Are you over-soliciting and under-communicating?

How creative can your thank you be?

The problem is – we solicit our donors often, probably way too often.

But what happens with our donors in between solicitations?

It’s called “communications,” says my friend Kivi Leroux Miller, the nonprofitmarketingguide.com guru.

And there’s the rub.

We study, study, study how to ask.

But do we study as hard how to communicate warmly and personally?

Are we studying how to make our donors feel loved and so very appreciated?

(Does your thank you letter make your donor feel loved? Just asking!)

Why aren’t we studying “warm and fuzzy” communications to donors?

(I’d sure rather go to a Warm and Fuzzy workshop than The Art of the Ask workshop!)

Now, don’t get me wrong here.

You GOTTA be able to ask and ask well.

‘Love on” your donors

BUT you also GOTTA “love on” your donors (as we say in the south) a whole lot.

Donor numbers are declining. But "Donor Love" can reverse the trend.

And I’m taking a stand right now that we over emphasize the Asking, and we neglect the Donor Communication, aka, “Donor Love.”

I think it’s time fundraisers and board members tackled this issue head-on.

Why You Need a Donor Communications Program RIGHT NOW

How we communicate with our donors has everything do to with whether they give again, and whether they keep giving.

Great donor communications can reverse our terrible decline in overall donor numbers.

Remember that the overall number of donors has decreased by 20% over the past 5 years. (Blackbaud)

Donor Love can boost up our abysmal donor renewal rates.

(Did you know that overall donor retention averaged 41% and new donor retention averaged 27% in 2010? Gasp!) (AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Survey)

Just think how much money you could raise if you get more donors to renew???

Donor Love can make or break your fundraising program – hands down.

If your donors don’t feel appreciated, involved, supported, responded to, connected, and informed – then they probably will not make another gift to your wonderful cause.

So, what’s your communications strategy to keep your donors in the loop?

You need a plan to keep them close, warmed up – so they’ll be friendly when it comes time to ask again.

You need a plan to connect with them.

Create a systematic, month-by-month calendar for your donor communications.

In between your solicitations, what will you send them? What will you say to them?

A Donor Communications Program Can Create Amazing Results

Remember the old fundraising adage: “Find 7 ways to thank your donor and she’ll give again.”

That’s what Donor Love is all about.

Here’s a checklist of ideas you can use to craft your very own Donor Love program – things to help you create compelling, happy, friendly, warm and fuzzy messages to your donors.

Be systematic.

Set up a calendar of what type of communication you are sending out and when it goes out.

Plan ahead and put somebody in charge.

Create themes and message ideas and get everybody to agree on them ahead of time.

That’ll save you lots of time and discussions later on!

Get Help.

If you are really smart, engage a terrific communications firm like Big Duck Marketing, or Agents for Good.

Ask them to help design a Donor Communications program for the year.

A great communications consultant can come up with ideas that will charm the socks right off your donors.

Ideas you’d never think of.

Be creative.

Come up with different ways to say thank you to your donors. Can you send a singing thank you telegram for example?

Donor Love can increase your donor's trust in you and your organization.

Can you change your Annual Report into an “Accomplishments Report?”

Can you change your Annual Meeting into an Annual Celebration?

Can you change your Donor Appreciation Event into a cookout or a porch party?

How can you involve your donors in the life and mission of your cause?

Use lots of channels.

You have all sorts of communications channels at your disposal:  in person visits, phone, mail, all types of events, newsletters, acknowledgements, social media.

Use them all. Systematically.

Especially face-to-face visits.

Let your donors know how you spent their money.

Donor are having a lot of trust issues these days. They don’t trust the government, big institutions, politicians, nonprofits and probably not your organization either.

You have to earn their trust.

How?

By letting them know how you spent their money – as accurately and as transparently as possible.

Let your donors know what you achieved with their money.

(Note: this is different from “how you spent their money.”)

Can you be this warm and fuzzy with your donors? : )

This is about outcomes and your results.

How many people did you help? Or cure? Or feed? Or care for?

How many kids, or adults or elders? How many performances did you present? How many educational sessions with how many kids?

Get your tone right.

Lofty and formal is different from warm and fuzzy.

Yes, it’s ok to deviate from the formal, jargon-rich, lofty “nonprofit-speak” that you so often use to the rest of the world.

What’s the tone of your communications to them?

How personalized?

Yes, it’s ok to use contractions like I’m using in this sentence.

Yes, it’s ok to tell stories and to be casual.

By all means, be friendly!

Bottom Line:

It’s past time to add Donor Communications as a new formal element to your fundraising program.

You’ve GOT to stay in front of your donors – cheerfully – in between solicitations if you want them to keep giving!

What do you think? Let me know with a comment!

Has this happened to you lately?

Your donor just said, "I'm too busy to see you now. Call me later."

Here you are, sitting at your desk with your major prospect list in hand.

You’ve allocated time this morning to get on the phone and set up some appointments with some of your key supporters.

You want to visit with them in person.  And you want to use the visit as a prep to a larger ask.

Because you know that face-to-face visits are the most important cultivation tool available to you.

What happens when you try to set up face to face visits?

So you get on the phone, cheerfully calling and asking for a few precious minutes of your wonderful donor’s time.

And this is what you are getting, over and over:

“I’m too busy to meet with you – call me later.”

• “I love your organization and I’m supporting you guys.   Since I’m already giving.  Spend your time on someone else.  And call me after I get back from my next trip.”

Gawd, it’s so frustrating!! How on earth are you going to cultivate this donor if you can’t get in the door to see him?

There goes the major donor part of your year-end fundraising efforts.

It’s particularly discouraging when donors you know personally won’t give you an appointment.  Those are the ones who will cut you off quickly because they know you, and they probably see you often.  So it’s even harder to get them alone to chat privately.

The key to getting in the door: Ask for advice.

Ask your donor for advice, and he'll be more willing to visit with you.

You probably know one of my favorite saying: “If you want money, ask for advice. If you want advice, then ask for money.”

I’ve written extensively about the power of advice visits:

• How Advice Visits Can Open Any Door in Town
• Three Rules for Successful Advice Visits
• Questions to Ask in an Advice Visit

You can call the donor and say, “I have an idea up my sleeve and I want to bounce it off you.”

Or say, “We’re thinking about an interesting project and I want to pick your brain about it.”

If the donor knows she gets to do the talking, then she’ll visit with you.

And this saying is all about listening, listening to the donor. It’s about letting the DONOR do the talking. (I know it’s hard but you’ve just gotta do it!)

Remember that fundraising is not all about you.

It’s actually about engaging the donor, pulling the donor out, finding out what turns your donor on, and fanning that flame of whatever passion they have.

My colleague, Tracy Proctor, shared some advice approaches that she likes:

• “The one thing I have found that will often work is to ask the donor for advice.  You can try several angles:

• “You can brainstorm their favorite area of the organization and frame a question to get some advice.

• “Or you can ask their help about a particular prospect – can they strategize with you about how to get the appointment to see someone. (this particularly works if they say “spend time on someone else.”)

“I received an unsolicited $10,000 challenge gift in an advice visit!”

Another colleague and client, Linda Frenette, Executive Director of the Community Music School in Raleigh, wrote me recently with this amazing story:

• “I had an “advice visit” today with a very prominent woman in the community who on the spot offered a $10,000 challenge grant!!

• “What’s even more amazing is that she would not even schedule the meeting until she told me and my board member that her foundation had no money to give us!”

Wow, wow and wow again.  This just happened late week!

Bottom Line:

Donors are tired of being “presented to.” They want to engage, not listen to your verbiage. Try advice visits with everybody. They work!

How have you used this strategy?  How has it worked for you?

So you’ve managed to make your first visit with an important major gift prospect. What next?

Cultivating Major Donors is Like Spinning Plates on a Stick - you can only do so many at once!

How do you manage to grow her interest in your cause? What’s your excuse for visiting with her again?

I’m working with some wonderful clients creating a step-by-step process to help them followup on their major gift prospects.

I thought it would be helpful to share these ideas with you – so you can create your own step-by-step plan to cultivate your major donors.

You can refer to my handout with 41 Cultivation Questions to ask a Major Donor.

If you follow this process correctly, you should be able to land a wonderfully large gift to your cause.

Here’s the scenario:

The Central North Carolina Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society (my wonderful client) is planning an exciting capital campaign to raise money for research.

There’s Good News and Bad News:

The Good News is that this chapter raises almost $2 million a year through various events. This is terrific, especially in this economy.

The Bad News is that the chapter doesn’t really have a formal, structured major gift program. So there’s some work to be to get ready for a capital campaign.

But now, opportunity knocks.

A campaign looms, and major donor prospects must be identified and cultivated.

Have YOU ever been in that situation before?

How do you find and build major donor prospects for your campaign?

How to build momentum with prospects.

We wanted to create a series of contacts with our wonderful prospects that all built on each other.

We wanted to try to develop each person’s personal tie to our cause – and make our project bigger on their radar screen.

We were pondering our “moves.” What are the steps that would bring them closer to us?

These are huge questions.  Every smart fundraiser scratches his or her head alot, thinking “what to do next?”

Are you scratching your head wondering what's the next step with your prospect?

What’s a “move?”

A move is a meaningful contact with your prospect.

Somehow you need to penetrate the consciousness of your prospective donor about your cause. And that’s called a “move.”

If you want to prepare someone for a major gift ask, you should have at least one move a month for them.

Moves Management is a widely used system for managing the major gift process. It helps you track your cultivation steps month by month to prep for the ask.

It’s a wonderful way to organize what can be a very amorphous process.

TYPICAL MOVES WITH A PROSPECT:

Get to know you meeting:

• Here’s our cause and our opportunity – we’d love to have your help. Who else in the community do you think would be interested?

You can find 41 Cultivation Questions To Ask A Major Donor on the Free Tools page of my website.

Personal visit after a gift:

• Thank you so much – why did you choose to give?
• I’d love to hear your story.

Advice visit:

• Can I come pick your brain?
• Here’s our challenge and our plan for meeting the challenge. what do you think?
• I’ve written extensively about advice visits here, here and here. They are just about the easiest way to get in front of a prospect and develop their interest in your work.

Advice visits are one of my favorite cultivation moves.

A behind the scenes tour of your work.

• I think a tour is your BEST ever cultivation move.
• Because the personal experience almost always touches the heart of donors.

My fundraising colleagues often say, “if we can just get people here, we’ve got them hooked forever.”

Invitations to special events or briefings.

• I like private briefings and socials the very best for bringing key players together.
• I like them small, exclusive and personal.

For my MS Chapter, we are going to invite all the people who were interviewed in the Feasibility Study to a private briefing about my findings. We’ll include a social hour.

It’s a terrific cultivation move to followup the Feasibility Study this way.

Dinner or meeting with your CEO.

• One of my favorite clients, the St. John Medical Foundation in Oregon, hosts a dinner each month with the hospital’s CEO.  (I’m actually writing from there today – just finished up a “refresher” board retreat.

• And board members host these dinners in their homes.

It’s been a smashing success – creating terrific moves on prospects and also engaging board members at a much deeper level.

Special “Insiders Mailing.”

• I love the idea of a VIP mailing list.

• Create a list of important people, donors, community leaders – and send them an occasional VIP briefing by your CEO. You’d be surprised how many people notice and appreciate the personal attention.

Bottom Line:

Be sure you create a specific plan that has a series of action steps for each donor.

Don’t leave cultivation to chance or serendipity. Or, when you get around to it.

Make a deliberate plan and make it happen. Then enjoy the results. : )

Comments? Questions? Thoughts? Leave one below:

Do you ever feel like you are stuck in the office? The problem is – you’re not going to raise any money there.

You need to spend quality time getting to know your donors.

You’ve got to get out in front of donors.

Many of my colleagues complain that they just aren’t out making the calls on donors they need to make.

They know it’s the missing ingredient in implementing their fundraising plan.

The #1 Secret of Raising Lots of Money? Face Time With Donors

The problem (or opportunity) is that there’s no substitute for face-to-face customer/donor contact.

How else can you forge a deep relationship? How else can you use your radar to learn more about the donor’s interests and inclinations?

And if you consider the Lifetime Value of a major donor to your organization – it might be easier to justify getting out there and visiting with them.

Why is it so hard to be out of the office?

Immediate priorities keep pulling at you. And they take you pretty much nowhere.

Don't let yourself get stuck in the office!

Yes, you’re working on your direct mail program, writing thank you letters, solving problems, setting up your next event, even reading this blog – but none of this will raise the really big money you need.

As Ayda Sanver, the very smart ED of the CSAAC Foundation in Maryland told me a couple of weeks ago – “You can’t raise money in your office!”

She’s out there all the time visiting with potential and current donors. Yes!

The Data: It Really DOES Pay to Schmooze

Red=socializing before the deal Blue=no socializing

The Neuromarketing blog this week ran an article “It Really Does Pay to Schmooze.”

They cited an experiment that tested the difference between establishing a personal connection and not establishing it.

They found that when students socialized before doing business, the odds were far greater that they would strike a successful “win-win” deal.

Take a look at this chart – you can see that establishing a social connection with your customer/donor makes all the difference in your ultimate success.

They said: ‘Good, old-fashioned face time can have a significant impact on trust and behavior.”

So what’s your plan for getting out of the office?

Here’s Your Plan:

1. Set a goal for each month.

Set the number of visits you plan to make each month.  Is it 12, 8 20?  (If you are not a CEO, then you should make a minimum of 12 I think.)

You will never get ANYWHERE without this goal.

2. Enlist internal support.

Tell all your co-workers about your goal and ask them to push you out of the office. You’ve got to have internal support.

Sometimes non-fundraising staff will raise their eyebrows about our need to get out of the office.  I used to sense subtle disapproval from some co-workers when I was a staffer.

So be sure everyone knows what your job is and why it’s important to be out there.

3. Make it a big deal.

Talk about your visits, and your goal. Get your CEO behind you. Get your board behind you.

Tell everybody that you need to make a certain number of visits each month.  Ask for their help.

Who needs a face-to-face meeting? What wonderful donor needs to be thanked in person? Who has tons of potential and needs more cultivation?

(If she’s smart, your boss will make this a management tool, and will ask to see monthly reports on your progress against goals.)

Don't even let hurricanes stop you!

4. Just do it.

Draw a line in the sand and make a personal commitment.

I send out my Friday newsletter come hell or high water. (Or hurricanes!) I just do it.

No matter what’s going on in my life or business, this newsletter comes out.

And it has made all the difference in the world- to my thinking – to my marketing – to my professional development.

So just think what you could accomplish if you had a lot of major prospects under cultivation. How much more money could you raise?

Bottom line:

Here’s your motto: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

You can do it! Just make the commitment.

Question to you:

How often are you out of the office?  How many calls do you try to make each month?

Leave me a comment and let me know -

Last week’s post on the “Fundraiser’s Kiss of Death – Talking Too Much” generated lots of interesting comments.

My readers all enjoyed the story of the donor visit that went sour.

Your Radar is Your Best Fundraising Tool!

But here’s the funny thing:

Why was I consistently able to develop terrific relationships with my major prospects – even when others failed?

There was a very specific reason that I was successful (besides knowing when to shut up!)

I used my radar. And I knew when to get out the door.

Here’s another true story:

I was in New York City, sitting in a lobby in a huge skyscraper.

And I was waiting for my biggest donor prospect of all – a very wealthy hedge fund guru.

As I prepared for the visit, I knew that above all, I wanted to keep and sustain his interest.

And that could be tough. Because . . .

I knew this prospect had a very short attention span.

In fact, it was just about 13 ½ minutes.

And that was on a good day!

(Do YOU have a donor with a very short attention span? Bet you do!)

So my goal, when I came to visit him, was to get out of his office before he was bored and distracted.

I wanted to stay exactly as long as I could have his attention, and not one moment longer.

(You see, if I overstayed my welcome, it might not be able to get another appointment with him. Then all would be lost!)

So I had to employ my secret tool:  my RADAR.

When I visited with him, my radar would go round and round, over and over.

I was watching for signals that would tell me the level of his attention.

I had to watch carefully for signs that told me:

• How interested was he in our visit?
• How interested was he in my cause?
• Was I engaging him or was I boring him?
• When did I need to make a quick exit?

Here was my checklist for what I was looking for:

A donor's body language can tell you alot.

• Body language:

He was open, attentive and interested. Thank god his arms weren’t crossed – good sign.

• Eyes:

He was looking at me with interest, at least for the first 8 minutes.  Then his eyes darted around and I could tell something else had crossed his mind.

I shifted in my seat, wondering if I should leave now.

• Fidgeting:

He nervously fidgeted with something on his desk.  He must have been worked up about something but it wasn’t interfering with our conversation.

• Tone of voice:

Sounded good. Seemed to be in a fairly good humor. I knew he had a bit of a volatile reputation so I was particularly watching for that!

• Smiling:

Yes, thank goodness he was in a positive mindset. I knew better than to visit when he was upset.

• His questions and comments:

These were the most important piece of information of all.

They were telling me what was on his mind — where he stood and what he was thinking about our project.

Totally invaluable. I noted what he asked about to record in my call report.

Then suddenly things changed.

All of a sudden his assistant popped her head in with some silent communication to him. Everything shifted.

He clearly moved on to something else that was more urgent and important.

Suddenly I was old news.

I stood up, smiled and got out the door.  I thanked my trusty radar for helping me  once again.

Don’t ever forget your secret tool.

Your radar won’t fail you if you focus carefully on your prospect. Then you can have the best visit ever.

How do you use your own radar?

Leave a comment and share it with us all -