Calling a meal a ‘rubber chicken dinner’ isn’t generally complimentary, especially for one who likes food.
But in the fundraising world, an event that serves up cheap fare is a sign that the host is serious about raising money.
John H. Motley has been to a lot of rubber chicken dinners.
That isn’t to say that he thinks event planners should serve shabby food. He just believes events are as much about exposure as they are about money. But he has also been to a lot of events in Hartford that have small crowds, begrudging giving and, worst of all, no feeling of passion.
In that case, tasty food isn’t much of a consolation.
As president of the St. Paul Travelers Connecticut Foundation, Motley was one of the most sought after dinner guests in town. Eight months ago, he started a consulting and planning group, MotleyBeup. The idea is to write recipes for long-term financial success at local nonprofits, and now he and his partner, Jane W. Beup, are hoping to extend their rubber chicken tour out of town.
Numerous Requests
At the foundation, Motley received more applications for money than he could possibly read, and even after a computerized screening process, the difficulty of choosing the most worthy causes was never easy.
Motley said nonprofit executives, particularly those at smaller organizations, often rise through the ranks by providing programming and lack experience raising money.
“So many times, they get to where they are through the programming. So a lot of times, [fundraising] is just not an area they’ve been exposed to a lot,” he said.
That leads directors and development officers, almost always stretched for time, to seek grants from the big-name foundations in town – along with every other nonprofit leader.
“They’re throwing it against the wall to see if it will stick. A lot of times, they haven’t taken time to see if they’re a good fit,” Beup said.
What Motley and Beup want for their clients, a list that includes Our Piece of the Pie, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Connecticut Community College and the Chrysalis Center, is a better process for seeking funding.
They start with their clients’ boards. Some have members who have stayed beyond their usefulness and might be given ‘emeritus’ status. Other boards are weighted too heavily in one way or another: Motley would like to see a board of diverse talents, backgrounds and financial connections.
Next, a MotleyBeup client can expect some changes in the way its next event is planned. As the line for corporate giving continues to lengthen, much more of a focus must be given to engaging individual donors, Motley and Beup believe. But engaging individuals on a personal level requires far more creativity and innovation than sending out grant applications, and the smaller the organization, the harder that will be.
Take an example from Habitat for Humanity, which for years has held a popular Women Build project, in which female-only volunteers build a home. MotleyBeup is hoping to build on the event’s popularity by asking female donors to foot the bill this year, in donations of $75,000 or higher.
But like MotleyBeup’s other clients, if Habitat meets its goals it won’t be because Motley and Beup simply introduced them to a pack of wealthy friends.
“People just assume that you’re going to call all of your friends, again and again, but that’s not what it’s about,” Beup said.
If you do, Motley adds, “your well will run dry.”
The firm’s planned expansion to clients in Boston and Providence represents something new for Motley, a man so staked in Hartford that he has been recruited (unsuccessfully) to run for mayor.
It’s especially surprising given that his new firm is not a year old yet.
But Beup, brother of former Hartford chamber lobbyist Neil W. Beup and a former events manager at the Connecticut Convention Center, has already begun traveling to Boston at least twice per month and says she is gaining traction with clients already, particularly those who have an interest in expanding their efforts back in the direction of Hartford. To brand their name outside of Connecticut, the firm has commissioned a newly designed logo, marketing materials, business cards and a Web site, which will be up later this month.
The last time Motley entered new waters it didn’t work out so well. He announced in the spring of 2005 that he was joining the Hartford Public School system to create change from within. He did nothing of the sort, resigning almost a year to the day later and describing the organization as one besieged by intractable bureaucracy.
“That was the most frustrating year of my professional career,” he says.
Motley, who works out of his top-floor suite at the Lofts at Main and Temple, still thinks closing the achievement gap in Connecticut is critical. He’ll just be doing it one rubber chicken dinner at a time.
