Imagine your Development Director just told you they only need to work 30 hours per week to reach their 7-figure annual goal.

Yep. That happened.

Why such a confident statement from my client I’ve been coaching for a few years?

Well, he’s consistently done it. He's exceeded his goal every year for the last three years.

How? He…
➡️learned how to be himself - led with his natural ability to be relational.
➡️realized the financial conversations followed pretty easily.
➡️allowed the top 50 relationships take.all.the.time.they need
➡️built trust which led to the donor comfortably discussing wealth
➡️perfected soliciting donors for their best gift and stopped leaving money on the table
➡️secures 5- and 6-figure gifts regularly

The biggest challenge I hear from fundraisers is that they don’t have enough time in their day to pivot into relational fundraising.

Can I be frank? We all have the same amount of time in our day. It’s the time allocation that needs to be fixed.

I typically have lots of calls with nonprofit leaders at the end of the calendar year. This past year was at an all time high. Makes sense. You're thinking about climbing that revenue hill again and want to know what it looks like if I was at your side for those 12 months training you, your staff, and your board.

Well, I had an interesting day this past year during these calls. I had two potential client conversations scheduled on the same day.

There were a lot of similarities between the two nonprofits:
- Both leaders were running similar sized organizations
- Both knew they needed more unrestricted revenue for general-operating expenses.
- Both had reached out because they are experts in something other than fundraising.
- Both suspect their development teams and boards might be leaving money on the table.

But, here's where the similarities stopped . . .

I asked . . . What are your growth plans? How much money do you need?

Fundraisers: When you go into a donor meeting, what’s your biggest fear?

The simple answer, that donors will simply say “no,” is real—but a bit broad.

Let’s dig a little deeper…

Playing the Numbers Game

I often hear development staff say their biggest fear is not knowing the answers to a donor’s questions. I talk about this a lot in regards to “the numbers.” It’s certainly a valid concern in some cases, if staff members aren’t privy to the financial aspects of their organization’s overall strategic initiatives.

To that, I say:

1) Your staff should have access to and knowledge of the true financial need of the organization. How else would they convey the need to investment-level donors? That’s why it’s so important to budget for training - to provide development staff the skills they need to lead donors to their best gift.

2) If there are questions that cannot be answered at that moment, what a perfect opportunity to get back in touch with that donor once you do have the answers. It’s a natural progression into relationship building!

As a nonprofit leader, how many times have you put weeks, maybe months, building out your strategic initiative and at the end of the day you didn’t have money to do them! The entire process didn’t live up to your expectations. Worse, it didn’t live up to your board’s expectations?

Frankly, this happens more often than you might think. Why?

Fundraising is strategic, yes. But unless you optimize the foundational elements of your fundraising plan (which really should be a financing plan), all of that “strategy” is for naught.

Sadly, unfulfilled Strategic Plans is one of the Top 3 reasons nonprofit CEOs reach out to me.

Nonprofit CEOs: Has this ever happened to you?

My client was telling me about an unexpected (and unrestricted) legacy gift they received a few years back to the tune of $2 million.

But, every year since, they’ve finished in the red and haven’t been able to accomplish the amazing initiatives outlined in their strategic plan. In fact, this client told me the organization “planned” to finish in the red for the next few years.

Gulp.

Why (and how) did the nonprofit get into this pickle? Well, the board decided that gift should be restricted to program growth.

I have no doubt the heart and root of that decision came from the right place. After all, if you want to see more lives changed, more impact, and more mission… you invest in programs, right?

Not so fast.