Transcript Document 7257830

Major Donor Cultivation and Solicitation:
Building Donor Loyalty and Support
As an organization, what do we hope to accomplish?
~ to prepare PEBC for a major capital campaign
~ to find ways to increase annual giving
~ to create opportunities for board members to be more
effective and involved in fundraising
~ to learn how to make a successful “ask”
What are your personal expectations?
Training Overview
Part One – Donor Loyalty
What does it mean?
Why pay attention to it?
Why become a “donor-centric” organization?
Strategies and tools for building and sustaining it –
cultivating major donors
Training Overview
Part Two – Story-based Cultivation
~ Using your own story and the stories of PEBC
to cultivate donors
~ How to get the donor’s story and use it to make
the “ask”
Training Overview
Part Three: Asking for a Major Gift
• Addressing your fears of asking for money
• Preparing for the ask
• Making the ask
• Following up
• Cementing the relationship
Varied Sources of Revenue
: Individual Giving has unique characteristics
1. Is motivated primarily by the mission/vision of PEBC
2. Donor takes PEBC and its work personally
3. Donor pays attention to the smaller, day-to-day impact of PEBC
4. Donor commitment to PEBC’s programs can be increased
Section 1 – Donor Loyalty
Loyal Donors are supportive donors who give
money year after year, campaign after campaign.
~They are the first to: respond to a request for
support; to encourage others to support; and to
respond much more frequently than the nonloyal donor.
~The financial goals of all campaigns are built
upon them – they are true believers
~ 85% of individual gifts
~ 15% of total gift income
~ 25% turnover in any given year
~Most people start giving at this level
The longer a donor gives to PEBC the more likely
they are to give more in size and frequency
~ 15% of individual gifts
~ 85% of total gift income
~ 5% to 10% turnover
~ Most people progress to this level
(the Stairway to Giving)
The Basic Truths of Donor Loyalty
• Organizations are not entitled to donor
loyalty: They must first earn it and then
constantly re-earn it.
• Building donor loyalty is not magic: It is
simply hard work on the part of people who
are thoroughly prepared.
• You don't wait for the "right" time to build
donor loyalty: You do it all the time.
Is PEBC worthy of donor loyalty?
• Have a mission worth performing.
• Perform that mission well.
• Have strong, respected leadership.
• Be fiscally sound.
• Operate in the open. Meaning It must
voluntarily and proactively share with the public
information about its operations and its
stewardship of funds
How to Achieve It
*Active cultivation*
*Careful consideration for
their beliefs and feelings*
*Respectful appreciation given with
grateful, heartfelt thanks*
“The secret of success is not what you know or who you know.
Its what you know about who you know.”
Things you must know
1. Who they are – their interests
2. What they need and want – their
desires
3. How and why they give – what
motivates them
Donor Interests
• How they earn their living
• What they do for pleasure
• What clubs they belong to
• Who their friends are
• What authors or subjects they read
• Where they were born
• Where their children go to school
• Where they went to school
Donor Wants and Desires
• Desired professional and social contacts
• Philanthropic desires:
- Why each gives to PEBC
- How each prefers to make a gift
-What other organizations each gives to
- How each wants to be recognized and
thanked
Donor Motivation
Two Groups of Donors:
A. Lives have been touched, directly or
indirectly by PEBC (children, parents,
teachers, etc.)
B. People who are influenced and
impressed by its work or its leadership.
(foundations,corporations, civic officials)
Donor Cultivation
“Donor cultivation is an organizationwide strategy and process to learn more
about each donor's interests, desired
professional and social contacts, lifestyle,
and philanthropic desires so that we can
better initiate and respond to contact with
a donor in order to develop a stronger
relationship with that donor.”
Initiate and Respond to Contact
• Be willing and able to initiate conversations with
donors and have a plan to do so
• Treat any contact with a donor as the most
important thing happening to the organization at
that moment
• Have a plan for responding to donor requests
quickly and effectively
Keeping Donor Records
Essential to have a good donor database
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Who they are
How to contact them
How they became donors
Their giving record
How, by whom, when. contacted by a representative
of the organization
• What other interaction they have had with the
organization
• Much more for major donors – anecdotal
Becoming “Donor Centric”
• When it recognizes donors as its lifeblood
and makes their care a central aspect of
its endeavors.
• It must make cultivating donors and
managing its relationships with them a
core organizational value. Donor
cultivation must be embraced as an
objective by every department, staff
member, and board member.
The Five Donor Imperatives
1. A donor is the most important person ever in contact
with this organization
2. Donors do not need us. We need them.
3. Contact with donors is not an interruption of our
work. Donors make our work possible.
4. Donors are not people from whom we demand
support. No organization is entitled to its donors'
money.
5. Donors bring us their resources and philanthropic
desires. It is our job to use those resources and meet
those philanthropic desires efficiently, effectively, and
as we have promised.
Tactics for Cultivating Donors
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Bring donors to the organization
Go out to meet donors
Keep in touch with donors
Look for ways to help donors, i.e.,
facilitating business & social contacts
Bring donors closer. Find ways to connect
them with program & other staff
Always thank donors quickly and
accurately for their generosity
Recognize donors in ways that they
approve of
Donors to PEBC - Site Visits
• You have their undivided attention.
• They can be shown exactly how contributions are
being used.
• You can introduce them to key staff.
• They can meet individuals benefiting from the
organization.
• They ask questions, the answers to which may allow
for additional contact.
• They acquire information that they will share with
others.
• They end up feeling good about being a donor
Going to the Donor
• Schedule an appointment to pay a call on
a donor you wish to cultivate, and have a
reason for that call. Share information on
new projects. Bring along a staff person
you would like the donor to meet.
Best of all, set up an appointment with the
donor to ask the donor's advice about
something.
Keeping in Touch
Send birthday and other appropriate greeting cards. Send get-well
cards and even flowers to a donor in the hospital. Keep your eye
open for items about donors in newspapers. When you see one,
clip it and send it along with a "congratulations" note to the donor
Include donors on your press list and make sure they get copies of
every press release you send out.
Send photographs of things the organization is doing. Again email
is easier, quicker, and far less expensive.
And finally, send something special that reflects well on the
organization. Share with donors the thank-you notes you receive.
Have clients of the organization write to a donor explaining the
difference the organization has made in their lives
Being of Service
• Help donors connect with others in the
community that might be of value to the
donor.
• Provide them with information that they
might need to advance their other
advocacy interests
Bring Donors Closer
• Invite them to meet with key staff
members or other board members that
share their interests
• Have a staff member send them a note of
appreciation for a gift and explain how it
has made a difference in PEBC’s field
work
Thanking Donors
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Thank a donor immediately.
Be humble. Don't act as if you were expecting
the gift as something that was the donor's
responsibility to do.
Praise the donor's generosity.
Praise your donor's leadership.
Thank donors for past support.
And finally, never let a hint of disappointment
show. Never, ever show a lack of gratitude for
a gift, whatever its size.
Recognize Donors
• Thanking is private – Recognition is public
• Assess need for recognition carefully
• Create recognition opportunities: plaques,
names on equipment, names on programs,
etc.
• Create a donor recognition subcommittee
Committee Work
• Donor Cultivation Committee
• Donor Recognition Subcommittee
• Donor Solicitation Subcommittee
II. Story Based Friendraising
 As a “Donor Centric” organization, PEBC
needs to know as much about donors as
possible.
 The most important information lies in the areas
of “willingness” and “ability.”
 We can estimate “ability” using a variety of
tools, but “willingness” is elusive.
 Story sharing is the most effective tool to get at
someone’s willingness to give
Story Areas
There are three story areas:
Your story – How did you come to be a board
member of PEBC? Why do you care about its
mission, programs, vision? How does it resonate
with your values?
PEBC’s story – How have lives been changed
(including your own)?
The donor’s story – Why do they contribute?
Why do they care about PEBC?
Your Story Exercise
Was there anything in your early years (grade
school, middle school, high school) that created
a life long interest in the work of PEBC?
Were you influenced in your thinking by
anyone in particular (a teacher, a friend, a
relative, a business associate) or did you come to
it pretty much on your own?
Your Story Exercise cont…
What difference has serving as a staff or board
member made in the way you look at the world
around you?
What difference have you observed in others
(children who have been on the bus, friends,
family members who have been exposed to the
programs etc.) as a result of the PEBC’s work?
The Four Story “Touchstones”
• Head - the most powerful idea that comes out
of your story
• Heart - the most powerful feeling
• Hand - the most powerful act or action that
moved you to participate (your action or
another’s)
• Hope - some element in your narrative that
suggests a hope you might have for the future
of the Ecology Bus
Story Meaning
•What is your story about?
•What lesson did you learn?
•Is there a moral to your story?
•What wisdom does your story express?
The PEBC Story
• Here are a series of photos of PEBC in action.
As you look at them think of how one of these
children’s lives might be changed by their
experience.
• Think of the 4 H’s – Head, Hand, Heart and
Hope
• Which picture might you like to show to a
major donor?
Telling with Passion & Enthusiasm
• Everybody I spoke with said, 'What you see is
what you get,' " Maturi said.”He's energized, he's
passionate and he's sincere. I do believe it's
easier to sell something that you believe in."
Joel Maturi, Athletic Director University of
Minnesota, speaking about the new head coach
of the Golden Gopher football team, Tim
Brewster.
Passion & Energy
• Your ability to bring energy to your story depends in
part on the dramatic quality of the story, but it also
depends on the state of mind you are in when you tell
it.
• If you are convinced that yours is a message worth
hearing, that it will resonate with your listener, then it
will naturally be imbued with energy.
• If the prospect walks away saying, “Wow! He’s really
passionate about this organization,” you’ve have made
significant progress. Even if you are not yet ready to
ask, your passion adds depth to the relationship
between the prospect and PEBC.
Good Story Structure
• A good story has a beginning, a middle and an
end.
• A good story has tension – things could have
turned out differently
• A good story has the tension resolved at the end
• A real life story has the most power – it is
grounded in your own life experiences
III. Asking for a Major Gift
Fundraising Fears
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Fear of the unknown
Fear of rejection
Fear of failure
Fear of being seen
as a beggar
• Fear of saying the
wrong thing
Overcoming our Fears
The Defective Box
Common Assumptions
• No one wants to be asked for money.
• People prefer not to be asked by someone they
know.
• It’s difficult for any of us to talk about our
finances, no matter how well we know each
other.
• I probably won’t know much about the person
I’ll be calling on. We’ll be like strangers.
• I won’t know how much to ask for.
Reality
• People want to be asked to support those things that
they care deeply about.
• People like to be asked for small, token gifts by mail.
However, you will never receive a major gift unless you
meet on a personal, face-to-face basis.
• People like to be motivated, to be moved, by the
passion and conviction of others. We all admire
commitment and service as expressed through another
person’s volunteer work.
Reality cont…
• It’s difficult for us to reveal our financial position to
others, but it is not difficult to discuss money, we do it
all the time. In any case, money is the last thing you
will talk about.
• You will know as much about the person you will be
calling upon as you will need.
• You will not be operating in the dark. You will be
prepared, have a strategy, and eventually a deep
understanding of your prospect and yourself.
Preparing for Success
Steps in the Process
• Cultivate the donor – six to eight cultivation
experiences
• Strategize the ask – how to and how much
• Recall three or four “hot buttons”
• Prepare yourself – recall your story, why you
care about PEBC (role play, rehearse)
Steps cont….
• Send a letter indicating that a phone call is
coming soon
• Follow up with a call to set day and time
• Review the Case for the project you will be
asking them to support
Six Basic Stages in Asking
1. Opening - Connecting
2. Questioning - Understanding
3. Listening - Deepening
4. Presenting - Focusing
5. Asking for the gift
6. Overcoming obstacles
The Opening - Connecting
 Observe your surroundings and note anything that connects
with the core values of the PECB
 Thank donor for the opportunity to meet and exchange pleasantries.
Be warm, friendly and carry a smile.
 Mention one thing that you’ve noticed in their space and how it interests you
(connection)
 Thank donor for his or her most recent gift and explain how that gift has
made a difference in PEBC’s ability to fulfill its mission
 Ask if you might relate how you came to be a part of PEBC. Be brief, but
touch on each of the 4H’s of your story.
Connecting 2
 If the donor has been properly cultivated and prepared, your
story should illicit a response from the donor. Ask if they have
had a similar experience to yours.
 Ask a “head” question: “What difference did that experience
make in how you looked at (nature)?”
 Ask a “heart” question: How did it make you feel when that
happened?”
 Ask a “hand” question: What did you do with that experience?
How did it affect your life or life work?
 Ask a “hope” question: What difference might you still make as
a result of the experience?
Questioning - Understanding
 Focus on those aspects of the story that stood
out. For example,
 If “heart” stood out, ask questions that explore
the donor’s feelings about PEBC’s work.
 Relate your “heart” PEBC story
 Question donor about how the story makes
them feel about PEBC.
Goal
Your goal at this point is to:
 Put the donor at ease
 Deepen your relationship with donor
 Assess the donor’s interests
 Discover their point of view
 Make sure you understand their motivation
 Note: Do not talk about the campaign
Listening - Deepening
 Depending on where the donor’s interests and
passion reside, ask questions that bring the
conversation to the present day and to PEBC’s
current plans.
 Listen very carefully and thoughtfully to the
answers – you are a detective searching for
clues.
Presenting the Case
 Present the Case in a way that will appeal to the
interests of the donor
 Cover all the ground, but focus on those aspects
that the donor is most interested in
 As you speak, note the donor’s body language
(leaning in, careful listening vs arms crossed,
leaning back)
 Ask the donor if he or she has questions
Making the Ask
• Resolve any questions about the Case
• Say, “We would like you to consider a gift
of $5,000 to our campaign/annual fund. Is
that possible for you?”
• Remain silent and wait for a response
• Do not break the silence
• If the response is “yes!” – thank the donor
and have them sign a pledge form
Common Objections/Obstacles
If the answer is “No, I can’t” you have a number of
options:
 Extend the time frame – “would you consider such a
gift if you had 3 years to pay it off over?” or
 “Would you consider such a gift if I was to ask you at a
later date?”
 Note: your queries are asked in such a way that it is
clear that you are only asking for clarification, not
pressing the issue