Major Donor Cultivation and Solicitation: Building Donor Loyalty and Support

1. Major Donor Cultivation and Solicitation:Building Donor Loyalty and Support As an organization, what do we hope to accomplish? ~ to prepare PEBC for a major capital campaign ~ to find ways to increase annual giving ~ to create opportunities for board members to be more effective and involved in fundraising ~ to learn how to make a successful “ask” What are your personal expectations?

2. Training Overview Part One – Donor Loyalty • What does it mean? • Why pay attention to it? • Why become a “donor-centric” organization? • Strategies and tools for building and sustaining it – cultivating major donors

3. Training Overview Part Two – Story-based Cultivation ~ Using your own story and the stories of PEBC to cultivate donors ~ How to get the donor’s story and use it to make the “ask”

4. Training Overview Part Three: Asking for a Major Gift • Addressing your fears of asking for money • Preparing for the ask • Making the ask • Following up • Cementing the relationship

5. Varied Sources of Revenue : Individual Giving has unique characteristics 1. Is motivated primarily by the mission/vision of PEBC 2. Donor takes PEBC and its work personally 3. Donor pays attention to the smaller, day-to-day impact of PEBC 4. Donor commitment to PEBC’s programs can be increased

6. Section 1 – Donor Loyalty Loyal Donors are supportive donors who give money year after year, campaign after campaign. ~They are the first to: respond to a request for support; to encourage others to support; and to respond much more frequently than the non-loyal donor. ~The financial goals of all campaigns are built upon them – they are true believers

7. ~ 85% of individual gifts ~ 15% of total gift income ~ 25% turnover in any given year ~Most people start giving at this level ~ 15% of individual gifts ~ 85% of total gift income ~ 5% to 10% turnover ~ Most people progress to this level (the Stairway to Giving) The longer a donor gives to PEBC the more likely they are to give more in size and frequency

8. The Basic Truths of Donor Loyalty • Organizations are not entitled to donor loyalty: They must first earn it and then constantly re-earn it. • Building donor loyalty is not magic: It is simply hard work on the part of people who are thoroughly prepared. • You don't wait for the "right" time to build donor loyalty: You do it all the time.

9. Is PEBC worthy of donor loyalty? • Have a mission worth performing. • Perform that mission well. • Have strong, respected leadership. • Be fiscally sound. • Operate in the open. Meaning It must voluntarily and proactively sharewith the public information about its operations and its stewardship of funds

10. How to Achieve It *Active cultivation* *Careful consideration for their beliefs and feelings* *Respectful appreciation given with grateful, heartfelt thanks*

11. “The secret of success is not what you know or who you know. Its what you know about who you know.”

12. Things you must know 1. Who they are – their interests 2. What they need and want – their desires 3. How and why they give – what motivates them

13. Donor Interests • How they earn their living • What they do for pleasure • What clubs they belong to • Who their friends are • What authors or subjects they read • Where they were born • Where their children go to school • Where they went to school

14. Donor Wants and Desires • Desired professional and social contacts • Philanthropic desires: - Why each gives to PEBC - How each prefers to make a gift -What other organizations each gives to - How each wants to be recognized and thanked

15. Donor Motivation Two Groups of Donors: A. Lives have been touched, directly or indirectly by PEBC (children, parents, teachers, etc.) B. People who are influenced and impressed by its work or its leadership. (foundations,corporations, civic officials)

16. Donor Cultivation “Donor cultivation is an organization-wide strategy and process to learn more about each donor's interests, desired professional and social contacts, lifestyle, and philanthropic desires so that we can better initiate and respond to contact with a donor in order to develop a stronger relationship with that donor.”

17. Initiate and Respond to Contact • Be willing and able to initiate conversations with donors and have a plan to do so • Treat any contact with a donor as the most important thing happening to the organization at that moment • Have a plan for responding to donor requests quickly and effectively

18. Keeping Donor Records Essential to have a good donor database • Who they are • How to contact them • How they became donors • Their giving record • How, by whom, when. contacted by a representative of the organization • What other interaction they have had with the organization • Much more for major donors – anecdotal

19. Becoming “Donor Centric” • When it recognizes donors as its lifeblood and makes their care a central aspect of its endeavors.  • It must make cultivating donors and managing its relationships with them a core organizational value.  Donor cultivation must be embraced as an objective by every department, staff member, and board member.

20. The Five Donor Imperatives • A donor is the most important person ever in contact with this organization • Donors do not need us.  We need them. • Contact with donors is not an interruption of our work.  Donors make our work possible. • Donors are not people from whom we demand support.  No organization is entitled to its donors' money. • Donors bring us their resources and philanthropic desires.  It is our job to use those resources and meet those philanthropic desires efficiently, effectively, and as we have promised.

21. Tactics for Cultivating Donors • Bring donors to the organization • Go out to meet donors • Keep in touch with donors • Look for ways to help donors, i.e., facilitating business & social contacts • Bring donors closer.  Find ways to connect them with program & other staff • Always thank donors quickly and accurately for their generosity • Recognize donors in ways that they approve of

22. Donors to PEBC - Site Visits • You have their undivided attention. • They can be shown exactly how contributions are being used. • You can introduce them to key staff. • They can meet individuals benefiting from the organization. • They ask questions, the answers to which may allow for additional contact. • They acquire information that they will share with others. • They end up feeling good about being a donor

23. Going to the Donor • Schedule an appointment to pay a call on a donor you wish to cultivate, and have a reason for that call.  Share information on new projects.  Bring along a staff person you would like the donor to meet.Best of all, set up an appointment with the donor to ask the donor's advice about something. 

24. Keeping in Touch Send birthday and other appropriate greeting cards.  Send get-well cards and even flowers to a donor in the hospital.  Keep your eye open for items about donors in newspapers.  When you see one, clip it and send it along with a "congratulations" note to the donorInclude donors on your press list and make sure they get copies of every press release you send out.  Send photographs of things the organization is doing.  Again email is easier, quicker, and far less expensive.And finally, send something special that reflects well on the organization. Share with donors the thank-you notes you receive. Have clients of the organization write to a donor explaining the difference the organization has made in their lives

25. Being of Service • Help donors connect with others in the community that might be of value to the donor. • Provide them with information that they might need to advance their other advocacy interests

26. Bring Donors Closer • Invite them to meet with key staff members or other board members that share their interests • Have a staff member send them a note of appreciation for a gift and explain how it has made a difference in PEBC’s field work

27. Thanking Donors • Thank a donor immediately.  • Be humble.  Don't act as if you were expecting the gift as something that was the donor's responsibility to do. • Praise the donor's generosity.  • Praise your donor's leadership.  • Thank donors for past support.  • And finally, never let a hint of disappointment show.  Never, ever show a lack of gratitude for a gift, whatever its size.

28. Recognize Donors • Thanking is private – Recognition is public • Assess need for recognition carefully • Create recognition opportunities: plaques, names on equipment, names on programs, etc. • Create a donor recognition subcommittee

29. Committee Work • Donor Cultivation Committee • Donor Recognition Subcommittee • Donor Solicitation Subcommittee

30. II. Story Based Friendraising • As a “Donor Centric” organization, PEBC needs to know as much about donors as possible. • The most important information lies in the areas of “willingness” and “ability.” • We can estimate “ability” using a variety of tools, but “willingness” is elusive. • Story sharing is the most effective tool to get at someone’s willingness to give

31. Story Areas • There are three story areas: • Your story – How did you come to be a board member of PEBC? Why do you care about its mission, programs, vision? How does it resonate with your values? • PEBC’s story – How have lives been changed (including your own)? • The donor’s story – Why do they contribute? Why do they care about PEBC?

33. Your Story Exercise • Was there anything in your early years (grade school, middle school, high school) that created a life long interest in the work of PEBC? • Were you influenced in your thinking by anyone in particular (a teacher, a friend, a relative, a business associate) or did you come to it pretty much on your own?

34. Your Story Exercise cont… • What difference has serving as a staff or board member made in the way you look at the world around you? • What difference have you observed in others (children who have been on the bus, friends, family members who have been exposed to the programs etc.) as a result of the PEBC’s work?

35. The Four Story “Touchstones” • Head - the most powerful idea that comes out of your story • Heart - the most powerful feeling • Hand - the most powerful act or action that moved you to participate (your action or another’s) • Hope - some element in your narrative that suggests a hope you might have for the future of the Ecology Bus

37. Story Meaning • What is your story about? • What lesson did you learn? • Is there a moral to your story? • What wisdom does your story express?

38. The PEBC Story • Here are a series of photos of PEBC in action. As you look at them think of how one of these children’s lives might be changed by their experience. • Think of the 4 H’s – Head, Hand, Heart and Hope • Which picture might you like to show to a major donor?

46. Telling with Passion & Enthusiasm • Everybody I spoke with said, 'What you see is what you get,' " Maturi said.”He's energized, he's passionate and he's sincere. I do believe it's easier to sell something that you believe in." Joel Maturi, Athletic Director University of Minnesota, speaking about the new head coach of the Golden Gopher football team, Tim Brewster.

47. Passion & Energy • Your ability to bring energy to your story depends in part on the dramatic quality of the story, but it also depends on the state of mind you are in when you tell it. • If you are convinced that yours is a message worth hearing, that it will resonate with your listener, then it will naturally be imbued with energy. • If the prospect walks away saying, “Wow! He’s really passionate about this organization,” you’ve have made significant progress. Even if you are not yet ready to ask, your passion adds depth to the relationship between the prospect and PEBC.

48. Good Story Structure • A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. • A good story has tension – things could have turned out differently • A good story has the tension resolved at the end • A real life story has the most power – it is grounded in your own life experiences

49. III. Asking for a Major Gift

50. Fundraising Fears • Fear of the unknown • Fear of rejection • Fear of failure • Fear of being seen as a beggar • Fear of saying the wrong thing