How to ask for a raise in the middle of a recession (or anytime)

It’s not easy asking your boss for a raise, and at a non-profit it can be even more difficult.  Money is tight, donations have been dropping and people have lost their jobs. It’s not impossible to get the raise you deserve, but it does take some effort.  Here are the steps that I took to get a 27% raise.

• Got testimonials from my colleagues
• Tracked my big wins
• Related by big wins back to my job description
• Gave examples of what I should be making and asked for it!

Here’s how you can do it to:

Please god, keep track of your successes. However you track your performance, do it all year round, not just when you’re asking for a raise or have a performance review.  Start by keeping a folder in your inbox with praise from donors, colleagues, your boss and your board.  (This is such a marketing ploy — testimonials from other people make your statements much more reliable).

Now, it doesn’t matter what your colleagues say if you’re not pulling your weight at the organization. Before you start your next project (whether that’s an outreach campaign or a community program), set realistic goals.  REALISTIC — this does not mean shoot for the moon.  This means try to accurately estimate the outcome of the project.

Next define your part of the project. Having a clear understanding about your role in a project’s success makes it multitudes easier to prove that you’ve done a good job. Don’t just tie your success with the end result, tie your success with the particular steps that you impact and show how you met your goals.

Pull out your job description and equate your successes to the job description.  For example:

Job Description: Serve as the organization’s primary marketing manager responsible for overall branding and image design, including print and electronic communications.

Project Success: I hired contractors to design and build our website (the project). Traffic to the site has increased 37% and our presence on social networking sites, like twitter, has increased volunteer-led promotions by 50% (success that you can track and affect).

Notice your job description didn’t say anything about building a website, but it’s clear that your success can clearly show how your impacting branding and image design.

Before you approach your boss, do your homework and chose a number. Head to Salary.com to see what other people in your area with your job title are making.  Don’t just search for your job title, look into other jobs that have similar job descriptions.  Find job descriptions for people that are making what you are currently earning, what you want to make, and what you dream of making.  Decide what you deserve to make – pick a number and get ready to ask for it. Print out the job descriptions and salary (include the URL so your boss can head back and check them out).

Now you’re ready to have a salary discussion with your boss. Have with your copies of your job description, your project goals and success, the salary.com info and praise from your colleagues.

In your meeting, first walk through your job description.  Prove how your project successes line up with your job description. (If you’ve done work beyond your job description, show that off!). Whip out your testimonials and back up your success statements with proof from other people!  Let your boss know that you know you’ve done well.

Now for your raise – you’ve already proved that you deserve one, now ask for it!

ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT.

Tell your boss what you want, and back it up by comparing it to current salary data for the job. Specifically show how the job description from salary.com and your own job description overlap. I use the higher job description to show how my job is evolving and the additional job roles I have already been fufilling.

Right, the post is long but the steps are easy.  Have you scored a big raise?  Did you take similar steps?  Let me know in the comments.

You have a site, now make it work!

You already have a website and you definitely have a message.  The trick is clearly communicating this message to the hundreds of people who happen to click onto your site.

You need to know if what you have works.

Usability testing is a very basic concept.  Put your product in front of people and see what they do.  That’s it.

Your outreach, whether it’s directed to individual donors or large foundations, is only great when people actually read it. Then after reading it, they have to reach into their recession-era pocketbook and hand over some cash.  How can you make sure that the people who come to your website actually read what you’ve posted, and then how can you convince them to donate?

Even at our fully optimized start-up less than 10% of people who come to our site actually get involved.  And that’s normal! It’s hard to convince people to try a free product that they need – it’s way more difficult to get folks to donate to a cause.

Usability testing is an awesome, cheap way to make sure that your website speaks to your audience and clearly directs them to the next step.  Here’s how to start:

Identify what you want people to do – Your most idealistic answer should be, “I want them to donate money!” Realistically, you need to build up to that point –  people aren’t going to chalk up the dough right away. So while your website should be very clear that you need donations, you also need to give people an option to get involved with you – sign your petition, join your mailing list, attend an event, etc.

Identify what you want from people.

Once you know what you want, see if what you have actually works - This can be done for the cost of a pizza. Post an ad on Craigslist under gigs (it’s free) and offer a pizza lunch to people who attend your usability study.

Don’t talk, just listen! – This is the hardest bit! Show them your site and start with one question “What would you do on this site?” Then give up all control!

Listen to what they say and what they do. Have them talk outloud so you know what they’re thinking. No directing, not prompting, and NO HELPING! Sit back and see what a normal person does on your site.  I promise you’ll be surprised! Do they sign your petition? Do they join your mailing list? Check out where they click and why.

Make changes - You absolutely do not need to be an experienced marketer to see where people got confused, or why they didn’t click to sign your mailing list.  Start with simple text changes and measure the difference.  If you want people to sign up on your mailing list, measure the number of people who signed up before the change and after.

To learn more, read Steve Krugs’ article – Usability Testing on 10 cents a day

Usability testing is a cheap way to make sure that your message resonates with your audience. Give it a shot and let me know what happened. Post in the comments!