Welcome to Influence & Outcomes
Purpose, Passion . . . we add Performance
Influence & Outcomes: Our story
The current state of affairs for Non-Profits
Four Vehicles we use to Build the Brand
Better Outcomes
Influence & Outcomes LLC
Purpose, Passion . . . we add Performance
We are three brothers connected to the non-profit space through our sister, who has operated an emerging non-profit in NC for 12+ years. Watching her triumphs, and hearing some of her frustrations, as an Executive Director led us down this path.
Our interest: Changing the trajectory of small and medium sized Non-profits and Social Enterprises.
Our mission and focus: Promoting leadership using “Best Practices” common in the for-profit sector.
After doing countless interviews with Non-profits like yours, we arrived at one singular focus to best help organizations like yours: Building the Brand for non-profits.
Exactly what does that means? Please read on.
Influence & Outcomes: Our story
We, meaning myself and my two brothers, didn’t get here by accident. We have a sister with an award-winning Non-profit, as mentioned earlier. With her growth, however, came growing pains and new challenges. Beyond our first encounter with software she’d obtained, which wasn’t meeting her needs, we uncovered a number of other vexing issues as well.
Those issues include: Better outreach to her donor and clients; a need for smarter ways to fundraise; a desire to use technology to make mundane, recurring administrative tasks easier.
When we -Greg, Jeff, and I- dug deeper we uncovered a number of other ways which Inflluence and Outcomes LLC could actually make her and other Non-profits achieve better outcomes.
Applying business principles, we started utilizing the most recent technologies, like social media, software automation tools, and big data, to facilitate her organization’s ability to transform and improve performance.
We firmly believe that what we’ve learned during this 22-month journey (so far), and our prior collective experiences, can tremendously help many other Non-profits too!
Jr Silverthorne, 10/1/16
The current state of affairs for Non-Profits
Let’s discuss what you already know
Non-profit Executive Directors/Founders, almost instinctively, start a non-profit with these two essentials: Purpose and Passion. Yet let me tell you what we also found: The non-profit world is certainaly not getting simpler; funding and grants are harder and harder to find. How have you have responded to this new reality?
That is a question Influence and Outcomes helps non-profits like yours answer. The interviews we’ve conducted with organizations similar to yours has yielded some truths:
1 – You need money
2 – You need money
3 – You need money
So do we have your attention yet? The research we did revealed far more than that though. Funding and sustainability are core concerns. We work to reveal the paths to get more money.
You most likely think that if the grants are fewer in number and harder to qualify for then a fundraiser, a capital campaign, or an event are your only answers. They aren’t.
The answers begin with Building the Brand
Building the Brand of your non-profit involves all the elements that are required to add another “P”, Performance, to your repertoire. Purpose you have. Passion you feel. For the money to flow well, you have to begin by changing the way you see your organization. You have to successfully Build the Brand.
Branding: The expression of the essential truth or value of an organization, product, or service. It is not something you push on someone, but rather a pull. Branding is the internal operational and behavioral set of practices which give consistency such that it can be perceived on the outside with absolute clarity.
The Dirty Truth that must be said:
Despite what one might believe, every business and every organization has to SELL, and yes that includes you, non-profits, too.
How we all sell may differ. Yet make no mistake, every action, every policy, every ad, and every promotion has the effect of inspiring (or detracting) from your brand. And doing little or nothing, being the best-kept secret in town, is no better.
The Bottom line: Branding as vital to a non-profits success as financial solvency, your organization’s Mission, or the capabilities of your organization’s staff.
Four Vehicles we use to Build the Brand
Performance and the building of your brand come in four vehicles:
1 – Game Plan
2 – Social Media
3 – Fundraising
4 – Publishing
Game Plan
It all begins with a strategy and a solid game plan. Influence & Outcomes puts on a pair of glasses and examines the nature of your operation.
What is the character of your organization? What do you stand for?
How do you raise money and fund your mission?
Do you have a Donor Development program? (If so, how would you characterize the program)
How is the public emotionally tied to your brand?
What makes your non-profit organization’s Mission and programs special?
Social Media
You probably already recognize it’s importance, but are you equipped to regularly take advantage of social media for your non-profit?
While supporting a Non-profit client in Greensboro, NC. Influence and Outcomes learned that 35% of the individuals that liked their Facebook page were on Facebook EVERY day. Our firm was even able to tell the non-profit how many times they come online.
Would that be of value to your non-profit, in getting exposure for your programs and eventually your donor base? We work with you to audit, set-up, and build up your platform on the major Social Media outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Fundraising
This is one that all of you are surely interested in. Newsflash: Donors are created over time. The steps to do this are: Introduce; Cultivate;Educate; Solicit. These are the steps that must be taken to facilitate awareness about your cause, donating to your cause, and sharing your cause with other potential donors. The path to money involves:
+ Capture Interest
+ Nurture Interest
+ Convert Interest
+ Partners
Forging this path requires the multiple vehicles Influence & Outcomes deploys as part of building your brand. For example, automated tools can help a non-profit develop and create a clean, reliable email list.
Publishing
In our current day and time, content is King. Online articles, posts, and messages make up the content of a savvy non-profit or small business.
According to research by Forrester, only 10% of people give any validity to a banner ad on a search engine. Even among non-profits, trust is questioned. However, 75% of your likely donor audience rely on content to research or validate a non-profit before making a decision.
Influence & Outcomes works with our non-profit clients to reveal, coach, and direct what forms of content they need to recommend or create to build their image in their respective communities. With our non-profit volunteer college program, we even help you create the content that will build a following.
Better Outcomes
Influence & Outcomes – Beyond Building the Brand, we are here to improve outcomes for all non-profits through via the following:
+ Resource Library (under development)
Three business terms that we want you to become familiar with:
+ Earned- Revenue stream – Some believe it is anathema to a non-profit. Yet in a changing climate what is most readily needed is a open mindset on how to solve your funding problem.
+ KPI (Key Performance Indicators) or Metrics – Carrying a business principle over into the Non-profit space. If it can’t be measured, it can’t be improved. It’s that simple. KPI’s or metrics are all about measuring the right things. When improved, these things improve the enterprise. Start to think about all of the things you do in your organization: How do you define their effectiveness? We define effectiveness with metrics?
+ Buyer Persona –Built on the real words of real buyers, a Buyer Persona tells you what prospective customers are thinking and doing as they weigh their options to address a problem that your organization hopes to resolve. More than one-dimensional buyer profiles, actionable Buyer Personas reveal insights about your buyers’ (clients and donors) decisions. More specifically, the specific attitudes, concerns, and criteria which drive prospective clients to choose you, your competitor, or accept the status quo. In other words, when you define the persona for your clients and your donors, you take a large step towards significantly improving results and outcomes.
Source: Buyer Persona Institute
Influence & Outcomes, LLC
