders.” And in a list of 11 potential trouble spots for boards, Glenn Tecker pointed to the need for regular check-ins about progress: Problems can start, he writes, when “the board process lacks opportunity for periodic discussion of levels of accomplishment so that the failure to perform or concerns about style or approach are not addressed in a timely fashion.”

The dynamic of a board is often established during that first board meeting. If people walk away from it feeling alienated, left out, or otherwise concerned about how valuable they are to the association, that’s a problem. If a conversation with those newcomers can avoid the problem, it’s worth that phone call.

What do you do at your association to connect with new board members after orientation? 

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and was written by Mark Athitakis.

Cybersecurity breaches are rampant—and the C-suite’s disengagement from the problem can exacerbate them. Connecting execs to the tech team can help.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you,” the old line goes, which seems like a fitting way to talk about cybersecurity and leadership. CEOs have the dilemma of rationally thinking about security threats, while recognizing that those threats are very real.

In my feature for the latest issue of Associations Now, I wrote about some of the latest cybersecurity threats at associations - including ransomware and exploiting the internet of things - and explored some of the ways organizations have responded. As with most important issues, a proactive approach that anticipates threats is helpful. And one critical element of that, of course, is making sure that top leaders are part of that discussion.

Problem is, the CEO often isn’t. An ISACA/RSA Conference survey earlier this year pointed out that while cybersecurity is a concern for an overwhelming majority of boards, only one in seven security chiefs report directly to the CEO. Moreover, respondents see a problem at the top: Fewer than half (43 percent) said their organization’s executive team follows good security practices themselves.

Frank Schettini, chief innovation officer at ISACA, an association of information-systems professionals, says it’s increasingly critical to frame cybersecurity as a business and strategic concern, not just an IT one. “This is where our industry has to do a better job,” he says. “Now that we’re going to be speaking to board directors and C-suite members, our professionals aren’t used to that. There’s a different level of conversion that needs be had. Training individuals and communicating in a language of board of directors and C-suite is one of the challenges that we’re facing.”

But communication is a two-way street, and many of the experts I spoke with lamented the lack of engagement from the C-suite with cybersecurity threats - indeed, they say that the problems sometimes start from the top. “That’s what I hear time and time again from people who deal with security breaches and do forensic analyses,” says S. Keith Moulsdale, a partner at the law firm Whiteford Taylor Preston who focuses on cybersecurity issues. “What they’re finding is that the biggest culprits in organizations are the people who kind of feel like the rules don’t apply to them, they’re a little more entitled. That creates a culture in organization where people go, ‘Hey, well the CEO, the CTO, or whoever aren’t doing it, why should I do it?’ They really need to set the tone and then send the signal internally: ‘It’s really critical for our organization to protect, not only our employee information that’s collected but also our membership, certificant, or applicant information.’”

So how to clear that hurdle? James DeHoniesto, director of business technology optimization and cybersecurity at SSD Technology partners, recommends that the C-suite be involved in the creation of an incident response plan. That engages leaders in the importance of the problem - and also forestalls them from making it worse. “The CEO and the COO, CFOs are typically involved [after a security breach], but those three need to be engaged prior to this,” he says. “Part of why they need to be involved and engaged in that is so that if this happens, there’s not the panic that can typically occur where people are potentially perpetuating the attack because they’re copying files to other computers because they’re worried about what’s happening internally and/or ignoring it and allowing it to create an even bigger problem or issue.”

“There needs to be C-level buy-in to any data security compliance program,” Moulsdale says. “They really need to set the policy and actually comply with it themselves.”

Association executives talk often about the “tone from the top” in an abstract way - that the temperament and confidence expressed by a CEO trickles down to the rest of the organization in ways that can be difficult to see. Cybersecurity, though, is one of those cases where the engagement of the C-suite makes a palpable difference in the organization, not only keeping the association’s data safe through their own behavior but stressing the importance of everybody to do the same.

How does your organization plan ahead for cyberattacks and communicate the importance of data security? 

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and was written by Mark Athitakis.

A new study suggests associations overlook the primary motivation for young members: jobs. But is that a benefit associations are capable of offering?

What more can be said about the challenge associations face in attracting young members that hasn’t been said before? We’ve already said a lot, so what else is there to add?

Well, here’s a thought: Maybe all this time we’ve been overcomplicating things. Maybe the motivations of young professionals aren’t that hard to understand. They might even be blindingly obvious.

That’s one way to look at a key finding in a new study from Abila titled “Member Engagement Study: Aligning Organization Strategy With What Matters Most to Members.” The survey asked 1,030 members of professional associations about their primary motivations for joining, and it broke down responses by generational segment. For millennials, the benefit they seek most was clear:

Jobs.

You probably didn’t need a research study to tell you that young people just starting out in their careers are looking for job opportunities. But if you’re settled into your career and haven’t taken a ride on the job-search train in a while, it’s easy to forget just how consuming that process can be. And that’s evident in the Abila study’s other finding. A concurrent survey asked 150 association professionals what they thought members valued most, and their top three answers were predictably off the mark: conferences, networking, and advocacy.

Amanda Myers, director of member strategy at Abila and author of the study, says the gap between members’ motivations and associations’ efforts to serve them is one of scope and scale. “The things that members really value are the things that they can internalize and that really impact them as individual people,” she says, “and associations are still looking at themselves as big organizations and maybe a little bit less in terms of how they can impact individual members.”

The obvious problem here is that associations can’t hand out jobs in their industries. “Join now and get a job!” wouldn’t quite pass muster with truth-in-advertising laws. And so associations tout more vague prospects like “career advancement” and “professional development,” which are of course real but too generic to convey any tangible meaning.

It’s important to note that millennials, and gen X-ers as well, also ranked benefits like credentials, training, and networking highly, but these deliver, at best, an increased potential for job opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with long-term career development, but building a clearer connection between young professionals and their next job is an enormous opportunity for the taking.

Myers cites developing “a strategy specifically for early careerists” as one of the key steps forward in the study: “More than any other segment studied in this report, those early in their career express unique preferences,” she writes. “They need more from their organizations, actively looking to them for job assistance, training to make them stand apart in a sea of applications, and ways to create long-lasting connections with one another. Focusing on this segment and ensuring their engagement from day one creates greater opportunity for sustained growth and a brighter future for your organization.”

So, what would such a strategy look like? How could your association make “job opportunities” less of a theoretical benefit and more of a real one? I see possibilities on both small and large scales.

Start small:

• Improve your messaging. Here’s the low-hanging fruit. If you can identify your early-career segment, tailor your communication to them to emphasize the immediate career benefits of membership.
• Repackage membership. For young members, Myers says, “it’s just not enough to have a cheap membership that looks like everything else but is just less expensive.” Instead, create an early-careerist membership package with job-seeker benefits, like free or deeply discounted training courses or a free resume critique.
• Cite numbers. Have you researched whether your certification leads to increased earnings? Or whether membership itself correlates to higher compensation? Whatever numbers you can get that make the link between your association and career advancement, put them front and center.
• Cite success stories. Your association is likely well aware when members land new jobs (you might even already be publishing such announcements). Find members who can say their engagement in the association led to their new job, and share their stories.

Think big:

• Engage member companies in developing the next-gen workforce. That could mean association-sponsored internship programs, or employer-subsidized memberships, or tailored corporate training programs.
• Go beyond job boards. The possibilities with career-service centers are deep, ranging from resume guidance to skills-gap identification to coaching and mentoring, and a lot of associations have created robust programs, but there could be room to go further. What’s stopping associations from expanding into genuine job-placement programs or staffing services?
• Re-envision your association’s role in employment. If you haven’t noticed, the global economy is changing, and our education system is struggling to keep up. A large swath of the workforce needs better training, and associations are in a perfect position to take on that challenge, if they only gather the collective will to do so.

None of these is a silver bullet, but the opportunity is too big to ignore. Jobs are the top-of-mind concern for associations’ youngest members, and if your association can find a way to play a leading role in helping them land those jobs, there’s likely no other benefit you could offer that would better earn their deep member loyalty.

What has your association done to connect members to jobs? What are the biggest challenges you face in doing so? 

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and was written by Joe Rominiecki.

Content is great, and frequently updated content is even better. But do any of your content marketing efforts matter if they don’t intentionally convert visitors into leads and leads into customers?

Whether you’re an experienced digital marketer, or just dipping your toes into the process for the first time, it’s very likely you’ve started to wonder about how you can help your content convert more leads. And while this is a specialized process — in fact, many copywriters and marketing firms specialize in CRO, or conversion rate optimization — there are a few things you can do today to help your company write web content that converts.

Aligning the Moving Parts of Website Content

When we talk about content, it’s important to note that we aren’t simply talking about the words you use as you write your website, blog or whitepapers. We’re talking about how your content marketing blueprint (the big picture plan of the content) and your content marketing assets (the format of the content) combine to create web content that converts. It’s putting the pieces together that matters.

Each of these moving parts is important to itself and requires thoughtful planning. And while it may seem like the content development process is a large undertaking, investing time and attention in your overall strategy leads directly to higher conversion rates.

Approach Every Content Campaign With These Rules

With a content marketing blueprint in place that identifies the copy titles and formats that will most resonate with your prospective customers, you can bring your focus back to developing web content that converts.

For every asset you develop, make sure you follow the following three conversion-focused content rules:

1. Freely share your knowledge.

Carefully controlling who can learn what about how your company functions is an outdated business practice. While you should still protect proprietary information, just about everything else is fair game for attracting customers.

Collectively, your company has a lot of experience to share. It’s people has stories to share. Don’t be afraid to open up and share this experience with customers who are hungry for authentic connection with a prospective partner.

2. Target each asset to a persona.

When you sit down to commission a blog article or white paper to support your content marketing efforts, it can be tempting to focus the project on as many people as possible in order to expand its reach. However, untargeted copy is bad copy, and targeting everyone actually ends up targeting no one.

For every asset you develop, pretend you’re answering a specific question asked by a specific person. Using this focused approach for all of your copy — whether you’re writing blog articles, white papers, case studies, or emails — will allow you to form a personal connection with each reader that your audience would otherwise opt out of.

I occasionally speak at different industry events, and like to put myself on the “hot seat” during Q&A time. That’s the same mindset I have during writing — to answer a direct question in hopes that others will overhear and take something away from the conversation.

3. Be conversational.

Different content formats require different tones of voice. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that formal is always better. For example, consider the impact of a polished article on The Harvard Business Review compared to a new blog post from marketing thought leader Seth Godin. These two types of content couldn’t be more different, and yet they’re equally effective for different people in different ways.

The web content you develop for your company doesn’t need to be scholarly or insanely polished to be effective (unless you’re selling to an academician). For many audiences, it can often be more effective if it is conversational and personal.

Consider each of these three steps and then click over to review your company’s website.

• Are you freely sharing knowledge, or alluding to the secretive benefits that arise from working with you?
• Are your blog posts targeted to one persona and one specific topic, or do they try to please everyone (and appeal to no one in the process)?
• Are you striking an informal and welcoming tone, or are you unconsciously reverting to stiff corporate-speak?
• Conversion copywriting is its own science, but these beginner tips can help you plan a website or marketing content project that delivers web content that converts.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Rick Whittington.

Social media marketing is bigger than ever. You basically have to be doing it.

Trouble is, that means it’s competitive. To make a dent, you need a great strategy.

We’ve found some tools that’ll automate steps along the way. If you’re like me, you want to outsource as much as you can to machines. Machines are the future – until the alien wasp army arrives.

These tools will help you build slammin’ social media profiles and start bringing in customers. Sweet, sweet customers. They’ll help you find content, engage influencers, and monitor social media.

But first, you need an account. It takes skill to make a good one. We won’t get too deep into this, but here are a few tips for some of the major social networks:

Setting up for social media success

Facebook

HubSpot says the keys are a great “About” page, an excellent cover picture, and proper use of Facebook Insights.

Twitter

All you need for Twitter is a handle, some nice images, and the right voice. That will lay the groundwork to build a strong brand there.

LinkedIn

Social Media Examiner posted this step-by-step guide to set up a LinkedIn company page. It explains how to use LinkedIn analytics and showcase pages to shine on the professional network.

Instagram

Hootsuite calls Instagram a “critically important social network.” Their guide to creating an account explains everything you need to know to get started. Plus, they recommend some fun photo-editing apps.

Now that you’re all set up, let’s look at those tools.

Tools for better social media marketing

1. Discoverly – find new followers

You won’t make much of a dent without a decent following. You need people to share and engage with your content. That’s how you build brand awareness.

Buffer’s Kevan Lee wrote a great piece on how to get your first 1,000 followers. For every social network, you need:

• A complete and interesting profile
• Links to make your profiles easy to find
• Great content
• Great people to interact with

The Discoverly Chrome extension will help with that last point. When you view a person’s social media or email profile, it’ll show you their other accounts.

Suppose you follow someone on Twitter. Hover over the Discoverly icon, and you’ll see all their other public social networks.

Use it to build stronger connections with customers, clients, and colleagues. Follow your Twitter customers on their LinkedIn and Google+ profiles. When they follow back, you’ve turned a single social user into three.

2. BuzzSumo – share great content

Once you’ve found your followers, you need to make them happy. This means finding and sharing excellent content.

You should also share other people’s work. BuzzSumo makes it easy to find the best content around.

BuzzSumo is a simple tool for researching your industry. Search for keywords and get a list of the most popular content that day, week, month, etc.

Share and comment on these posts to interact with other writers, and cement yourself as a voice in your industry.

You can also see what’s popular on specific social networks. If certain topics are more popular on one network than another, build that into your sharing strategy.

3. Rafflecopter – host a competition

Competitions get social media users engaged. Plus, they’re dead simple.

Our friend Rob Brooks says social media competitions need:

• Clear contest objectives
• The right competition format
• Well-defined rules
• Time- and prize-limits
• A great look and feel

Rafflecopter calls itself “the world’s easiest way to run a giveaway.” In three minutes, you can run a contest across multiple social platforms.

It lets you add multiple ways to enter the contest, from following you on Twitter to signing up for your newsletter. You can assign different point values to different entry options.

It’s a quick and easy way to entertain users, and collect lead information. All for free!

4. Little Bird – find and engage influencers

To make your message heard, find the people with the loudest voices.

Influencers are social media users with large followings that listen to them. They help build brand awareness and direct people to your company. Plus, they make you look good.

The key to influencer marketing is finding the right partners. That’s where our next tool comes in handy.

Little Bird is a great tool for building influencer lists by topic. You feed it a few keywords, and it suggests powerful people to reach out to.

It uses advanced data to help you find the perfect influencer. You can pinpoint specific geographic locations and languages. You can also find two (or more) networks with similar interests, and influencers that appeal to both.

If influencer marketing is your main mission, it’s a great tool.

To learn more, we wrote a whole book about influencer marketing on social media.

5. Hootsuite – social media listening

Once you’re rolling on social media, you’ll need to monitor your progress. Social listening will let you know what’s being said about you, good and bad. Plus, you’ll see whether your campaigns are making an impact.

Hootsuite is a full social media suite with a little to offer for every area of social marketing.

You can schedule posts, curate streams based on Twitter lists or keywords, and collect analytics. It connects with over 35 platforms, so you can monitor all of social media from one place.

It’s also designed to be used in teams. This makes it perfect for sharing social media accounts without sharing passwords, and for effective customer service.

But what if you want to monitor more than just social media?

6. Mention – complete monitoring

Want to find new content ideas, reach out to influencers, monitor competitors, and grow your brand?

Look no further.

Monitor what’s being said about any name or keyword online, then react and analyze conversations.

Specifically for social media:

• A designated Twitter dashboard to monitor and improve your account’s performance.
• Join Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram conversations directly from the app.
• Monitor and analyze competitors’ social media strategies.
• Identify and interact with the important influencers in your niche

And that’s the list!

Short and sweet. There are a million-and-one ways to market on social media, but these six tools will make a huge difference.

Pick your favorite, or use all of them together. Make them part of your daily social routine. You’ll start building connections and finding customers in no time.

Want to learn more, check out our ebook.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Patrick Whatman.

I’m sure many of you are too young to remember Willie Sutton, but you may have read about him. Willie was an infamous bank robber who robbed hundreds of banks back during a forty-year “career” beginning in the 1930s. Willie is reported to have had a smart answer when someone asked him, “Willie, why do you rob banks?” Although it is reportedly an urban legend, his now-famous answer was, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Even if you never heard of Willie Sutton, at some point in time, you’ve probably been told this by your board or CEO: “Gosh, there are all these big banks (or hi-tech companies, or casinos, or whatever the ‘big guys in town’ are) in our community. Write to them and ask them for a contribution!”

Dollars to doughnuts (no pun on Willie or the police who nabbed him), if you listened to this advice, you struck out. You might have sent a letter to hundreds of businesses and received one donation (if you’re lucky).

Yes, there are a lot of businesses in your community. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, or a small rural town in Wyoming—there are businesses there! But how do you narrow down the field to which ones will support your cause?

Don’t always think of the big companies in your community. There are lots of entrepreneurs, small companies, and mid-sized companies that are often far more generous that the larger companies and might not be on everyone else’s radar screen. So, let’s get rid of the Willie Sutton theory and start thinking about the companies that are likely to support your organization.

The Ideal Business Donor Profile

First, you need to figure out which of these businesses (whether there are dozens or thousands of them in your community) would be likely to support your organization. Let’s build an ideal business donor profile for your organization. Here are some things you might include in your “Ideal Profile:”

• This business gives to charities similar to ours.
• We have a connection to a top manager/executive within this company.
• This business is “in our neighborhood.”
• We’ve done business with this company.
• This business has given to us previously.
• This business has a natural connection to our mission (i.e., a crayon, toy, or kids’ clothing manufacturer giving to a child care center).
• This company has an interest in supporting the community.
• This company has an employee volunteer program.
• This company shares our values.

What other criteria would you add for your organization? You should be able to sit down with your staff, development committee or board and develop this ideal business donor profile in a matter of minutes—an hour at most.

Okay, so you’ve developed your ideal business donor profile. Now let’s get started developing your list of prospects.

Our Prospect List

Now you’re ready to review your profile and match up the companies in your community to see which ones are your best prospects. So let’s start with a list of “suspects,” companies that might become donors.

Hint: To help you develop these lists, use the brainstorming form attached here and have board members, staff and volunteers develop a preliminary list of people they have contacts with. Be sure to tell them that you are not going to contact these businesses yet but that you are trying to develop a list of prospective donors.

You should be able to develop a huge list within one month by following these steps:

• Meet with your CFO and get the list of vendors.
• Drive around your neighborhood in an afternoon—take someone along to make note of the companies and businesses in the neighborhood.
• Hold a brainstorming session, using the form, with your board at the next board meeting. This should take about 15 minutes.
• Hold a brainstorming session with your departmental staff at the next staff meeting(s). This should also take about 15 minutes at each staff meeting.
• Hold a brainstorming session at your next development committee meeting (another 20 minutes) and any other volunteer meetings you have.
• Spend an afternoon visiting your local chambers of commerce and see if you can get a list (you may have to be a member, so join now). Remember that there might be several chambers in your area. My community, for example, has a major metropolitan chamber, three or four suburban chambers, a women’s chamber, an Asian chamber, a Hispanic chamber and an African-American chamber.

Narrowing the Field

Okay, you might have a list of hundred, even thousands if you’ve done your homework. And it took you only a few weeks! Now let’s narrow the field and fit these “suspects” into your ideal donor profile so they become “prospects.”

• Suspect: A company that might be interested in supporting your cause.
• Prospect: A company, after being compared with your ideal business donor profile, that you believe would support your cause.
• Expect: A company, after cultivation (more about that later), that you believe will make a donation to support your cause.

Let’s get started developing your list.

• Start your business appeal by creating an ideal business donor profile.
• Develop a list of suspects—all the businesses you can think of that might support your organization.
• Narrow down your list by comparing it with your donor profile, and then develop a list of prospects—companies that you believe, with proper cultivation and a good case, would support your organization.

Now go out there out and get them!

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Linda Lysakowski.