I’ve been thinking a lot about major gifts this week preparing for my July 29 webinar: 10 Mistake-Proof Steps to Prepare NOW for Your Next Capital Campaign. (join me at 1pm eastern for a lively discussion about raising BIG money.)

I see so very many nonprofits limping along in the major gifts category until they want to embark on a capital campaign. Then they stall because they don’t have any major donors or influential leaders ready to step up.

Here’s what you have to do right now if you ever want to raise big money.

And it’s not rocket science. It just takes commitment and focus:

• Identify 10 major potential donors. They may be foundations, corporations, individuals, organizations, government agencies, or current donors.

• Get in front of them.

• Make friends with them. Ask their advice.

• Bring them on tours. Ask them for help.

• Listen, listen, listen to them.  Ask them why they care about your cause.

• Build trust by following up and doing what you say you will do when you said you would do it.

• Keep in contact with them MONTHLY – at the very minimum.

What are your roadblocks?

But, you might say, “I am too busy! My other responsibilities are vacuuming up all my time!  I am running around going to meetings, creating reports, planning events, writing letters, filling out grant applications, selling tickets.”

Or you might say, “My boss expects me to be in the office all the time. She doesn’t understand that I need to be out of the office making calls.”

Yes, there are always plenty of roadblocks: time traps, deadly meetings, unenlightened bosses.  We all have plenty of excuses and distractions.

But I’m telling you plain and simple, unless you commit to getting in front of these donors, you’ll NEVER raise the big money your cause needs.

This type of relationship building takes time. And it takes face time. Person to person time.

Major gift and capital campaign fundraising is a BODY CONTACT SPORT.

Here’s how you make this happen:

1. Set a goal of at least three donor visits a week, no matter what is happening in the office, with your board, with your staff, in your life.

2. Get your boss and peers to buy in and support you in this. Help them understand why it’s so very important.

3. Commit to your boss in your work goals that you’ll be making 12 calls a month.  (This is a scary one because you are accountable.)

4. Hold a monthly meeting with your boss to review progress on your top 1o donors and discuss next step strategies.

(This is the most important because it sets up a support and reporting mechanism. If you know you’ll be meeting with your boss monthly to review the calls you’ve made, then you will MAKE the priority!)

Implement this plan and you’ll be rewarded with close donor relationships.

You’ll have people who really care about your cause: new volunteers, new leaders, new connections, new support, and new investments. You’ll raise more money. You’ll also have warm personal friendships with some wonderful people.

Fundraising can be so very, very rewarding – and fun – when it becomes all about people and not about their money.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! And forward this to a friend who needs more money for an important cause.

What are the skills the best fundraisers have?

You’d be surprised at my answer: Listening and followup skills are tops on the list.

My recent posts about advice visits and asking donors their impressions are all about listening.

“Listen your way to the gift.”

Did you know that listening is actually a gift to the other person?

And who really listens any more?

It’s a compliment to sit quietly and honor the other person with your full attention.

And it’s rare.

It’s not what you think you need to do.

Volunteers and staff all think they need to be able to make a dynamite, enthusiastic presentation. That’s great!

But even more important is the ability to engage them in conversation, to listen to their thoughts on the issue, to carefully consider their questions, and to explore the topic in more detail FROM THEIR POINT OF VIEW – not yours!

Why do you think we call this work “development?”

It’s because it is slow work, developing a relationship over time with someone who really cares about your organization and your cause.

And the way you develop a relationship is listening to the other person.

“When people talk, listen completely.
Most people never listen.”
— Ernest Hemingway

Advice Visits are one of my golden tools to help open doors to prospective donors – and to find out what’s on a donor’s mind.

Advice Visits are based on the old adage:

“If you want someone to give you advice, just ask for money.

If you want money, then ask for advice.”

Asking prospective donors for their opinion and guidance always helps to create a closer relationship between the donor and your organization.

And we all know that good fundraising is all about INVOLVING the donor — not just ASKING for money.

So Advice Visits are part of any good sustainable fundraising program.

Advice Visits practice one of my favorite fundraising rules:

“Treat donors like real people, not like pocketbooks. Ask them for MORE than just money.”

What is an Advice Visit?

It’s a personal one-on-one meeting between you and a potential or current donor to your organization.

This meeting is called the Advice Visit, because that is truly what you are after — advice.

This visit is emphatically not about money.

Your ONLY goal for visiting this person is to ask them what they think of your project and ask for some serious guidance.

It is always beneficial to get other people’s thoughts about your cause, especially if the thinking comes from important potential donors with deep pockets.

Can I Pick Your Brain? Advice Visits Can Open Important Doors

The best way to open any door in town is to ask the person for their advice. Try calling them up and saying,

“I have an interesting project up my sleeve. Can I take you out for coffee and pick your brain about it?”

Or,

“My organization is trying to do xxxxx, and I am not sure how we can accomplish this. Can I come ask your advice and get the benefit of your perspective?”

Advice Visits are easy; in fact, there is not a better door-opener and cultivation tool.

You can do more in a half an hour with one important prospect than you can do in an entire evening of small talk at an event.

This is a perfect opportunity to promote your cause and cultivate a potential donor in a direct, personal way.

Like an “Informational Interview.”

If you have ever read What Color Is Your Parachute?, the book describes a meeting called the Informational Interview.

The idea is that anybody will be willing to talk to you if you are seeking their advice and counsel.

Of course they’ll see you — because guess what — they get to talk about themselves .

They get to do all the talking. Who wouldn’t agree to a meeting where they got to do all the talking — and better yet, dispense advice.

People are usually complimented when someone approaches them just to ask for advice and you will be surprised at the   number of doors that will open if you just ask for advice.

If you have never tried an Advice Visit, then a world of possibility and connection awaits you.

People want to help nonprofit causes, because they care about their communities, regions, country, and world.

You will find help where you seek it, and you will be particularly successful because you are not asking directly for money.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM AN ADVICE VISIT?

• FEEDBACK on your case. They’ll tell you what they think. They’ll shoot holes in your case – and you need the feedback.
• YES OR NO? They’ll tell you whether they personally may be a potential supporter or not.
• LEADS. The person being visited will invariably give you an important lead or suggestion that will help you further your cause.
• HELP. Best of all, the person almost always offers to do something to help you. That means they are joining the cause and becoming invested in your success.

How have you used Advice Visits in your fundraising work? Tell your story with a comment here:

I’m about to reveal my Golden Formula for opening a donor’s heart to my cause.

I also use this to find out what a donor is thinking about my presentation.

I use these 4 words all the time – and I get terrific benefits and feedback!  I can’t tell you how valuable they have been to me.

It’s a very simple, single question. And it is guaranteed to evoke a response from your donor that tells you where he stands.

But more importantly, it generates the donor’s own thinking about your issue.

It encourages him to ponder your presentation, to digest your material, to think about it, to react to it. It encourages him to embrace what you have just said.

Here is my key to success.

I ask this Golden Question:

“What are your impressions? . . . .

And then I shut up and listen carefully.

This question encourages the donor to think more deeply about what you’ve presented. She is not going to get hot and bothered about your cause just by listening to YOU do all the talking.

She needs time to mull over what you’ve said.  She needs to “stew” in the urgent need or bold vision that you’ve just presented to her.

So you ask the Golden Question and you sit tight.

What will you find out?

You’ll find out where your donor stands! : )

You’ll get her to really react to you and what you’ve said.

You’ll get something much deeper – and more informative – from her. Much deeper than if you had just presented, thanked her and then left.

Remember it’s always all about the donor. We forget this. We think we have to be great salespeople and make a great pitch. NO!

What we have to do is FOCUS on the donor – and listen to him or her. We have to draw out the donor, and get her engaged with us about our cause. And you won’t do that if you do all the talking!

Here are some real-world situations where “What are your impressions?” has served my colleagues and me very well:

1.  I just conducted an Advice Visit with a potential donor to my favorite cause. At the end of our visit, I asked him “What are your impressions of these ideas? And he told me what his reservations were about our project. I was able to address these issues and he became a substantial donor.

2. I  was walking out of a facility tour with a major, major gift prospect. He was actually a candidate for the leadership gift in this campaign.  So I asked him: what were your impressions of the tour?” Well after 5 minutes of conversation – with some very careful maneuvering from me – he invited me to bring a $5ook proposal to his family foundation meeting the next week!

3.  I just made a presentation for a capital campaign consulting project that I would love to do.  I presented against one other firm.  As I was chatting with the President of the College afterwards, I asked him his impressions. He told me that he liked me a lot better than the other firm. : )

4. I train boards a lot in fundraising and friendmaking. But I can’t make it just a one-way presentation – I have to get them to ponder and digest the material we are discussing.

So I model the Golden Question all the time, frequently asking them “what are your impressions of these ideas” – it gets them to mull over the discussion and really embrace it.

5.  My friend, a Vice Chancellor at a major university recently made a big presentation to the Board of Visitors. She wanted to gauge the Chancellor’s reaction to her ideas.  She asked him, “What were your impressions of my presentation?’ And she got some terrific positive feedback!

What are your impressions of my post?  Leave a comment and tell me how you would use this idea.

Here’s more on the subject of Advice Visits:

If you are talking  with an important person who could be a potential donor, you are really conducting “treasure hunt” – to use a metaphor coined by fundraising guru Terry Axelrod.

You don’t know what you’ll find, but you’ll likely find some hidden gold somewhere in the conversation.

Here are some questions to ask in an advice visit:

• What do you think about the project?

• What do you think about the organization?

• What about the need – is it real?

• How can we best address the need?

• Do you agree with our plan?

• What interests you personally about the problem we are addressing?

• What do you think our best strategy is for lining up support?

• Who else would be interested in hearing about this?

• Who else can help us?

• How can we get them on board?

You can go far by just asking great questions.

And you’ll be amazed at what you will find out in the Advice Visit.

I’ll be talking in depth about Advice Visits and how to start the conversation with a potential donor at my next webinar on Thursday April 22.

Join me to find out more.