Member Spotlight: Monica Tang

Name: Monica Tang
Institution: University of British Columbia
Position: Associate Director, Donor Relations
ADRP member for 5 years

How long have you worked in donor relations/stewardship and how did you get involved in this profession?

I started my career in Donor Relations over two decades ago. I loved the not-for-profit sector and knew it was where I wanted to build my career. Through the years I purposefully worked through lots of different areas in several organizations—including corporate development, proposal writing, frontline major gifts fundraising, prospect research and more. I wanted to broaden my understanding of the work and better understand the needs of donors and other team members. Now I have returned home to Donor Relations (it really is the best part), where I have been since 2015.

Could you tell us something about the organization you work for?

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a global centre for teaching, learning and research, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world and recently recognized as North America’s most international university. That’s the official line.

But for me, it’s an institution of hope and optimism. I appreciate the people (the incredible students, faculty & staff, and amazing donors!), the place (both the Vancouver and the Okanagan campuses are beautiful), and the aspirational energy. I’m not completely disconnected from reality—there is red tape, bureaucracy and frustration as well. But at its core, it is an organization that aims to make the world a better place in so many ways—and I want to be a part of that.

What do you like most about being a member of the ADRP?

If any professional organization exemplifies “sharing is caring” it is ADRP. I am constantly amazed at the willingness of members to take time out of their day to share information, problem solve, and helped us all do our work as best as possible. Whether that is through the ADRP listserv, webinars, articles, or even just reaching out directly to contacts I have made through this organization. Sometimes we don’t even have answers for tough questions—but someone will simply lend their support and let you know you are not alone in the challenges we face. It is unique and I want to be part of that, too!

What is your greatest donor relations/stewardship achievement? 

Tenaciously believing that better is possible! For example, we are often asked to be creative and innovative in our work, but there is a difference between creativity and innovation. Creativity is to think up new ideas, looking at our work with fresh eyes and a donor-centric lens. Innovation is putting those new ideas in motion by creating policy, process, and acceptance to doing things differently, and building a culture of risk tolerance, which when combined with a willingness to constantly take constructive feedback and iterate, gets us to a desired place. Believing that better is always possible allows for this important work to take place, and leads to great achievements.

How big a role does the use of social media play in your work?

Ooof. I admit to feeling completely incompetent in this area—I do no social media personally. Lucky for me, I am blessed to work with a brilliant communications team that lives and breathes social media, and a president who is a social media force of his own. It is clear that this mode of engagement is here to stay, that we need to pay attention to it, and that its use is growing. All that to say that social media is definitely a key piece of all our initiatives, but it is only a piece. In our work, I am always conscious that donors are human and humans are not standardized, so we need to keep working with multiple engagement channels in parallel.

What is the most important professional goal you are currently pursuing, i.e., attaining a degree, preparing to give a presentation, launching an initiative at work or in your community, etc.?

Reimagining our donor recognition programs. We looked at what we do through a donor lens and our donor base has told us that recognition circles and societies in and of themselves are not meaningful to them. They care about engagement opportunities and learning how they have made a difference (are you surprised?). So we made the decision to sunset many of our recognition societies, but keep processes in place that allow us to offer meaningful engagement opportunities and impact messages for our donor segments. With the support of our leadership, we are in full renovation mode, retooling all the pieces (internal & external communications, database tracking, metric reports, events, newsletters, and so much more) needed to bring this idea to fruition. 

What has been your biggest work challenge during COVID-19?

I like to think I am adaptable and resilient—but the past 12 months of working from home has been a real test. Step one for me was to admit and accept that the incredible and rapid change brought on by Covid-19 was a grand source of personal discomfort—the constant new technology, the new guidelines, managing colleagues, supporting friends, setting up a proper workspace at home, figuring out online school, worrying about vulnerable family and community members, and then they tell me that self-care and sleep are also important?! *Sigh* 2020 was a doozy (did you read boozy? I will not judge). 2021 will still bring challenges, but I am profoundly grateful for the grace and support that we have all been able to show each other—we really are all in this together in a way that is simply inescapable.

It has also been a year of great learning. Maintaining and advancing relationships is our goal in Donor Relations. Realizing that this has always been the challenge was helpful in reframing the problem for me. We had to work at this pre-pandemic, we have to work at it now, and we will have to work at it post-pandemic. The goal doesn’t change, but some new thinking and tools were needed. So we have brought on new platforms for video email (Thankview), website page impact reporting (Adobe Spark), changed how we do our donor newsletter (strategic template design), found opportunities to integrate donor relations and stewardship work with other areas of our portfolio (hello Annual Giving), and serve the needs of donors (and our colleagues) as best as we can.

I really miss the in-person connections, the watercooler and hallway chatter with colleagues, meeting amazing students, faculty, alumni and donors in person. As much as we try (and we do try--virtual happy hours, zoom coffee dates, online trivia games), there is a human element missing in my day to day work at the moment that does not translate perfectly to the virtual world. But it turns out we can survive, we can swivel (my thesaurus says that can be used instead of pivot), and we can succeed. Take that pandemic.

Is there a resource, i.e., book, blog, website, etc., that you would recommend to other ADRP members?

I have a few to share that are perhaps not traditional with respect to the field of Donor Relations.

For professional development, I’m a fan of Seth Godin’s blog. It is a daily short read (15 seconds) but it often stops me in my tracks. He is probably best known as a business and marketing author, but I always feel like that is just a cover of sorts. He is a constant voice of encouragement to go and do the good and important work we all need to do. He has a way of capturing observations, thoughts, and emotions in a clear and concise way that resonates with me. Many of these daily thoughts are applicable to the not-for-profit world, and often just life itself.

For personal growth, I’ve really enjoyed a book called “365 Days of Wonder” by R.J. Palacio. There is a simple quote for each day of the year. They keep me grounded, open-hearted, and connected to what is important. And if you are into journaling they can be used as prompts.

And last but not least, use nature as a resource and get outside as frequently as you can. Taking some time outside will always make my day better.

What is the best piece of professional advice you have ever received?

People first.

Give away the credit to other people—they will want to work with you. Make them feel good about themselves—they will want to spend time with you. Show them how they make a difference—they will want to give to you. As it happens, this philosophy works well in general life as well as in Donor Relations—because it turns out that donors are people, too. Donor Relations work is completely relationship centered and relationships happen between people, so in anything and everything you do, think about the people first. 

Are there any particular stories, insights, etc., from your experiences in donor relations and stewardship that you would like to share with our colleagues?

Trust that your donors want to engage with you.

Several years ago, we used to invite donors to campus events using a geographic boundary on the assumption that a donor who lived a certain distance from campus would not travel. Using the mantra “sometime being invited to the party is just as important as going to the party,” we decided to remove that restriction and use the invitation as a touch point with donors. And lo and behold—we had an annual donor travel from St-John’s, Newfoundland, to Vancouver, British Columbia, (go look at a map of Canada—it’s a commitment to travel that far)!

And we heard from several others who would not travel—but were so happy to have received the invite and been included. Stories were shared, connections to frontline fundraisers were facilitated, and donations were made. To be fair, we did not hear back from the majority of folks (this will not be a surprise to any of you), but we also did not receive a single upset note or an unsubscribe request (this was a pleasant surprise).

We continue this practice to this day, and it continues to pay dividends.

As a more recent example, we have always communicated with our donors based on how they give—give electronically, we send you email, give by direct mail, and we mail you back. This year, due to the great digital pivot (swivel?) we knew that we would have a hard time engaging donors that we could not reach electronically, so we decided to do an email acquisition campaign. We sent postcards to folks we couldn’t email and told them how much we appreciated their giving this year and how much we would love to keep in touch, but that this was hard at the moment because so many of our opportunities were now virtual (other donors receive these greetings and updates via an electronic newsletter). Again, donors came through, sending in lovely notes to grant permission for electronic communication and update email addresses. And we learned a few things—donors who had passed away but whose families were kind enough to be in touch, updates on names and career changes, and a request to “divorce” a couple in our database along with a new spouse name (new spouse was apparently not amused, but the message was sent with a happy face emoji, so I think we are good?!).