Much Needed Inspiration and Direction

Earlier this month I was able to join the Association of Lutheran Development Executives (ALDE) to serve as a source of education, direction, and networking.  ALDE holds an annual conference each year with workshops led by seasoned development professionals and leaders from throughout their organization and the country.  I was grateful to be able to attend this year's conference in Minneapolis. 

I was pleasantly surprised that Minneapolis did not experience any snow during my stay.  It was even above freezing through much of the time!  I was thoroughly impressed by the Skyway which linked over 70 blocks together through a second-level series of lobbies, shops, and enclosed bridges.  Perhaps it was more intriguing than the Mall of America. 

The conference began with Registration and a Newcommers Orientation which gave me a green Newcommer ribbon that assured me I would be taken care of extra special (and I was!).  This meeting was just a small introduction to the conference and my ALDE regional chapter.  From there I attended an Early Career Affinity meeting that was a great basic introduction into the world of Development and a great place to meet other people new to the profession. 

The next few days were full of workshops, times to talk and bounce ideas off of others, and time to get tools to better do development.  The best part of the conference for me was actually not an official part of the conference.  Gronlund Sayther Brunkow (GSB), an association of non-profit consultants who assist organizations (mostly in capital campaigns) was having a 35-year anniversary gala.  Lutherlyn received an invitation due to the fact that we use GSB services when we underwent our new Dining Hall campaign in the 1990's.  The speakers were phenomenal and such an inspiration.  It really inspired me, helped me to see the ministry that fundraising really is, and allowed me to understand the mutual, interdependent partnership that is involved in fundraising between donors and the organization. 

Overall, the conference was a beautiful balance of education, inspiration and networking.  The things I learned while at the conference will help me build a solid foundation for this career.  I will look to share some of the inspirational perspectives I learned in later posts.  I already purchased a book by Henri Nouwen titled "The Spirituality of Fundraising " which was recommended to be a great piece to guide me in my work.

Thank you ALDE for a great experience!  

A Website to be Envied

The better part of my first month was dedicated to updating the website.  http://www.lutherlyn.com/ has become very familiar to me during this time.  Last year there was a transition between webhosts and little has been done since the transition due to the complexity of schedules.  So, taking over advertising responsibilities, it was appropriate to take the reigns of our web presence. 

Two elements that I knew had to be addressed were consistent updates and completeness.  I have been making huge efforts to make the site as complete, comprehensive, and easy to navigate as possible.  To date, we are still not there, but getting there.  I believe we have made huge strides in making the site a very informative site full of pictures and useful links. 

One of the biggest issues I wanted to tackle was the lack of traffic to the site. I was sure that just having a complete store of information was enough to drive the numbers up.  Still, there needed to be a consistent attention getter that kept people coming back.  For this I  have employed the network of Facebook to enhance website traffic.  I attempt to make a daily status update highlighting a new addition to the site or maybe an unknown area that could use some more attention.  Many times I have changed the homepage to highlight an area in a spotlight. 

I am happy to report that the traffic for the month of January had tripled when compared to December! 

A challenge that was given to me was to somehow make our web presence one that helps people to experience camp throughout the year and tie in each summer.  I have yet to develop an intentional strategic plan for this, but I have at least discovered a starting block.  My goal is to get camp to to be on the daily consciousness of people. 

The way I found was a creative, yet fun tool to accomplishment is the initiation of the "Lutherlyn Past Photo of the Day."  In my new office I discovered a variety of historical photos, postcards, yearbooks, preserved newspaper articles from the very founding of camp until the present day.  It was so much fun going through all these photos for the first time and seeing the campers and staff members, what had changed, and what has remained the same.  This was something that should not be left in boxes, but shared. 

So, each day I post a new photo to Facebook from the archives of Lutherlyn.  Each day will be a different decade spanning from the 1940s to the 2000s.  There have been many positive responses, "likes," and comments that I will continue this indefinitely.  Here are some of the recent ones I have posted since starting: 

It serves a a little bit of a daily devotional.  Plans will hopefully be for this to become more of an interactive piece and an asking of friends to share their stories and their photos as well.  It is an exciting addition to our web presence.