We all want more of those major gifts.

Ahhh . . . major gifts . . . the pot of gold!

And we know that major gifts can make or break our organization’s financial future.

But major gift donors are changing, just like fundraising is changing.

This month my “Fundraising Insiders” members (join us!) are focusing on Trends for 2012.

I’m interviewing Margaret Battistelli, editor of Fundraising Success magazine, (Friday Jan 27) and Kivi Leroux Miller of Nonprofitmarketingguide.com (Friday Jan 20) on their outlook for 2012.

And next Tuesday Jan 24, I’m discussing my own take on Major Gifts Trends for 2012. I’m pulling a lot from Penelope Burk’s most recent survey of donors that came out last fall.

Here’s a sample of what I’m presenting in my webinar next week:

1. Visit your major donors and show them your organization’s positive results.

I hear this over and over from major donors:  ”Is my gift really making an impact?”

And they don’t know how to answer this question.

We all know that major donors are giving much more carefully. They are reading the fine print.

Show a measurable result: How many school kids did you help last year?

They are asking lots and lots of questions. They are getting deeply involved in their favorite organizations.

SO – Invite them to private donor briefings.

Introduce them to people your organization has helped.

Review your budget with a special donor or two.

If you can show your donor measurable results, then you’ll assure them.

And you’ll raise lots more money.

This is what does a “measurable result” looks like:

• We served 2050 seniors hot meals this month.
• We built three wells in Africa that cost $10,000 each.
• We helped 250 former prison inmates transition to a positive new life.
• We cleaned 3000 miles of streams.

My friends, this is what YOUR fundraising needs to look like this year!

2. Look for unidentified major donors within your donor data base.

I almost fell on the floor when I heard Penelope Burk say, “More donors does not equal more money.”

This goes against everything we know and hold dear in fundraising, doesn’t it? Can’t you just hear your board members saying, “we’ve just got to expand our donor base!”

But think deeper: the cost of acquiring new donors is very very high.

They may be giving $25 a year but they could give a lot more!

In fact, the generally accepted thinking in the business world is that it costs 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to get more business from a current customer.

Clearly it costs YOU less to develop a deeper relationship with your current donors than it does to go out and beat the bushes for new supporters!

You can raise more money with fewer donors.

So focus on loving your current donors more.

Show them what their gifts are accomplishing.

Thank them profusely.

Treat them like your friends. Better yet, treat them like family.

Penelope Burk’s research shows that 2-4% of your overall donor base has the capability of making major gifts.

Her research found that if properly thanked and communicated with, these previously small donors would make a gift of $1,000 within a year.

3. Design most of your fundraising for the over 65 age group.

I suggested last year that you should ask your grandmother to read your fundraising appeal letter and get her feedback on it.

Mosts major gifts come from older donors.

One of the direct marketing pundits said recently that fundraising materials were typically designed by edgy 20 and 30 somethings.

And they designed what they personally thought was effective.

And it can be quite off the mark.

All the studies show that most larger gifts come from older people.

This is a no-brainer! They have had time to accumulate wealth, educate their children, and enjoy life.

Trend: Older donors will continue to give most major gifts.

Be sure to design events for them (no late late nights).

Be sure their materials are readable (no tiny type please!) and appealing.

And remember older donors really do enjoy the face to face personal visit!

Now, you may have a cause that is web-based and much more oriented to younger people. In that case, look for an angel or two among your supporters, but also don’t forget your grandmother!

Bottom Line:

Create a major gift plan for 2012. Be creative. Look inside your current donor files for prospects.  Love on all your donors a lot. Tell them what you are accomplishing. Be in front of them a lot.

You’ll be successful if you do!

And if you want to discover more Major Donor Strategies for 2012 (There are really 10 of them!), be sure to join the Fundraising Insiders and my webinar next Tuesday at 2pm ET!

(FYI: Joining the Fundraising Insiders gives you a monthly subscription to all my trainings, webinars, Master Classes with experts, archives of past classes, free workbooks and my Template and Sample Library.)

So do you agree with my major gift strategies for 2012?

Tell me why or why not with a comment!

Social skills matter.

Kindness and graciousness will take you far!

Appearance matters. Graciousness matters.

How much do they matter to a master fundraiser?

Tons!

I gave a brand new presentation on “Mastering the Soft Skills of A Fundraiser: What They Don’t Teach You in Fundraising 101″ last week at the AFP Toronto Fundraising Congress.

And it was quite a hit.  Fundraisers, both new and experienced, ate this stuff up.

(I got to be totally candid and not politically correct!)

What’s at stake here?

If you are oblivious to your soft skills, you’ll miss important cues that can have everything to do with your career and your ability to raise money.

Your job is at stake. And so is your organization’s reputation, since you are representing it when you are out in front of people.

Don't be oblivious like Winnie the Pooh

Your organization’s mission is at stake, and the amount of money you can raise is at stake.

So maybe, just maybe, you want to study what they don’t teach you!

Five “Soft Skills” of master major gifts fundraisers:

1. Social awareness.

You need to have a good radar. Where’s your attention? On yourself? or on the other guy or gal (your donor)?

If you are self-conscious and nervous, you’ll totally miss the cues from your donor.

And if you are oblivious (we all know these people) you miss the cues as well.

Things like your donor’s body language, eyes, fidgeting, tone of voice – they tell you worlds of information about her interest in your cause.

Your donor will tell you what the next steps are.

But only if you are aware of both spoken and unspoken messages.

You’ll never raise any money if you can’t totally focus on the donor, and get over yourself.

2. Ability to build a trusting relationship.

Building a trusting relationship with a donor is a delicate dance.

How do you build a trusting relationship with a donor?

The most important thing is to do what you said you’d do.

Follow up when you said you would.

Get them what they asked for when they asked. Circle back promptly to them.

And be on time.

Nothing says disrespect more than tardiness. Keeping a donor waiting is NOT cool!

And get out the door when you said you’d leave!

And how do you know when to press forward and when to back off from your donor?

To know when to go away and when to come closer is the KEY to any lasting relationship. Domenico Cieri Estrada

3. Social skills.

Social skills are wildly important.

The ability to come across as polished and gracious is an essential skill. (Moving up in business usually depends as much on this as on your ability.)

In fact, a friend who’s a very successful restaurateur said recently to me:

“In this economy, it’s all social skills.”

What he means is the ability to be likable. To make people feel good. To make them comfortable.

Make it all about the donor and not about you, and you’ll never go wrong!

Pleasant small talk is an essential skill.

The art of “small talk.”

I taught my kids about small talk when they were in elementary school. They learned to how to have polite conversations with adults.

Making pleasant conversation is a learned skill.

Again, make it all about the other person and they’ll think you are a brilliant conversationalist!

4. Good manners.

What is the essence of good manners?

• Kindness and consideration
• Keeping your cool (decorum)
• Putting others at ease

Good manners can get you out of sticky situations.  You can just ignore the offensive behavior as if it never happened. : )

Table manners can be a minefield for many people!

And good manners can help you dig yourself out of a hole.

We’ve all put our foot in our mouth with a donor before.

From misspelling their name, to not giving them the attention they think they deserve, we have lots of opportunities to offend delicate egos.

Good manners will save you time and time again.

5. Etiquette.

The Dali Lama once said, “Know what the rules are, so you can break them properly.”

You need to know the basic rules of etiquette:

How to make a proper introduction, when to pick up your fork at the table, when to hold the door, when to stand when someone comes in the room, where the knife goes, which fork to use, where the elbow belongs, when to wear white, how to pay a compliment.

You need to pay attention to your appearance:

What’s the proper role of makeup, extreme fashion, showing skin, jewelry, stubble, colors?

What is appropriate in your social life may not be appropriate in front of a major donor.

The essence of marketing tailoring your message to suit the needs of your audience.

A smart fundraiser is willing to tailor their personal presentation to fit into the world of a major donor.

You can loosen up with your friends.

Be more formal and professional with your donors.

Bottom line:

All this stuff matters more than you imagine!

Not only does it affect your success raising money, but it also affects your ability to rise in your career. (not to mention socially.)

I know I’m not being politically correct here but I might was well say it all out loud.

I think we could all use more practice in graciousness and making others comfortable.

What do you think? Leave a comment and tell me!

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 -