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Slide Notes

Let's face it, no one has enough time to manage their major gifts program by the book. Regardless of whether your major donor portfolio is 5 people, or 500, you need a practical way to qualify, cultivate, solicit and steward the people investing in your cause. Stealing from the tech field, this session discusses using Scrum, a project management model, to better track and implement the activities of your major gifts program. Using real world examples for a currently running campaign, you'll learn about the different types of process management, what Scrum is, and how to put this model to work.

Sprinting Your Way Through Your Major Gifts Program

Published on Nov 18, 2018

Let's face it, no one has enough time to manage their major gifts program by the book. Regardless of whether your major donor portfolio is 5 people, or 500, you need a practical way to qualify, cultivate, solicit and steward the people investing in your cause. Stealing from the tech field, this session discusses using Scrum, a project management model, to better track and implement the activities of your major gifts program. Using real world examples for a currently running campaign, you'll learn about the different types of process management, what Scrum is, and how to put this model to work.

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Ready, Set, SPRINT

Using Scrum to Manage Major Gifts
Let's face it, no one has enough time to manage their major gifts program by the book. Regardless of whether your major donor portfolio is 5 people, or 500, you need a practical way to qualify, cultivate, solicit and steward the people investing in your cause. Stealing from the tech field, this session discusses using Scrum, a project management model, to better track and implement the activities of your major gifts program. Using real world examples for a currently running campaign, you'll learn about the different types of process management, what Scrum is, and how to put this model to work.

Goals

  • Understand scrum and how it can apply to major gifts
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses of model
  • Evaluate for your program
Photo by Cupcake Media

Problems

with major gifts and campaign management
Photo by KKfromBB

Overwhelm:
There's always
too much to do

Competition:
Defining and
measuring success

Communication:
Understanding
the big picture

Accountability:
Metrics and progress

Photo by Carbon Arc

Priorities:
"Easy" v.
mission-critical

Advances v. Continuances

Photo by Vek Labs

Challenges with other models

  • How to deal with overwhelm
  • May discourage communication
  • Metrics only as good as inputs
  • Measure steps not progress
Photo by Mike Throm

Introducing Lowell Observatory

Photo by lazytom

Campaign for the Second Century

  • Small development team
  • Relatively young major gifts program
  • Culture of metrics
  • One of the biggest campaigns in Northern Arizona

Introducing Scrum

Photo by cgt

Introducing Scrum

Photo by drewgstephens

Framework for developing complex products, used mostly in software and technology

Why use scrum in major gifts management?

Photo by drewgstephens

Why scrum?

  • Adaptability
  • Increase productivity of small team
  • Definition of "done"
  • Consistent review of work in progress
Photo by alandd

"I Hate Scrum"

Photo by m01229

The Scrum Team

Photo by Robby Ryke

Product Owner

  • Primary accountability for success
  • Generates "backlog"
  • Deputy Director of Development (Vice President)
Photo by ylmworkshop

Development Team

  • Self-organizing, cross functional group
  • Deliver successful product
  • Executive Director, Trustee, Development Manager, Major Gifts Officers, Foundation Manager, Annual Fund Manager

Scrum Master

  • Maintains the "backlog"
  • Helps overcome barriers

Scrum Process

Overview

  • Sprint planning
  • Sprint
  • Daily scrums
  • Sprint review/retrospective
Photo by Tim Gouw

The Sprint

  • One month or shorter period
  • Two weeks is ideal
  • Strategic imbalance
Photo by Tim Gouw

Sprint Planning

  • What can be delivered in this set time frame?
  • How will we need to work to deliver that?

Daily Scrum

  • What did I do yesterday to move toward the goal?
  • What will I do today?
  • What's in my way?
Photo by rawpixel

Sprint Review

  • What's done
  • What's not done and why
  • Pick new goals
  • Review big picture of product
Photo by Dean Hochman

How is it working?

What's going well

  • Sprints every two weeks
  • Incremental "product" = which gift can we close or advance?
  • Cross team coaching and handoffs

What's not working

  • Daily scrums on Slack
  • Can't control donor behavior

How Scrum Helps

  • Discipline
  • Reduces overwhelm
  • Little competition
  • Quicker handoffs
  • More productive

Lessons Learned

Photo by JonathanCohen

Lessons Learned

  • Key factor is separating product owner from scrum master
  • Discipline for meetings is critical
  • Action is more important than outcome
Photo by JonathanCohen

Will this work for you?

Photo by BAMCorp

Evaluation

  • List strengths and weaknesses of your current process
  • Evaluate if scrum will address the weaknesses
  • Evaluate if scrum will support the strengths
  • Commit to a pilot
Photo by michael.heiss

Shiny Object Syndrome

Beware of

goalbusters.net/free

@aliceferris @goalbusterjim @goalbusters