Category: Major Donor Fundraising

Early in my career I was taught that a great fundraising professional should never have lunch alone.  Lunch is the most natural time of the day to meet with current and prospective donors.

Now, I love food and enjoy a great lunch.  But who really has the time in our fast paced lives to set a lunch appointment every day?

So, for the days you can’t have lunch with someone, I’ve evolved this thinking into 2016 and apply the “don’t send an email when you the phone will do” rule.

• When you pick up the phone to call your donors, it sends a strong message that you care enough about them to take the time to connect.
• Have you ever sent an email to a donor or co-worker to have it misunderstood or interpreted? Phone communication is much clearer since there is no need to translate your words, emotions or intentions.
• Most organizations aren’t taking the time to call their donors. They are caught up in the efficiency and bulk process of email and direct mail.

Your donors deserve better, especially your major donors.  Make the time to pick up the phone and connect with your donors on a personal level.

Some major donors to your organization desire a genuine relationship with you and the people fulfilling your organization’s mission. Major donors are people too! They have feelings and emotions that will impact their future decisions. Knowing this, I’d encourage you to do the following with your major donors:

• Find out how each major donor wants to be connected with, then connect with each donor the way they want to be connected with. Some will want a lot, some will want only a little.
• Donors want to help! This means you must ask them for a donation and when doing so, I’d encourage you to ask for more money than you think you can receive. It is the donor’s job to downgrade their gift, not yours!
  • I say this because I see far too many major gifts people who reduce the amount they ask for so that they can get a “win.” In my experience, you’ll raise more money in the long run – and have better donor relationships — if you ask for more and then meet the donor where they are at.  Many donors are honored that you asked them for more and that you shared the real need with them!
• The biggest mistake I see in major donor fundraising is the lack of clarity around why you want to meet or talk with the donor. This is an easy problem to fix!  Tell each donor exactly why you want to meet with them.  For example, if you want to meet with them to Report back on what their gift has accomplished, tell them that when you ask for the meeting!  If you’d like to meet to Ask them for a donation, tell them there’s a real need and you’d like to ask them to make a donation to meet the need.
• There will be some majors that don’t want to get to know you, who don’t desire a relationship. The key is to figure out who that is, then honor it.  And don’t assume any donor is one way or the other unless you’ve asked them.

The big takeaway here is to get to know your major donors on an individual basis.  Every person is different, so get to know them and treat each person how they would like to be treated.

For most smaller nonprofits, most of your fundraising revenue comes from a few key donors.  And like it or not, your major donors can make or break your fundraising goals.  So what should you do about it?

1. In order to keep your major donors actively giving, you need to know who they are. This requires you to run a report that lists your active major donors and then build a predictable and repeatable communication plan, specific for each donor, for the next 12 months.
2. Through study and experience I know that your major donors will continue to give to your cause for an average of about 5 years. This assumes you apply principle #1 noted above. The best way to extend their giving life to your cause is to thank your donors promptly and emotionally for their donations.
3. Give your donor the credit for making the world a better place via timely reporting. These reports are delivered typically via your newsletters. Your newsletters clearly give your donors the credit for making the world a better place.  At times, specific Reports for specific large gifts are necessary as well!

Your major donors are waiting right now for you to thank them for their most recent gift.  Take the next few minutes and pick up the phone, write them a note or stop by their place of business to say thank you.  Your words and actions today will solidify the relationship, and your long-term planning for each donor will pay huge dividends down the road!

Just last week I was asked by 4 different charities to help them improve their fundraising offers.  These organizations understand the importance of having a clear fundraising offer, but have also come to realize that developing a great offer takes time and requires testing.

In a nutshell, your “offer” is how you express to donors what their gift will accomplish.

When building your fundraising offer, here are the 4 elements you want to include.  Every single time we help charities ask for money we work hard to make sure each of these are present:

1. A problem that is easy to understand
2. A solution that is easy to understand
3. The cost of the solution seems like a good deal
4. Urgency with consequences if the need goes unmet

It is common for the staff to think that their offer must educate their donors.  That it must be detailed and full of facts.  But the fundraising truth here is that your fundraising offer must be easy to understand and connect the donor with the end beneficiary.  Simplicity, specificity, and emotion are the keys to fundraising success.

Please get in touch if you’d like to talk about your organization’s offer – and watch your fundraising results skyrocket!

Did you know that Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat can go beyond fundraising? The Seattle Mayor’s office thinks so – and so should you!

When the Seattle Mayor’s office called, I was surprised when they asked if I would teach our fundraising relationship rhythm, Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat, to a team of government officials and business owners.

This request at first seemed a little odd since those people weren’t doing fundraising.  But the Mayor’s office told me that they see value in Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat as a rhythm they could use for building relationships with vendors, contractors, volunteers, clients and a variety of other people they work with on a daily basis.

I’d encourage you to consider how to use Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat to improve the relationships in your life.  Professionally with your donors, volunteers, and staff.  Personally with family, friends and associates.

We all should strive to move beyond the “ask” and simple “thank”s.  You’ll quickly move into deeper relationship with the people that matter to you by Thanking them well, and then Reporting back to them what happened because they helped (money, time, presents, resources, etc.).

It’s how you build genuine relationships!

You know 80% of your fundraising revenue will come from 20% of your donors, right?

I have found this to be true for organizations large and small.  And the ratio is closer to 90/10 in many organizations I work with.

Seeing this again and again taught me the importance of building relationships with major donors.  Specifically, you need to help them to believe in and support your mission and work.

Major donor development isn’t easy work. It takes time.  Here are my top tips for you as you build your major donor development plan;

• Relationships take time and listening. Take the time to get to know your donors and prospects.  Know their passions and interests.  Look for alignment between what the donor values and what a gift to your organization will do.
• Always let your donor or prospect know why you want to meet. Let them know if you’re going to ask them for a gift (or not) in advance.  There’s no surer way to disappoint a donor than by Asking them when they aren’t expecting it, or not asking them when they are ready.
• When it is time to ask them for a gift, ask them for more than you think they might give. It’s your job to be bold on behalf of your beneficiaries — and it’s the donor’s job to lower the amount if needed.  If you’ve built the relationship well, they’ll be honored you asked.  Donors will direct the conversation and lead you to the gift amount they want to give if you give them time.
• Ask your major donors once or at the most twice a year for a significant gift. Then use the other 11 months to Thank them and Report back to them what their gift accomplished.

What I’ve just outlined is the basic framework for cultivating new donor prospects and then leveraging the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat rhythm on an annual basis. By taking this approach you will have more donors saying yes and you will raise more money.

Fundraising is not sales.  It’s about connecting good people with good work.

And I had to learn that the hard way in my early years as a fundraiser.

I started my career believing that if I could craft a strong “sales pitch” I would raise the money needed to meet my monthly fundraising goal.  Thankfully I realized pretty quickly that I was wrong.

You see, in sales your customer receives something in return for her purchase.   But in fundraising your donor receives nothing tangible in return for her donation.  So she wonders if you received her gift and if you appreciated it.  She also has no idea if her gift made a difference for a person need.

To be honest, she does receive one thing after making her gift; your donor communications.  This means that your donor communications (particularly your newsletter) better do a GREAT job telling her that her gift mattered and what it accomplished.

Today, I know that fundraising is really about connecting good people with good work through clear communication.  It’s about using communication tools to connect donors with your beneficiaries and sharing how their gift will help.

When you transform your fundraising thinking from ‘sales’ to donor-centered messaging, an amazing transformation happens.  And the transformation happens not only in you and your communications, but in your fundraising results.