A Small Change- Fundraising Blog » All Donors Major Donors

Small to Middle Donors and Obama

Jason Dick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:22 +0000

I received some great comments and encouragement from, Major Gifts or Middle Giving, a couple months ago. I’m searching for answers to what this program might look like. What needs to happen is a technique where you can cultivate a fan-base in a way that is personal to them. Or, we need to find a way to cultivate middle giving donors in a low-cost, time-efficient way.

In Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg (you can read an earlier interview with him), they talk about a technique employed during Obama’s presidential campaign showing a new kind of value in asking for small gifts.

“If Obama had asked for $100 million in the weeks leading up to the election, he probably wouldn’t have gotten it. Instead he told people to donate whatever they could – a few bucks even – and then he was able to return to them over and over. In other words small is the new big.”

This started my mind thinking about all of the opportunities that social media can provide for us. Often nonprofits send off regular annual mailings that sometimes fund a direct need and other times fund an ongoing annual need. These letters often ask the donor to stretch their giving beyond what they have done in the past to upgrade their giving. I believe we do this because it can cost a lot of money to send a mail-out multiple times a year. But social media is free. What if we sent an email out to our donor-base regarding specific needs? Instead of asking for $100 from one donor, we would ask him to be a part of a group of people raising $100,000. We could also provide an opt-out box and let him know we will connect with him in a week’s time if we do not reach our goal. We could also encourage donors to fund specific needs as they develop. If they are funding in smaller specific amounts, maybe they would make more small gifts adding up to a higher overall total.

I don’t see this as a comprehensive donor strategy as I really believe in the power of monthly giving. I’m just throwing out one idea that popped into my head as I was considering this. What other ideas do you have, has this sparked any thinking for you?

Are Fan Bases Major Donors?

Jason Dick — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:00:07 +0000

With the emergence of so many social media tools, there are fan bases developing all around you. I’ve seen websites that will tell give you a financial value of your network. I’m not sure how accurate they can really be, but the reality is that these kinds of groups are starting to hold more and more value beyond simply marketing.

Organizations can raise thousands–sometimes tens of thousands–of dollars through their blogs. These gifts will most often come at the micro level in amounts of $10 and $20. But when they are added together, they are significant. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, a fan base in many ways starts to act more like a single person than you would think. Should we start treating our online fan bases as major donors?

In order to cultivate your fan base, you will use many of the traditional relationship management techniques you would use in traditional moves management or major gifts fundraising. You will go into your online community and find leaders that you can use to encourage other readers to comment or give, in much the same way that you would in a fundraising campaign. Based on past experience and what you hear from your readers, you will tailor future messages to topics that interest them but are strategic to your organization. If you take too long in responding to a comment or are irregular about posting, you lose the loyalty of your readers. You need to stay in touch with your fan base in much the same way that you need to stay in regular touch with your donors.

What do you think? It is kind of a crazy idea to say that you can treat a group of people in a similar way that you would one person. And it is a little bit of a crazy idea to start thinking of that group in major gifts terms. If you are a fellow blogger, I’d love your thoughts regarding if this is something that you have observed as well.

Major Gifts or Middle Giving

Jason Dick — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:00:30 +0000

Major Gifts fundraising traditionally provides the largest amount of fundraising dollars for an organization. With a capital campaign and most of our traditional major gifts cultivation techniques we are seeking to get the largest gift that we can from our wealthiest donors. I wonder if there might be a different way.

Think about the number of people in your city that can give a gift of a hundred thousand dollars. How many of them do you actually know? Now think about the number of people that could give a gift of a thousand dollars. How many do you know now? I suspect you could come up with a handful of names that could give a hundred thousand dollars and if you’re well connected maybe you actually know one or two of them. But, I imagine, you could think of hundreds of people that could give a regular $1,000 gift and in fact you probably even know well over 50 people in that category.

Is there a price point at which major gifts can see the very best results? I’d be interested in hearing from those of you in Major Gifts. Have you ever seen a middle giving program that has a higher ROI than a Major Gifts program? If you were to build a program with a shorter cultivation process for individual solicitations at the 1,000 level, is it possible that this could have a higher ROI than a traditional major gifts program?

All Level Relationship Management

Jason Dick — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:00:11 +0000

This may sound familiar to some of our discussions on the topic of All Donors as Major Donors. We do a great job of cultivating and planning strategically with our major and principal donors, but what about everyone else, especially our community and entry level donors? Discussions about cultivating these large donor groups often do not happen because we lack the time to deal with them individually.

Using data mining, segmenting, and social media tools, we can be more intentional and personal. Keeping your database up-to-date with important pieces of information can be extremely helpful. We use geographical, topical, and giving trends to segment our donor pool into groups for whom we can craft strategic and personal messages. For example, we have a special message for new donors or those from a specific area. Then we think intentionally about what themes and stories might appeal to that group and call a few to ask questions about what messages resonate with them.

Social media cultivation feels more like working with a crowd than an individual. Only a few of the many people you connect with will ever respond to the messages you are sending out. Often you will not know who has a dissenting opinion or if someone doesn’t like a direction you are going in until you are already moving in that direction. With social media the value is in the donor interaction. Overall the best way to work with a social community is to be consistent in how you engage them and to encourage thought leaders to help you positively distribute your message.

Popular Fundraising Models

Jason Dick — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:00:22 +0000

From Penelope Burk to Terry Axelrod, there are a lot of different models and fundraising programs out there. Many development shops base their fundraising programs on one of these models. I’d love to hear back from you on what model you use and what you’ve found to be successful.

Donor Centered Fundraising- Penelope Burke: Focuses on personalizing your appeals and proposals to each individual donor.

Benevon- Terry Axelrod: Focuses on event fundraising using a tried and true program format. At the center of the event program is a compelling donor story. Using this model, events will be your primary cultivation tool.

Moves Management: This model involves planning each specific action you will take with your donors. After an action or move has taken place (such as a donor tour or solicitation), you plan another move for the donor through the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship process. (Good external posts: Major Donors and Moves Management, Moves Management Key to Major Gifts Fundraising.)

Transformational Giving: The Mission Increase Foundation with Eric Foley has coined this term. The idea behind this model is that donor giving can transform an organization and a group of donors. This model is built on biblical principles and focused on using giving as a tool for life transformation.

Most of my fundraising has been in the Pacific Northwest, so I wonder how these practices are recognized nationally. Please share your experiences with these models and/or what other models are out there I did not mention.

Whom Do You Serve: Donor or Organization?

Jason Dick — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:00:41 +0000

There is more to fundraising than raising money for a good cause. One reason I enjoy fundraising is that we have an opportunity to come alongside people and help them give away one of their most valuable resources: money. Money is often very close to people’s heart. When we give it away to a nonprofit or a specific cause it has great meaning.

I spoke with a local foundation executive a few weeks ago and she offered some advice that has stuck with me. As we talked about our opportunity to serve donors, she said one of the keys to successful and meaningful fundraising is to remember to serve both the organization and the donor. It comes naturally for most people to serve the organization they work for. How often do we look out for the best interests of the donor?

We should treat each donor in the same spirit as we would care about someone our nonprofit is serving. This has to be deeper than donor stewardship. People can tell when you genuinely care for them versus when you are looking to receive a donation from them. This comes naturally to many people, but not everyone. Organizations that I give the very most are places where the executive director is my friend.

Cultivating Supporters

Jason Dick — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:00:35 +0000

I hope you had the chance to read my previous post, Raise Supporters Not Support. So what does this look like? How can we start activism within our organizations? Here are a few simple ideas that I have that you could try. If you have a few others leave a comment.

Connect with interested supporters through the Facebook Causes application: this tool is a great way for your supporters to connect with others that believe in what your organization does.
Start a regular e-news or paper newsletter: this provides you the opportunity to discuss a topic and what your organization is doing. An e-newsletter is a great way to keep your constituency informed.
Start a blog: I have been amazed at how blogging allows you to dialog with a really diverse, informed, engaged group of people in very safe medium.
Create a volunteer committee that talks about your issues online: online media and online community is growing more and more. Why not represent your organization where the people are at a low cost.
Start a speaker’s bureau: this is a great way for you to use high-level volunteers to engage with ideas and issues that your organization supports.

Raise Supporters Not Support

Jason Dick — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:00:25 +0000

Everyone always talks about fundraising as having to do with raising money or providing funds for an organization. I think that it could be worth our while to expand this idea to include activism in a more general sense such as advocacy and community activism. Volunteers and community members can be such incredible ambassadors for an organization.

I’d like to advocate that “development” or “fundraising” should be focused more on raising supporters than raising support. Why? Because I think fundraising is about developing people (see All Donors as Major Donors) not farming money. I also believe that if you can raise the community profile of your organization the funds will follow. If fundraising is relationship building and changing then I need to spend more time thinking about the donor than thinking about their donation.

Do you think that fundraising should include activism? Does your organization do any activism? Many times we limit activism to what happens in local and national government. But really activism can simply be the spread and the discussion of an idea. I’d love to hear from you as to what you are doing and if your organization is involved in activism, please leave a comment below.

How to Make a Thank You Call

Jason Dick — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:02 +0000

I’m sure you have made a thank you call before and I’m sure you are great at it. I thought it might be worthwhile for me to talk about the process I go through when making these calls. I’d love to hear from you regarding what tips you have and what things you’ve done. Please leave a comment below.

How do you make a thank you phone call? I have found that sometimes when we receive an unexpected gift we are often so surprised and caught off guard by it that we don’t make the phone call. I know these objections will sometime enter my head: I don’t know this person, If they wanted me to call they would have called me, etc. What I do immediately when I get a gift is look it up in my donor database (here is a great article on choosing a donor database), depending on the size of the gift I might spend a little time on Google (or a new search engine www.pipl.com), then I will pick up the phone and call.

When I talk with them on the phone I will thank them for their gift, if they gave a designated gift I will reference that. Then I ask them how they found my organization or heard of us (If I know the answer to this I might refer to it and ask for their story or more details). I might ask them what motivated their gift if there is a specific program they would like to learn more about. Many times I will close the call with an additional thank you and I’ll ask them if they want a tour of one of the facilities.

What do you do? What have you found successful? Leave a comment below.

The Immediate Thank You Call

Jason Dick — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:00:09 +0000

How many of us have started a 24 hour acknowledgment letter process and stopped making a quick thank you phone call immediately after (or on the same day) that a gift is received? I have been shocked at how well received I am when I call a donor just to say thank you. Sometimes I’ll hear surprise at a quick response or learn a little tidbit about their giving that I would have never learned in a letter or email.

More than anything else a personal thank you call means more to you from a real human voice instead of in a letter. We still need to follow up the call with a quick thank you letter including a little reference to the conversation you had on the phone, but the phone call will make a huge difference. I find that a two minute thank you call does more to secure a second gift than anything else.

In fact, the ability to thank donors should be one of the most important things to your organization. If you are good at thanking donors you will be good at keeping and upgrading them too. You could build your entire development plan around acknowledging and thanking and be extremely successful. If a donor feels cared for they want to grow their involvement. Also thanking donors is one of the easiest things for board and executive staff to do. If you want to get your board involved in the fundraising process this is a great way to get them started.

Do you call donors immediately when you receive a major gift? How has that helped your nonprofit?