Behind the Scenes of Fundraising: Vale Sloane, Director of Development at Atlas Network, Shares His Story
Building a career in strategic fundraising and partnership building in pro-liberty organizations can be a tough challenge considering the lack of content to help professionals in developing their skills. Thinking on how to give you the most valuable resources to get in the game to win, the Leap team is excited to kick off our premiere interview where we'll be sharing insights from experienced Directors of Development in the nonprofit world.
Today, we have the honor of introducing Vale Sloane, the Director of Development at Atlas Network, an important name in the nonprofit sector. With over a decade of experience under his belt, Vale has helped boost Atlas Network's revenue from $10 million to an impressive $28 million. His expertise and passion for fundraising have not only fueled his own success but have also opened doors for numerous organizations worldwide, enabling them to flourish and progress toward their objectives.
Joining us for this insightful conversation are our CEO, Alexander McCobin, and our Marketing Manager, Laura Ferraz.
Laura: It’s incredible to talk with you, Vale, and to give you some context in what we’re doing at Leap, our reason for existing is to help nonprofits succeed, guaranteeing that they have the revenue to keep their operations working and making an impact.
Vale: Did you say ‘revenue’? Something I like is revenue. Tell me about it! (Both laugh).
Laura: I did say Revenue! So, our intention with these interviews is to inspire people and to help develop more Directors of Development because what I've been hearing is that you are almost in extinction.
Vale: Yes, I would love it if we could get more young people involved because we need as many good engaged fundraisers as we possibly can in this movement.
Laura: Count on us for this challenge! So, you were born in Australia, right? How many years have you lived in the US?
Vale: Australia, born and raised. Been in the US for eight years this year, but the accent doesn't go away.
Laura: So I'm talking with you from Brazil. I live in the southern part, almost in Argentina.
Vale: We (Atlas Network) work with a lot of Brazilian organizations. I try to keep tabs on the situation of the country. I would love to visit again. I've only spent 48 hours in Sao Paulo and I had a great time.
Laura: You need to visit Porto Alegre! Your organization is supporting one of the main think tanks in the area, Instituto Atlantos, and they are doing an amazing job also thanks to you.
"Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow"
Event promoted by Instituto Atlantos, an Atlas Network partner.
Laura: So Vale, with almost a decade of experience in strategic fundraising and partnership building, can you share some highlights of your journey and what achievements stand out to you?
Vale: Time flies. I've been almost 10 years in a fundraising role at Atlas network. My first few years, I was actually on our institute relations team for grants and awards, but my role on that team was to deal with foundations and donors, provide them updates, write reports, and help with proposals. So that's really where I started getting a taste, and the more I started working with donors, I was like “Oh, this is really interesting.”
I worked a bit in sales and political fundraising back in Australia, and I decided I wanted to make the leap to being a full-time fundraiser. So when I joined Atlas, in 2016 that year, we closed at 10 million in revenue, and then we added some growth over those next few years. I think one of the things I'm most proud of was ending last year at 28 million. We've had some very aggressive growth over a pretty challenging period, the pandemic period was a bad dream. And really the work is just being a great team and I've loved getting stuck in. I've been able to meet with various seven-figure donors to Atlas and help increase them and bring in new donors and help drive that growth but honestly the thing about fundraising is it's a real team effort, so I think the thing I'm most proud of is we've built a good group of people that are providing value to the donors and the growth seems to be there, Laura, hopefully, we can maintain it. That's literally my job. I don't necessarily have all the answers when it comes to fundraising, and I don't pretend to but when you've been working in this field for as you said, close to 10 years, you see a thing or two and you'll learn a thing or two. So I like to tell other fundraisers if they can learn from my mistakes or adventures, then that's a good thing for everybody and I.
Laura: You sound really passionate about promoting individual freedom. How does this passion fuel your approach in fundraising?
Vale: I love fundraising because I am passionate about individual liberty and free markets. So, that old cliche ‘if you do something you love, you never work a day in your life’ I don't know if I go that far because some days do feel like work, but at the same time, it feels good to be able to represent an organization that represents the ideas that I'm passionate about, and what I think that's really important in my fundraising approach is donors want to know that the people and the causes, and the organizations they're supporting and staffed by passionate, interested engaged people. I would not give my money to somebody who looked bored, disinterested, or didn't want to be there. I would want to give my money to somebody who's excited, has a plan and a passion and, I feel like we have that at Atlas Network.
II try to bring that to my work so that when I'm talking to a donor B foundation or individual Corporation, I can say, this is really exciting. You should be excited about what you’re doing. “We'd love you to be part of it” and it's something to brag about, be proud of and see the results of. I'd like to think that enthusiasm is kind of infectious in the sense that people want to be a part of something and that's a good thing. We're human, we're social creatures. And that's something that I want to bring to all of my kind of donor engagements is that idea of you being part of a really cool project here. That we couldn't do without you and let's do it together.
Laura: Last year I was with Alexander at the Liberty Forum in Uruguay. I'd say it was revigorating because you not only meet people that have the same passion as you, but also the event itself helps boost this feeling of community and that you're really helping build something bigger than you. By the way, I spotted some donors and they were all super proud of being with Atlas network. That was really impressive.
Liberty Forum
Vale speaking at the Europe Liberty Forum organized by Atlas Network.
Vale: You touched on something important there, Laura, because if you want to be negative and read the news, hear about everything bad in the world, you can absolutely fulfill that prophecy and there are a lot of bad things out there. I'm not trying to dismiss that we're all in the business of changing the world and nonprofits but I do also believe that at Atlas Network and myself, we try to be happy warriors.
Yes, there's issues but we're going to take them on. We can do it together, we can be positive and celebrate the achievements as we go. And, frankly, I think that's a breath of fresh air for a lot of donors, especially in an election year where it's not hard to hear the bad news, but there's plenty of good stuff too. So I was talking to a donor the other day who described Atlas Network as “rational optimists”. I really liked that because I resonate with that a lot. It's about saying to our donors “we have a clear perspective of the problems”, and “we're going to do something about it, we need your help”. And I think a lot of them respect that kind of pragmatism.
Laura: Alexandre always shares with us about not taking and always giving value. So at first when I started, I took a course with him as the professor that was Sales & Fundraising Fundamentals, and that was my first real contact with fundraising. And then it all changed, but right now I'm seeing that it's not something that is his. This is the mindset of all the pro-liberty movement. It's just really awesome to see that the whole movement has the same mindset of building something.
Vale: That's exactly as you described, Laura, I want to be able to go to a donor and say, "Look at a group like Instituto Atlantos. Look how it's grown. We've supported them, and we couldn't be prouder of what they've done.” That's creating value for the donor. And frankly, if you don't have that mindset, it can make the rest of us look bad too because you can switch donors off if they think they're an ATM or they're just a connector. You want them to feel that love and appreciation. It's important to build that mutually beneficial kind of arrangement. And I think it's the best kind of win-win where we can, yes, take resources and do good work, but also help them invest wisely in strategies and projects that are making a difference.
Laura: What is the one skill that you'd think someone that wants to become a director of development should focus on developing?
Vale: I'll tell you one, the one key skill I'm still, frankly, working on is shifting from an emotionally reactive space to a proactive space. Fundraising is such a fast-paced discipline, no matter where you are in the team, calls, emails, meetings, a letter comes in suddenly, a donor is not happy, and you have to fix it. Wait, there's a lead you just met in an event. It's all happening all the time. It is inherently, in a lot of ways, a reactive job in that sense because you're responding to an email, you're responding to a deadline, you're responding to a donor request, and there will always be a measure of that. But what I've found, and I think this is a big tip, the sooner people can wrap their heads around it, the better, to be a director is to be proactive.
What I mean by that is:
What does my mailing calendar look like for the year?
What resources do I need to mobilize for that?
Which donor trips around the country are going to be the best use of my time and have the best kind of connections with donors?
Let's plan that out accordingly. Oh, emails, I'm going to check them two hours a day. Not as soon as they come in. Whatever the question is, it is a very important mindset shift, I think, and it trickles down. I tell my team members all the time. I don't want them just replying to an email because it came. You can take a beat, you can focus on the key stuff, you can be proactive about it. And so I think that's a really important thing as a director where there's a big level of project management and personnel management involved, trying to make sure that you can appreciate the noise and appreciate that things need to be addressed but also do it on your terms and in a manner that maximizes productive returns. That's what I'd say, Laura, if there was one thing to take as a director.
Laura: We were talking about something positive, and now I'm going for the opposite. What would you say is the one misstep that you encountered during your journey, and what advice would you give to others for not going through it?
Vale: Sometimes you have to share some of your knocks and what you did to improve. It's gonna sound obvious, but it's a graphic representation of the problem of thanking donors. You need to thank your donors, and thank them immediately. Thank them often if you can.
To give you an example of a pretty long story, but I had worked for months to upgrade a current donor who was quite modest, a couple of 1000. It was very generous, and I managed to increase him to about the 10,000 mark, felt like a big winner, and took a lot of work. I thanked him via email. That was really good and thought we had the processes in place at the time to get him his thank you letter and check, which we do thanks to our platform. And receipt, I should say, so that's all good. We'll fast forward three weeks later, and it turned out that the day he was meant to get his receipt from our system, we've done a full system switch and he never got his thank you, as in a full Salesforce migration. So three weeks later, I got a very angry email from this donor. "You don't appreciate me, you didn't thank me, I didn't get my receipt. And I'll never donate to you again." Now, the worst part of that story is he was right. We messed up and the system was not appropriate. He wasn't properly thanked, and of course, I apologized. I tried to thank him. We lost him. Now that was years ago, and you can see it still weighs heavily on me. But there is a very graphic lesson. And I think it's worth sharing because a lot of the time as fundraisers, we're like, "Oh, thank you, donor. Thank you, donor. Thank you, donor." Well, there are plenty of studies that show that nonprofits and fundraisers are pretty bad at that, and my story is hopefully a warning sign of really showing that gratitude because he was entirely right to be mad about it, and that we had to do better. So that was kind of a challenge on my end. Building those systems, making sure you're saying thank you, things like that is a good lesson, I think, to learn and hopefully not the hard way.
Laura: Well, that was harsh.
Vale: It was an important lesson, and I think it's one thing to say, "thank you, donor."
Laura: That must be something very difficult and to lose this donor that has been supporting you, and sometimes I feel like sometimes fundraisers invest a lot of time to retain that person enough going after others. So that's what
Vale: Like there's no two ways about it, but the relentless optimist in me is you try to take those negative situations and they say, "Okay, well, how do we make this never happen again?" So we got way better. I thought we were already pretty good at thanking. We got even better. We made sure there were redundancies built into our automated systems. We even just made sure that there were some extra layers of thinking done on an ad hoc basis. One of the worst things, especially from a Director of Development position, is to encounter a challenge, fix it, and then not learn from it. I think it's just a massive wasted opportunity on all fronts of time of future opportunity cost, like if you make a mistake, or there's an issue which there will be, fix it, learn from it, implement the changes, and I think that's just a very productive way to take on those challenges as opposed to ignoring them or fixing them but moving on.
Actually learning from them is a really important way to do it. And it helps me feel a little better that even if something bad happened, we can take some good out of it, you know?
“There are plenty of studies that show that nonprofits and fundraisers are pretty bad at thanking.”
Laura: What would you say is the thing that people most overlook in fundraising?
Vale: The thing that gets overlooked is diligence and discipline, the two key elements.
I’ve seen really good fundraisers and great fundraisers, and all of them know that you have to go through a list of calls or to write that particular proposal, or to do multiple follow-ups to try and close a prospect. Knowing that and actually building the plan diligently but then being persistent, being dedicated working through the process, working through the steps, pivoting if needed, is crucial for donors opening these emails. I think a lot of fundraisers can kind of miss this process.
Even if it's not rocket science, It's a lot of hard work and you have to do the hard work. Every fundraiser I've met that's a successful fundraiser, they don't necessarily have a secret weapon or secret, three wishes from a genie. It's just the hard work that they do diligently every day that's focused, targeted, creates value, but they're doing it. The fundraisers I respect are never too busy to send an email, sit down or hit the road because they know you have to put in the work to get that return. And it comes down to that mindset that you have to create value for donors. They're not going to give you something for nothing and they shouldn't, and if you're not going to do the work, you're not going to get the results you want. But if you have the mindset of "I'm doing this work for a really important cause", that's gonna pay off for donor interests.
Laura: I don’t have a deep contact with our fundraising team. I know they follow the Leap Revenue Operations System, but I can't imagine how many people they reach out to and all the hard work they put into this process.
Vale: Fundraising is hard work and if you find good people who are willing to do the hard work to nurture your donors, invest in them. It's tough. It's a skill set. At the end of the day, good fundraisers, go out there and do the work. A bad fundraiser will tell you how busy they are and tell you about all the work they're doing. A good fundraiser will just get it done.
Sloane teaching during one of the various events Atlas organizes worldwide.
Laura: We talked about the importance of thanking donors and building a relationship. What would you say is the most effective way to do that?
Vale: I believe the most effective way to build a relationship is to not think of it as a transactional relationship. So it's not, "I'm going to say thank you to the donor because they gave me money," but it's "I'm going to thank the donor because they allowed us to have this amazing event." Or, "I'm going to thank the donor because their support helped this person. Here's the person you helped. Thank you." So it's always tying the donor's support to an outcome. That's kind of the secret sauce.
I'd also say "trying to get to know your donor'". I can't remember who it was, but somebody said to me, "Donors don't give to Atlas Network because we're amazing. They give to Atlas Network because they're amazing." And so getting to know them, what makes them tick, what other charities they support, what issues they're passionate about, those are the little things that build a relationship. If you know that they've got a family and they've got kids and they're excited about getting back to normality, asking about that, showing that you're interested in them as a person.
And the last thing I'd say is don't just wait until you need something from the donor to reach out. Don't just wait until you've got an event, or you've got an appeal, or you're asking them for something. Shoot them an email. "Hey, I read this article and it reminded me of you. Hope you're doing well." "Hey, we just had a really good win. I thought you'd like to know about it." Just the little touches, I think, are really what make the difference. And then finally, I'd say, especially if you're a young fundraiser, if you're trying to get into the field, find a mentor, find somebody who's been doing this for a while and just ask them questions. Take them out for a coffee, shoot them an email. I've learned a lot from my peers in the field, from people like Alexander, from people that have been doing this for a long time. And I think it's just such a people-driven profession. It's such a relationship-driven profession that finding those relationships and finding those kinds of mentors can really help you succeed.
Laura: Thank you very much for all your insights and for being available to chat with us.
Vale: Absolutely, Laura. It's been a pleasure!
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