Happy New Year!

Okay, before you think I’ve gone batty, I mean Happy New Year to those whose fiscal year started July 1.  It’s a good time to think about how you’re going to do fundraising for the next 12 months.  And for those who aren’t on a July-June fiscal year, it’s a good time to check in and see how your fundriasing is going.

If you aren’t getting the fundraising results you want, here are 10 ways you can completely change your fundraising program and get the BIG results you want.

1. Spend more face time with your donors.  For some, it’s uncomfortable to be face-to-face with donors.  Maybe you aren’t sure what to say or maybe you believe your donor will think you’re just after their money.  I’m here to tell you that you need to work through and get rid of these negative thoughts because they are holding you back.  If you want to raise big money, you MUST get in front of your donors.  There’s nothing else like it.  You’ve got to stop hiding behind your computer and take your donors to lunch or visit with them in their home.  Nothing else has the same impact.

2. Increase the donor-focused communications.  Relationships are KEY in raising money and in order to build them, you have to communicate. This means you probably need to be sending more newsletters and more email updates about the work your nonprofit is doing.  We all have a friend that the only time we hear from them is when they want something.  Do you want to show up that way?  Of course not!  And the way you avoid that is by sending communications to your donors giving them an update on the work your nonprofit is doing. One caveat here – your communications MUST contain stories and information that is interesting to your donor.

3. Put more meat in your communiations.  Too often, newsletters and email updates fall to the bottom of the priority list and are hastily put together just to get them out the door.  I suggest you take enough time to prepare them to make sure they’re meaty.  In order for them to be effective, they MUST contain stories and articles that are interesting to your donor.  Put yourself in the donors’ shoes and ask “what would I be interested in?”  I’ll give you a hint – it’s NOT your new staff person or your new Board member or the industry award you just won.  Your donors want to know ahout the people whose lives are being changed by the work your nonprofit is doing.

4. Listen more, talk less.  As you spend time with your donors and get to know them, follow this simple rule – listen more, talk less.  If you do all the talking, how will you learn anything about your donor?  Ask open-ended questions and get your donor talking so you can find out about the deepest desires of their heart.  You want to find out why they care about your organization.  You want to know what motivates them to write that check.  When you learn a great deal about your donors and what makes them tick, you can better match them to needs your organization has.

5. Give your donors more ways to communicate with you.  Communication is a two-way exchange of information, yet too often, nonprofits fail to do that.  Information is sent one way, from the nonprofit to the donor, without an opportunity for the donor to give feedback.  So follow this rule: give your donors more ways to communicate with you. Invite them to call or email you. Offer a tour of your facility. Brainstorm about other ways you can give them to connect with you.  Even if they never take you up on it, they will appreciate that they have the opportunity to do so.

6. Help your donors feel special.  This is key!  Donors want to know that they made a difference. They want to be more than just “donor #5576″ on your list. So, help them feel special.  Thank them warmly and sincerely for their gift.  Respond immediately to any questions they might have.  Go the extra mile to let them know the impact their gift has made.  Communicate with them often.  Get to know them and what they’re interested in.  Donors who feel special become quite loyal to your organization!

7. Thank them profusely.  If you get this piece right, it will make everything else easier.  You MUST thank donors warmly, sincerely, and promptly every time.  No exceptions.  For VIP donors, call them to thank them for their gift.  Send a hand-written note expressing your gratitude.  Send a photo of your organization in action along with a thank-you note to your donor.  Get your Board involved in thanking your donor.  The bottom line here is that donors who feel properly thanked feel special and see themselves as partners with you in the work you are doing.

8. Give them a good experience.  Customer service is KEY.  Always be quickly responsive to your donors.  Return their phone call immediately.  Respond to their email right away.  Be honest and truthful with donors. The better job you do in giving them a good experience with you, the more trust you build.  And trust is the foundation of a good relationship.

9. Recognize them in ways that are meaningful to them.  It’s easy to look for shortcuts when you’re busy, but donor recognition is not a good place to take shortcuts. You MUST find out what would be meaningful to each donor you want to recognize for their support.  One size does not fit all.  I heard the story once of a donor who had received so many plaques from nonprofits that he started taking the metal plates off and building bird houses out of the wood!  Clearly, this method of recognition wasn’t meaningful to him!  What is special to your donor?  Get to know them and find out.

10. Ask them what they think. People LOVE to give their opinion!  So ask.  Ask your donors what they think about the work your organization is doing.  Ask them for their thoughts on your strategic plan.  Ask for their advice on your upcoming fundraising campaign.  See who they think you should be talking to in the community.  Just ask (and ye shall receive!).

You may notice that these 10 resolutions are all about individual donors.  That’s on purpose.  I believe that the greatest source of untapped potential lies in individual donors.  I also believe that for small nonprofits, the fastest path to cash is individual donors. I teach my clients and students that long-term sustainability in fundraising is about having a large donor-base and a strong donor-relations program. 

If you get serious about implementing these 10 resolutions, I think you’ll see the same results that my clients see – more donors, more donations, and less stress for you!  Best wishes and Happy New Year!

Many nonprofit staff  and volunteers dream of the day when a donor will walk into their office and hand them a large check.  But it’s only a dream because they don’t know how to find those donors, much less encourage them to give big money.

So here’s the thing:  it’s not rocket science.

Identifying and cultivating major donors is actually fairly easy, once you  know what to do.  I think that many people have built it up in their minds to be hard and uncomfortable, and they’ve talked themselves out of trying.  That’s too bad, because working with major donors can be a LOT of fun and very rewarding.  And it’s the one fundraising technique that is working well this year.

If you’d like to learn more about raising money from your major donors, join me for a 3-part webinar series called “Secrets to Getting Big Gifts.”  It starts September 7 and you can read all about it at http://getfullyfunded.com/secrets-of-major-gifts. I’ll tell you everything you need to know to find your major donor prospects and ask them for a gift.

Thanks to my guest Hank Lewis for today’s post. I think you’ll like it.

Who Is A Major Gift Prospect ??
By Hank Lewis, MA CFRM

When the question of major gift fundraising first arises, many unsophisticated board members, volunteers and staff immediately begin talking about the “rich and famous” — with Bill Gates being the name at the top of almost everyone’s list.

The wrong assumption that many people make — and one that can become a major time waster — is that an organization’s prospect list should contain the names of every conceivable wealthy person.

Indeed, yes, the first steps of a major gifts effort should include the generation of a list of wealthy individuals. But the distinction is whether they are likely to become “prospects.”

Major Gift Prospects are people who:

1. Have wealth, and may derive satisfaction from using that wealth to advance the causes in which they believe;
2. Are accessible to you and/or (even better) to current major donors to your organization;
3. Have a need that will be satisfied by making a significant gift to your organization;

Ideally, but not necessarily, Major Gift Prospects are also:

1. Aware of the effectiveness of your programs and the business-like manner in which you operate;
2. Passionate about wanting to see your mission achieved; and,
3. Involved with your organization and/or its programs, and demonstrate a commitment to the success of your mission.

You can have a long list of wealthy people, but unless they meet the criteria, they’re not “Prospects.” They’re people you’d like to think of as likely donors, but you have no evidence to support that wishful thinking.

Bottom line is, for people to be Major Donor Prospects; you must have enough of a relationship with them to satisfy the above qualifiers, and to know them well enough to recognize/identify their needs.

Major gift fundraising is more about the needs of the donor, than about the needs of the organization.

Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program?
Email Hank at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll do my best to answer your question.

One of the greatest skills a professional Fundraiser can develop is listening.  I find that I listen with not only my ears, but with my eyes and my intuition.   Sometimes a donor says what they really think and sometimes they leave things unsaid so it’s good to be able to pick up on all the subtleties.

Listening also will help you get along better with Board members, volunteers, and co-workers.  We all just want to be heard, and when you give someone your full attention, it is powerful. Let me give you a simple example.

My Mom, sister, and I took advantage of the long weekend to enjoy one of our favorite pastimes – quilting.  We set up shop in my Mom’s dining room and sewed for hours on end (I thought my eyes were going to drop out of my head at one point!).  It was tons of fun!

My Mom heads up the quilt ministry at our church and she has fabric EVERYWHERE in her house!  She sort of mentioned in passing that it was overwhelming to have so much going on. My keen ears perked up and what I heard that was going unsaid was “help me get this organized so I won’t be so overwhelmed.”  I asked her if she wanted some help organizing and I gave her a couple of suggestions, including getting an inexpensive shelf to go in her sewing room closet.  Well, she jumped on that and within the hour, we were on a shopping excursion for a shelf and bins to sort fabric into.  It didn’t take long and it wasn’t hard.  And boy is she happy now!

When you find yourself with a major donor prospect, listening is your best tool.  Pay attention to the words and the emotion behind them, body language, gestures, and so forth and you’ll find yourself learning at a deeper level about your donor.

Got a story you can share about a time when listening really paid off for you?  We want to hear it! Click on the comment link and share.

Last week, I met up with some friends for lunch and got a lesson in relationship-building from a 3 year-old.

We’ve met fairly regularly for the past few years and one gal usually brings her son Paul.  He’s adorable and she usually has toys to keep him busy while we chat.

I realized I had’nt seen Paul in a while when I arrived.  He’d gotten so big!  Being me, I struck up a conversation with him before I had completely said “hey” to the ladies.  Over the next 2 hours, Paul told me about his birthday and I showed him pictures of my cats.  He showed me his activity book and I helped him match shapes and colors.  By the end of lunchtime, he had crawled up in my lap and was asking if I wanted to come to his house to play.

It was so easy to connect with him and it hit me that being with donors should be that easy too.  As I thought about what made it so simple to be with Paul, I came up with these ABCs of relationship-building conversations:

A. Ask questions.  Attempt to learn all you can about the other person and what they like or don’t like.  This is how you will get to know them better.

B. Be Interested in the other person.  Be present and focused.  Don’t let your mind wander and don’t be thinking about what you’re going to say next.

C.  Care about the other person.  Be genuinely interested in them and what’s happening in their world.

What would you add to this list?  Hit the comment link and share your thoughts.

Happy Fundraising Season!  Between now and the end of the year is a great time to make some individual asks.

If the thought of asking someone face-to-face for a donation scares you, terrifies, or paralyzes you, you’re not alone.  Lots of people would rather do most anything else than ask someone for a donation!

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  If you understand where your fear is coming from, you are well on your way to overcoming it.  And it CAN be conquered!!

• Fear is about uncertainty. When we don’t know what might happen in a particular situation, we tend to get scared and hold back.  When you ask someone for money, you don’t know what will happen and your mind starts to fill in the blanks for you.  “This person will think I’m a pest” or “They won’t like me anymore” might be the stinkin’ thinkin’ going on inside your head. Acknowledging this is the first step in getting it out of your way.

• Diffuse the power of the fear by thinking through the consequences.  What’s the worst thing that can happen if you ask for a gift?  Will the donor laugh at you?  Will they kick you out of their office?  Probably not.  More than likely, the worst thing that will happen is that they will say “No” to your request.  If that happens, can you survive it? (I’m thinking you will.)

• Fire up your passion. Remember why you said “Yes” to the organization in the first place.  Something compelled you to agree to fundraise for this particular cause at this particular time.  Know this: when you step through your fear and share the burning beliefs of your heart, you will be furthering your organization’s mission.  For example, when I worked at the local Food Bank, I knew that when I did my job, people ate.  It was that simple to me.  And that helped me be strong to do the things I was timid about doing.  Deep in my heart, hunger was and still is an important issue.  When I plugged into that, it helped me overcome my fears around fundraising.

Need more help?  Check out my training kit “3 Keys to Successful Fundraising in Good Times and Bad”.  It’s a 60-minute audio CD and workbook designed to help shift your mindset and set yourself up for success. $49  www.getfullyfunded.com/products.

I attended a major donor event tonight with one of my coaching clients.  It was a really nice reception before another event – sort of a VIP reception with wine and food before the premier of a documentary film at a special venue.

Only about 20 people were invited and nearly all were there.  With such a small group, all of them had face-to-face time with the Executive Director, which was great!  Many of them knew each other and seemed to enjoy the time to chat and catch up with one another.

The ED did a short program, giving an update on the organization’s activities.  With such a small group, there were questions and informal discussion.

Our purpose in having the event was to connect with some of the organization’s major donors, which we did; to bring them up to speed on the organization’s work, which we did; and to set the stage for my client to follow up with individual conversations with them.  Mission accomplished!

Fundraising is all about asking people for money, right?  And person-to-person is the way to go when you’re asking for a big gift.

If you’re new to face-to-face asks it can be a little intimidating.  Here are some tips to help you be ready, focused and relaxed when it comes time to “pop the question.”

• Make your own gift first.  It’s tough to ask someone else for money if you haven’t contributed personally to the cause.  This is especially important if you are a Board member or volunteer.

• Ask for a specific amount for a specific purpose.  Don’t ask for a range – people will always go for the low end.

• Stay committed to the Ask amount during the visit.  Don’t get scared and drop the amount.

The more personal and sincere you are, the easier the process will be for you and the more comfortable your prospect will be with you.