In Major Gift Fundraising, Slow and Steady Wins the Race
“The race is not always to the swift.” That’s one message to come out of Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare. We can also apply it to major gift fundraising.
There are certain aspects of fundraising that hold a sense of urgency. Planning a gala or golf tournament has a deadline. Updating your organization’s website, posting on social media, getting your email newsletter out the door are all tasks. And, true to research, it feels good to cross them off the list. You’re being productive.
Yet, if you want to grow your unrestricted revenue, nonprofit leadership needs to start making different decisions—ones that take a “slow and steady” approach to fundraising.
From Coffee Date to Marriage Proposal
In my recent conversation with Nonprofit Lowdown host Rhea Wong, she brought up a great analogy. In some ways, major gift fundraising is like dating. Your first date might just be for coffee. A quick, casual meeting to start to get to know each other. If all goes well, you take it to the next level.
What is likely not to happen is to get a proposal after that first date. Even love at first sight follows a timeline that makes some reasonable sense.
The reality is that 81% of donors take six to 24 months from being identified as a prospect to arriving at their contribution. If you’re going into that first conversation in pitch mode, already ready to broach the big ask, you’re really doing your efforts and your organization a disservice. Fundraising is building relationships; making connections. And that takes time.
So, how can staff, executive directors, and board members accomplish the tortoise mentality?
Authenticity Creates Long-Lasting Connections
A big part of building relationships involves showing up to donor meetings as YOU. There’s a risk in being too “professional” or as what you perceive to be the fundraising version of you. Maybe putting on your salesperson voice, or letting fear and anxiety overtake you. All of that is just blocking the connection with the donor.
Going in with an authentic representation of yourself then leads to more fruitful and fulfilling conversations. And it is just that (or should be): a conversation, not a pitch. Rhea likened major gift conversations as the “jazz” of the fundraising world because it involves so much improvisation and going with the flow of the interaction. There’s no set formula to guide those conversations, nor should there be.
What If Donors Don’t Engage?
Of course, there is the challenge of getting that first date. Non-responsive donors are, unfortunately, business as usual in the fundraising world. Yet, there are some ways to mitigate this challenge that I’ve found effective when advising my clients. Here are some ideas:
Mix up the cadence of your outreach communications (and don’t say the same thing each time).
Make sure you’re quick and to the point. Don’t give them a novel-length history of your organization.
Ask them to kindly reply, just to let you know they’ve received your email.
Suggest a time, like “How’s Friday at noon?” instead of asking them which time works best.
Consider the limitations of sticking solely to “Let me tell you more about us and what we do.” Remember, you’re building relationships and that’s a two-way street.
Another trick that arose during our recent era of Zoom is to literally set a timer for 15 minutes on your initial conversation. Donors are busy people, especially investment level donors. They’re running large organizations, they are community leaders. The thought of an hour meeting, which will likely turn into 90 minutes, is overwhelming.
So, proposing just 15 minutes—and then actually sticking to it—is a really attractive invitation. Tighter meetings represent less lift. Plus, the donor will likely be appreciative that you’re proactively being respectful of their time; all of which helps lead them to the next step.
A Note About Board Responsibilities
I want to address one last thing from my fantastic chat with Rhea, and it involves your board. All of the above elements of fundraising are crucial for reaching your strategic goals—even the task-related stuff. How much of it falls upon the board?
We have to consider what are the “right” things and “wrong” things to require of board members. Just like donors, they’re experts at something other than fundraising. They’re busy people and have limited time. Should we really be asking board members, in the maybe one hour a month they have for the organization outside the board meeting, to generate 10 names? Or try to engage donors on Facebook?
Your board can be so much more effective than that, but only if nonprofit leadership models the activities that are going to make the biggest difference in unrestricted revenue. Educate your board members to be your co-pilots in revenue generation. To have those meaningful (if brief) conversations with donors, instead of stymying growth via those “urgent” types of fundraising activities.
Essentially, help them be the tortoise—not the hare.
What Can You Do Today?
Speaking with Rhea has been one of my most favorite podcast episodes to date! She’s a super-smart advocate for many of the practices and principles I use to guide my clients to a 2x-10x revenue trajectory. You can find our conversation here (or really anywhere you get your podcasts). There’s actually a bunch more insights that I didn’t cover in this blog.
Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:
👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I give away insider info every week - the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and adding 7-figures + to their bottom line.
🍎 Read my GUIDE! THE TRUTH ABOUT GIVE/GETS :: Top 5 Reasons Your Board’s Give/Get Is Leaving Thousands (Sometimes Millions) on the Table. See how limiting board members to the Give/Get model restricts gifts in so many ways and keeps your staff from reaching their full fundraising potential. Here to get it.
📈 Work with me to fund your organization’s Strategic Plan and scale your budget by 2 - 5X // If you’re a business-minded CEO already raising MILLIONS but still need more general-operating revenue from individuals and family foundations to invest in growth, you can apply to work with me here.
