Ending the Toxic Relationship With and Between Your Vendors - A Recovering Project Manager Spills the Beans
People having a meeting around a wooden table in a nice office
There I am—sitting in another all-vendor meeting. I hear about all the exciting things the mission side of the house is up to. I feel more connected to the cause than ever before. I look left and right and see intelligent experts in very unique areas, all here to serve my client. I feel fiercely loyal and dedicated to positioning my client for success- and for working collaboratively across their chosen tools and vendors to get the job done. I’ve got ideas percolating to the surface like there is sprite under my skin.
I fire off an email to my client after the meeting that summarizes my thoughts on inter-agency collaboration opportunities to address the challenges they’ve raised. I’m raring to go. This is going to be great!
One week goes by. Two. Three months. My ideas (along with those of everyone else) are on a shelf somewhere. And hell, we flew there, which seems like a pretty big deal these days. My client simply “doesn’t have time to manage those potential areas right now.” I bet all those ideas feel like a huge weight on her shoulders. I bet I’m just another person saying, “Here’s what you should do.” I know I hate getting “shoulded.” I get it.
Every time she’s away from her team captains or field staff it’s a fundraising opportunity lost. She can’t quit bailing in order to build a better boat. So, we just keep our relationship and services going as smoothly as possible. We react. We don’t innovate. I don’t have access or the authority to go to agency XYZ, another vendor that plays into this strategy and asks for more. My client is stuck. I’m stuck. My compatriot agencies are stuck.
We all know that fundraisers like to hear about their impact on your mission. A shocking revelation — so do your vendors and partners. It’s why we do what we do; same as you. I serve you, so you can serve others. Often, we get stuck in the trenches without ever seeing the war or being part of the celebration of success. While I personally, according to my boss, have an endless well of, “Hey, what about this idea???” I am betting many of your partners become demoralized. When that happens, you don’t get their best stuff. They really want to be on your team. And so, they want your other partners to succeed too.
I have served the industry as a project manager for the likes of Susan G. Komen®, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes, and many more. I have served as the Development Director at a small nonprofit. Now I serve as Vice President of Client Engagement. From all those roles, I’ve learned a lot about getting more out of your relationship with your vendor.
But don’t take my word for it. On a LinkedIn poll recently conducted, 50% of respondents work with 2 or more vendors during campaign season. Even more staggering, 33% of respondents work with more than 5. More. Than. Five. That is a lot of time down the drain that could be dedicated to building relationships with high-value constituents.
These are questions to ask your vendor on a kick-off call. Or (when needed) just to hit the reset button:
Ask each other: what does your typical day look like? What does your “season” look like?
Share with your vendor: What are your KPIs?
Are there any relevant pressures from leadership?
How much money could you raise in an hour? This tells me about the value of your time.
How will you and I respond when something goes wrong….because something will. It’ll happen because we’re in the business of relationships with fundraisers, and relationships are messy.
What happens if you or I are hit by a bus? Will anyone know how to pick up our work? How do we protect the organization and mission if we are absent for any reason?
Is there a way for our volunteers to have more access to my tool/solution?
Permissions
Touchpoints with fundraisers
Impact moments
Today, licensing one comprehensive suite of tools from a single agency isn’t the name of the game—if it ever was. Technology is too diverse; our world is too diverse. No single company can be amazing at everything. So, take it as a given that you will have five (or more) tools that are used by a single staff person. Let’s discuss what that will look like.
At the end of the day, this is in your hands. You can get more from your vendors. Your expectations, and dare I say, contractual obligations of us, should be higher.
There’s an old saying that’s well worth keeping in mind – “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Simon Sinek attributes it to Zen Buddhism in his book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t.
So, to get more from your vendors, get the most possible from your all-vendor meetings. It might just be the anything that will lead to everything.
