Welcome

Welcome to the 2022 Annual Fall Campaign Volunteer Toolkit! We hope that you will use this toolkit to encourage your donors to participate and give this year. The following pages contain tips and resources to help you promote the campaign and inspire support.

If you have any questions, please reach out at anytime:

Background

AKF USA invites you to learn more about the impact of AKF’s work to build resilient communities across Africa and Asia and encourage donations and sponsorships to support AKF programs. The Annual Fall Campaign campaign will launch on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 and end on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

The digital campaign invites you to explore AKF’s work in Education, Gender Equality, Work and Enterprise and Civil Society. The digital campaign complements a number of AKF-hosted banquets and dinners bringing supporters together to advance the work of the foundation.

The digital campaign will be hosted at the AKF USA website. Each week, beginning Tuesday, Oct 4, 2022, the campaign website will present content related to that week’s theme. Audiences will browse through featured stories  to learn about the transformational work of AKF and donate.

Digital Campaign Overview

Week 1: Education Week (Tuesday, October 4th)

  • Wednesday, Oct 5 World Teachers Day

Week 2: Gender Equality Week (Tuesday, October 11th)

  • Tuesday, Oct 11 International Day of the Girl Child

Week 3: Work and Enterprise Week (Tuesday, October 18th)

  • Monday, Oct 17 International Day for Eradication of Poverty

Week 4: Civil Society (Tuesday, October 25th)

  • Monday, Oct 25 UN Day and World  Development Information Day

Week 5: Campaign Closing Week (Tuesday, November 1st)

  • Friday, Nov 4 Email with Khalil video

Post Campaign

  • Sunday , Nov 13 Volunteer Recognition Virtual Event
  • Mon, Dec 5 International Volunteers Day

Enjoy the journey and thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to AKF USA!

Campaign Goals

The goal of the Annual Fall Campaign is to educate and engage supporters in the US and raise funds by demonstrating the wide-reaching impact of AKF’s work and the need for support.

Relationship Managers will help achieve the campaign goal by building lasting relationships with their assigned donors and employing personalized fundraising tactics to engage them to donate.

Fundraising Targets

The national fundraising target for the Fall Campaign is set at $4.8 million in donations and $1.4 million in sponsorships.

The counting of dollars raised towards the campaign targets will be from September 27 to November 25, 2022.

Fundraising goals broken down by region are as follows:

Donations

Sponsorships

Relationship Manager: Roles and Responsibilities

DIRECT SUPERVISOR: AKF Regional Chair/Vice Chair
POSITION TITLE: Relationship Manager
AKF USA STAFF CONTACT: Kamil Walji, Resource Development
RM TERM LIMIT: Open

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Relationship Managers (RMs) serve as critical AKF volunteers in the U.S., managing relationships with donors to sustain their generosity to AKF USA by renewing gifts annually, stewarding them through the 2022 Annual Fall Campaign, increasing gifts if donors desire to do so, and keeping donors informed of how their contributions are being used in support of AKF’s mission.

AKF’S MISSION

We believe we all have purpose. Driven by our belief in our shared humanity, we are dedicated to helping all people fulfill that promise for themselves.

The Aga Khan Foundation is different. We provide more than just goods and services. For over 50 years, we have worked in some of the most remote, hard-to-reach parts of Asia and Africa. We partner with communities to improve quality of life for decades and generations. Prosperity for all comes from harnessing the best from people of all walks of life. We believe that communities and societies are stronger when they are built on the vision and collaboration of people from all backgrounds.

TASKS

Relationship Managers oversee the donor cultivation (process of growing relationships with donors) and stewardship (communicating how donors’ gifts have been used and the impact they have created) year-round with their portfolio of donors.

Some tasks are noted below:

  • Communicate (call, email, text) with donors all year to thank them for their contributions, develop the relationship, and provide organizational updates and stories of impact showing how their funds have been used by AKF;
  • Solicit donations via email or phone for the digital campaign and invite donors to visit the Annual Fall Campaign website to learn about AKFs work.
  • Track donor’s giving status based on reports sent by DC office and send them gentle reminders to participate and donate to the cause;
  • Thank donors for their gifts (renewed or upgraded).

SKILLS

  • Ability to articulate the mission, objectives, and impact of AKF’s work with donors and other volunteers;
  • Ability to be persuasive and influence donors in their decisions to invest with AKF;
  • Enjoys personal, one-on-one interaction with donors and volunteers;
  • Possesses strong organization and time management skills to manage outreach to donors, set meetings, follow up, and thank donors

SETTING

Relationship Managers will interact with donors in their cities and perhaps beyond within their region if needed. Interactions with donors will be remote (phone calls, emails) for the digital campaign.

TRAINING

AKF USA will provide training and resources (such as toolkits) for all Relationship Managers to be successful in their roles. Training will be remote (web-based or on calls).

EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

At the end of each fiscal year, Relationship Managers will provide evaluation and feedback about their portfolio of donors to Regional Chairs and Regional Vice Chairs as well as AKF’s Manager of Resource Development and Volunteer Engagement and discuss actual retention rates and opportunities for improvement.

Double the Donation – Corporate Gift Matching

Corporate matching gifts magnify the impact of gifts given by individuals who are employees of matching-gift companies. When a donor donates to AKF USA, they can request their employer to make a matching gift. At the time of donation on AKF USA’s website, donors are given the option to enter their employer/company information. The DC Office will follow up with these donors via emails to remind them to request their employer (if eligible) to match their gift. Relationship Managers can encourage/remind their Core Donors to seek matching gifts from their employers if eligible. Donors can use the following link to determine if their gifts are matched by their company:

Donation Matching and Volunteer Grants – Aga Khan Foundation USA (akfusa.org)

Sponsorships

Campaign sponsors can submit their details and contributions online at: https://www.akfusa.org/sponsorship/.

A summary of benefits for your reference:

Donation Tracking & Reporting

A sample Google Sheet report that RC/VC’s can receive weekly during the campaign including the following relevant columns:

  • Past giving in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
  • 2022 giving before campaign (Jan-Sep)
  • 2022 Annual Fall Campaign (Oct-Nov)
  • Recurring Gift status (YES for iHope donors)

Pledge Tracking

For donors who wish to pledge during the campaign, but make a payment at a later time, we have created the following donor Google Sheet to enable real-time tracking towards targets, including a more accurate measure of pending pledges than last year.

Dashboard Reports

Volunteer G-Suite Accounts

All regional chairs, vice chairs, and relationship managers can receive an akf-usa.org email address and a Google suite account, which they can use to communicate with donors and other volunteers.

Google Suite (G-Suite) lets you handle email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings, etc all in one place making it easier for collaboration and information sharing within your teams. The key services you will be using are: Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, and Slides).

Regional team volunteers, including regional chairs (RCs), vice chairs (VCs), and relationship managers (RMs), can use Google suite as their primary platform to:

  • Reach out to and connect with donors via your akf-usa.org emails using Gmail
  • Collaborate with other volunteers, regional chairs, and vice chairs using various G-Suite applications such as Google Drive, Meet, hangouts, etc
  • Access donor giving history via Google Sheets/Drive to make appropriate solicitations

Since many of you already use Gmail, you will recognize the same interface of G-Suite. Our IT team has also prepared some very simple and easy-to-follow tutorials on how to access the most common apps:

Email Template and Talking Points

Please see below for general talking points about AKF’s work and the campaign, as well as messages for donors.

Additionally, we’re providing customizable email templates each week throughout the campaign that you can use to promote participation in the campaign and generate interest.

Social Media Messaging

Beyond connecting with your donors, you can also play a part in spreading the word about the 2022 Local Roots, Global Fruits campaign on social media. Below, find sample messaging and graphics to get you started.

Resources to Educate and Engage Donors

We want to support you when you’re introducing AKF and its work to new contacts, or reminding existing donors why they give to AKF. Below are some useful materials for sharing our mission. Feel free to direct donors to these resources if you find they might be useful to further convey AKF’s impact.

Annual Reports

Through our community-centered approach, we emphasize local leadership to invest in people, expand opportunities, and improve the quality of life.

In this report, we’re honored to share new partnerships and awards that AKF secured in 2021. Explore the map section to discover new foundations we’re working with, recent awards that respond to a critical global threat, our trailblazing Planned and Legacy Giving program, and more.

AKF’s decades of work to build a strong foundation in health, education, and economic inclusion helped many endure the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this report, we share stories of how AKF’s response helped slow the spread of the virus, provide care to all, and minimize the impact to vulnerable communities.

This report is available as stories on the web, and as a PDF. For print-ready files, please contact Resource Development.

Young people are the key to a brighter future. This year, as we face an unprecedented global crisis, we are excited to share stories of how AKF invests in youth to build a stronger, healthier, and more inclusive tomorrow.

This report is available as stories on the web, as a PDF. For print-ready files, please contact Resource Development.

For over 50 years, the Aga Khan Foundation has invested in communities across Africa and Asia to break the cycle of poverty and create opportunity. In this report, we are proud to share stories that highlight AKF works to make leadership more inclusive, with a focus on women.

This report is available as stories on the web, as a PDF, and to order in print-on-demand via MagCloud.com. For print-ready files, please contact Resource Development.

For over 100 years, the AKDN has worked to ensure that students of all ages have access to quality learning at every rung of the educational ladder. In this report, we are proud to share stories that highlight AKF’s contributions to the ladder of education.

This report is available as stories on the web, as a PDF, and to order in print-on-demand via MagCloud.com. For print-ready files, please contact Resource Development.

Inspiring and educational videos about AKF's work

These videos are an overview of AKF and AKDN’s mission and work.

Brochures

This general brochure, developed in 2019, is an overview of AKF USA’s mission, work, and opportunities for partnership.

It is available as a PDF for reading on-screen and to order in print-on-demand via MagCloud.com. For print-ready files, please contact Resource Development.

This quadfold brochure provides a general introduction to the Aga Khan Foundation, the Aga Khan Development Network, and our fundraising efforts in the US. It is available here as a multi-page PDF to view on screen, but please contact Resource Development to request printed copies.

Building Better Futures Together Brochure