Happy New Year!
With the new year comes all our New Year’s resolutions. Those of us in the fundraising profession invariably resolve to “get out and make more asks face-to-face.” Yet, as with all resolutions, saying it isn’t enough. Just as with diet and exercise, which are always on my list, we need a strategy. Here are my top 5 ways to start 2018 asking. . . which I will be applying to diet and exercise!
5. Keep It Doable
The challenge with major gift fundraising is it’s endless. There’s always another person to cultivate or solicit, and the enormity of the task can stop us in our tracks. So, it’s critically important to make it doable.
If you’ve never asked before, set a goal of asking 1 person a month. Maybe you can carve out 2 hours a week for major gift work. If you put it in your calendar as a recurring event, just like a staff meeting, you’ll get it done. Those two hours can be spent communicating with donors, conducting research, and strategizing.
4. Have a Plan
Boy, do plans help! Plans keep everyone honest and keep projects moving ahead. The key to plans is to make them doable, as noted above, and to have accountability. Every task in a plan must be assigned to someone with an agreed-to due date. Then, at least quarterly, the plan has to be reviewed and updated.
Years back, when I was in charge of major gifts in the Midwest for my alma mater, every quarter I’d head back east to the school. Everyone would sit in a room for hours – alumni relations, planned giving, research, etc. – and we’d go donor by donor, action step by action step. Was the action step accomplished? If so, how’d it go? What’s the next step? If not, is the action step still valid? If so, what’s the new due date? That kept me very honest!
3. Go for the Low Hanging Fruit
The goal of fundraising is to raise the most money we can to support the great work of our institution while building the strongest relationships with donors. Yet sometimes the biggest gifts are hard to get for one reason or another. Often, it’s a matter of access to those donors. Sometimes it’s nerves. I’m a big believer in the low-hanging fruit.
Most days, I spend some time getting the smaller stuff done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and clears my head so I can concentrate on the bigger stuff.
The same can hold true for donors. While you always want to solicit donors who meet your major gift threshold (read my post on What’s a Major Gift here), this doesn’t mean only soliciting from the top down. There are many reasons why a donor is important to the organization, and some of those donors – volunteers, board members, long-time donors – might be easier to access. . . and they might be more comfortable for you to solicit.
If you take a few of these and have success along the way, it will inspire you to keep going.
2. Identify a Partner
Fundraising can be a lonely business if we let it be. Often, we’re the only fundraiser at our organization, and we’re spending lots of time out of the office with donors as opposed to with colleagues. See if you can find an accountability partner and an asking partner, who might be one and the same.
For accountability, perhaps a fellow staff member would meet with you regularly over coffee to compare notes on your work. You can share your successes and your challenges, serve as each other’s cheering section, and keep each other honest! It’s great if this person understands the fundraising business, but it’s not required. You might even consider engaging a professional coach to check in with regularly. I recently hired a business strategist and it’s made a world of difference.
As my longtime followers know, I’m a huge fan of partnering on asks. Partnering makes the work so much more enjoyable in addition to making for a stronger ask. If you have an asking partner you’re more likely to set up the meetings because you’re now responsible to another person. And you’ll want to set up the meetings in order to spend the time with your asking partner.
1. Just Do It
It’s easy to get caught up in the process. To think you need more information. To think you need to practice more. To think it’s a huge project and you need to clear your plate first. Or you might be thinking it’s not the right time because the gala is coming up or it’s proposal crunch time. Just do it. Just pick up the phone or send an email. Right now.
I wish you a great year of fundraising in 2018.
