Simple Things You re NOT Doing to Raise More Money Amy Eisenstein By MPA, ACFRE Introduction........................................... 2 Are You Identifying Individual Prospects?....................... 4 Are You Growing Your List of Supporters?....................... 8 Are You Taking the Time to Cultivate?......................... 9 The Most Critical Step: The Ask............................. 12 Are You Asking for Specifics?.............................. 16 Are You Keeping Your Donors Loyal?......................... 17 Achieving Big Results.................................... 19 About the Author...................................... 20
According to Giving USA 2010, individuals gave 75% of the donations to charity last year. That number increases to more than 80% when bequests are included, which leaves corporations and foundations contributing less than 20%. However, if your organization is like most nonprofits, you are probably highly focused on fundraising from corporations and foundations, and not concentrating nearly enough on individuals. If your fundraising revenue is dependent on grant writing and fundraising events, you will want to start incorporating a face-to-face approach into your development plan, which will be the secret to your future fundraising success! There are a variety of reasons why organizations concentrate their fundraising efforts on corporations and foundations, and not on individuals, but I ll simply say that one of the major reasons in my experience is that fundraising from individuals can be difficult and time consuming. However if you want your organization to raise big bucks, you will need to dive into this unknown territory. Another reason that many organizations do not fundraise from individuals is because they don t know where to start. If that s you, you ve come to the right place. 2
It s also important to understand that when you re fundraising from individuals, in a face-to-face way for the first time, it is unlikely that you will be asking for major gifts. It is a common misconception that all face-to-face asking is for enormous sums of money (major gifts). It s important to include person-toperson asking as a part of your annual campaign. Depending on your organization, this means asking for $100, $500, $1,000 or even $5,000 from your individual donors on an annual basis for your regular and recurring programs and operating funds. This personalized approach to fundraising will significantly raise your annual campaign results and prepare you for any capital campaign and major gifts asking you wish to do down the road. If you re not asking individuals for contributions for your organization, or you need to strengthen your individual giving program, this ebook is for you. It doesn t matter if you re at a small organization, a local chapter of a larger organization, or in the national office, most nonprofits don t fundraise as well as they could or should from individuals. If you want to be a powerhouse fundraiser and significantly increase donations to your organization, you will need to start asking individuals for gifts as soon as possible. So let s get started. 3
Are You Identifying Individual Prospects? When trying to identify who an organization s individual prospects might be, your database can be an absolute goldmine. Of course, this is only true if you have an up-to-date database of supporters. A good database should have records of all of your past donors, including those who have contributed through the following ways: Annual fund or other appeal letters, Attended or supported your events, Foundation funders, and Anyone else who has donated to your organization. 4
The database should contain the following for all donors and supporters: Full name Address (home and office, when appropriate) E-mail address Phone numbers Donation history You (or someone at your organization) should be able to run reports from your database to identify your donor s largest gifts as well as their cumulative giving. The first two things to look for when searching your data for prospects are: 1. Highest (largest) donors 2. Most loyal donors Your Largest Donors Your largest donors might seem obvious, but be sure to identify both those individuals who give large one-time gifts as well as those who make multiple gifts throughout the year (total their cumulative giving). 5
You may have some donors who give $1,000 at year-end, who appear to be your largest donors, but once you include cumulative giving, you may discover people who give more. An example is someone who gives $500 to your annual appeal at year-end, also buys 2 tickets for $250 each to your annual event, and also supports your annual raffle by buying 10 tickets. A simple search for large onetime gifts will not identify this individual because their giving is spread throughout the year, over several campaigns, appeals or events. Your Most Loyal Donors Your most loyal donors are those individuals who have given every year for the last several years, regardless of the amount, for five, ten or even twenty years, depending on how far back your data goes. These may not be your largest donors, but they are your most consistent and loyal donors and they are critically important to your annual fund. As you may know, it costs more money to acquire a new donor than it does to retain an old one. Donor attrition (losing donors) is a major issue for many nonprofits, so it is extremely important to keep the donors 6
you have, whenever possible. These donors, by staying loyal over a period of years, are telling you loudly and clearly that your organization is important to them. If you don t already know them (many on this list should be very familiar to you), you should get to know these individuals. Find out what interests them about your organization and learn why they re so loyal to your cause or mission. Once they re treated like the VIP s that they are, you may find their giving skyrockets. Also, your loyal donors are your most likely candidates for bequests or other types of planned gifts down the road. In addition to your database, whenever possible, work with your staff and board members to identify prospects from their list of contacts and networks. If you do not have any data to start with, you will need to rely on your staff and board members to identify a list of people to meet. Between the database reports of your largest and most loyal donors and the new names provided to you by your board and staff members, develop a list of the top 20-30 people that you will meet with this year. 7
Are You Growing Your List of Supporters? If you do not already have a direct mail program, I strongly encourage you to start one. Although direct mail is expensive and may not pay for itself in the first few mailings, it s an important investment to make for your future individual giving program. Direct mail can be a wonderful way to raise unrestricted dollars and, as stated above, your data will ultimately become your portal into the world of individual prospects. Direct mail is one way that individuals often begin giving to an organization. It is through direct mail that they identify themselves as interested in the organization and self-select as potential prospects for increased annual giving and possibly as major gift candidates in the future. Events are another great way to grow your list. Be sure to add all attendees (even if they did not pay because they are someone s guest) to your database for future mailings and solicitations. Hopefully your events serve as an introduction to your organization for attendees and they will have a warm spot in their hearts moving forward. 8
Are You Taking the Time to Cultivate? The next step in starting an individual giving program is to begin building relationships with your donors or prospects. Cultivation can take many forms and is an ongoing process, but generally involves routine and regular contact with individual prospects to get to know them and educate them about your organization. You should invite them to your events, programs, graduations, on a tour, etc., as well as meet with them at their home or office. It will be important to meet with prospects in a one-on-one setting to learn more about their needs and interests. Whenever possible, get board members involved in the cultivation process. Have board members do the initial inviting for a meeting or to an event, especially if the board member knows the prospect. 9
Ideally, you should initially meet wherever the individual is most comfortable, generally in their home or office. You can also hold a meeting at your organization, especially if you will be giving a tour or showing them the program or facilities. For a variety of reasons, restaurants are not great places to meet with a prospect, mostly because they are noisy and often have many interruptions. One of the common mistakes made by executive directors, development directors, and board members is that they are so eager to tell the story of the organization that they forget to listen and learn about the person they are cultivating. Listening to the prospect s interests and particular needs is a crucial part of the process that fundraisers often miss. One of the best ways to build relationships with potential donors and raise more money is to get them involved with your organization. Find out if the person is interested in volunteering for your organization in any capacity, whether it is a one-time event or on a regular basis. They might want to get involved in a direct care capacity, working with clients directly, or on a committee or serve a back office function. Personal involvement with your organization in almost any volunteer capacity will raise their commitment level and have an impact on increased donations like nothing else. 10
During the cultivation process, you should ask open ended questions to learn more about the person. For example: Why is this organization important to you? Why are you interested in this charity? Would you like to volunteer with the organization and how? (After you have explained the potential volunteer opportunities, which include a variety of choices.) Which of our programs is most interesting to you and why? Do you have any questions about the organization or anything we have discussed? Before meeting with a prospect, always have a goal or outcome for the meeting and create a follow-up plan for your next contact with them. When you feel that the person is committed to your organization and your cause, and you know the answers to the above questions, it is time to ask for a gift (donation). 11
Remember, you are asking for annual fund donations, not major gifts, so you may only need to meet with a person once or twice before you ask. The Most Critical Step: The Ask Everything discussed so far is leading up to the most important aspect of the fundraising process, the ask. You will never get donations without asking, so it s critical to plan and execute this step, even if you feel uncomfortable or unsure. The more frequently you ask for donations for your organization, the easier it will become. As I ve said above, this ebook is not about asking for major gifts, but for contributions to the annual fund. That being said, there is no need to over-plan, over-research, over-think or over-stress. A reasonable amount of planning, research, thinking and stressing will certainly suffice. 12
You re not likely to be asking for a million dollars, so it s more important to make the ask then to have it planned out perfectly. When to ask? When asking for an annual fund gift, there is no right or wrong time to ask. It s important to ask as soon as you think it is appropriate and not wait for the perfect moment. There s never a perfect moment. Ask about eight to ten months after they made their previous gift and/or whenever it is appropriate for your giving cycle. Be sure to consider yearend giving (tax concerns). Where to ask? This is a question that I hear a lot when I am talking to people about asking for the first time. The key is to ask wherever the individual being asked feels most comfortable generally in their home or at their office. Restaurants are not good places to ask for a donation for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they are noisy. You want to make sure everyone at the table can hear the conversation, and would not want to be in the middle of asking for a gift only to have a waiter interrupt! 13
Who should ask? Ideally, you want a board member or other volunteer who knows the prospect well to be the one to ask for a gift. Peer to peer solicitation always works best. One important caveat is that the asker must have already made a personal gift to the organization themselves. When you do not have a board member who is able or willing to ask, then it s fine for the executive director to ask. A third choice would be to have a development staff member do the asking. The most important thing to remember is that asks are getting made. Don t get stuck if your board members won t help with asking! How much to ask for? This is always a tricky subject and is something that should be discussed in the cultivation stage. If possible, do some basic research to try to determine the assets and giving capacity of the individual. You can do this with a quick Google search, asking other people who know them, and asking the individual themselves what level of support they can see themselves at for you organization. If they have a history of donating to your organization, you ll want to seriously consider their past giving in determining an ask amount. 14
One of the best ways to determine a gift level is to give them some hypothetical choices in the cultivation stage. Show them a list of your needs, with dollar amounts. For example, supplies for clients - $100, a new computer - $800, a new van - $20,000, and staff member s salary - $50,000. Ask them where they could see their giving to your organization and what they would like to contribute to and at what level. When you feel you know the answers to most of the following questions, it is time to ask: Do they care about your organization? Are they interested in supporting the organization? What is their favorite aspect of your program, and what are they are interested in supporting? Who do they know at the organization (board members, executive director)? Who is the right person to ask? How much should you ask for? 15
Are You Asking for Specifics? You ll want to ask for a specific amount and for a specific thing. For example: We hope you will consider supporting the after school program with a gift of $2,000 this year. Don t make the person guess how much you are asking for. Also, don t give a range. For example, we would like a gift of $100 to $500. They will always give the lowest amount in that scenario. After you ask the person for a gift, be quiet! That s right. If you speak first, you lose the asking game. As uncomfortable as the silence after asking for a gift can be, you will need to give the person a moment to think. If you speak before allowing them to speak first, you are likely to backpedal and say something like, I know it s a lot, how about less. Already, without them even giving you an answer, you have just lowered the ask. 16
If the person says, yes, congratulations! Say thank you! Then find out how they would like to make the payment or other next steps. Should you send them an envelope? If you get a no, you will need to determine if it is a soft no or a hard no. A hard no is generally a not now, not ever kind of no. If you get this type of no, you probably weren t listening well during the cultivation process. A soft no is a not a not ever, but a not now. If you get a soft no, investigate further and ask what you would need to do to help the no become a yes. Does the person need more information? Need to get more involved? Is the timing bad? Do whatever you can to turn that no into a yes! Are You Keeping Your Donors Loyal? Stewardship is the follow-up or thank you stage of the fundraising process and is frequently overlooked and shortchanged by organization staff. You may feel such a sense of relief from receiving the gift and are in a rush to get to the next task, that the thank you is often neglected. 17
As I discussed before, it s much more expensive to acquire a new donor than it is to retain a current donor. Therefore, it s very important to keep your current donors happy. Thank them often and in multiple ways, including: Thank you letter Thank you email Thank you phone call Thank in person Thank in public (when appropriate) at your events or in publications As part of the stewardship process, get several people involved. The thanks above can come from multiple people, including board members, the executive director and development staff. Be sure to let donors know how their gifts are being used to benefit your clients and your organization. 18
Achieving Big Results If you do this process from start to finish with only ten of your largest and most loyal donors this year, I guarantee you ll see big results. Build slowly and keep it manageable, so you will actually do all four steps: Identify Cultivate Solicit Steward What s Next? So now you ve got the secrets of face-to-face asking, but you can do even more to improve your fundraising, and I d be honored to help. I offer full-service consulting and personal development coaching that allow you to tap directly into my certified fundraising expertise and overcome any obstacle in your path. Click here to learn how I can help you supercharge your fundraising potential. 19
If you d like to read about other things you can do to raise more money, you ll learn a lot from my book, 50 Asks in 50 Weeks: A Guide to Better Fundraising for Your Small Development Shop. About the Author Amy Eisenstein, MPA, ACFRE is a fundraising consultant, author and the owner of Tri Point Fundraising, a full-service development consulting firm for nonprofits. Amy has raised millions of dollars through event planning, grant writing, capital campaigns, direct mail, and major gift solicitations. Her gift for simplifying the art of fundraising yields big results for her clients and followers. 20