Fundraising expert: Make donors more important than donations
My first “database” in fundraising ministry was a small stack of three-by-five cards and one of those fat ink pens with four colors instead of just one. I began with a rubber band around the cards, then graduated to a little recipe box.
Eventually I needed a file box — then two file boxes.
Today, awesome technology makes this work far, far simpler. If I had owned a smartphone back in the 1990s, I would have ruled the world!
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But whatever your budget, whatever your resources, you can develop a workable system, an effective plan — my four-color pen still works today!
That four-color pen helped me keep track of the donors:
Red ink → trouble
Blue ink → warm, fuzzy relational stuff
Green ink → meant money: the donor had given something
Black ink → everything else
I came to see each three-by-five card as a human being, and the color-coded notes simply held in place the personal details that my memory wouldn’t.
Any healthy system must be about donors, not about donations.
The power of a handwritten note
One January afternoon as I sat at a little café in Tempe, Arizona, updating my notes and making phone calls, I began to realize something about the donors to my ministry organization.
Even though I had worked hard to build relationships with my donors, 27 of them had not given a year-end gift.
For the remainder of that afternoon, I sat at that little table and wrote notes. (Even today, with all our technological advances, there is nothing like a handwritten, personal note. It still sends a strong message of value in any relationship.) I did not mention their failure to give the gift they had promised to give.
Within 10 days, 18 of those 27 donors sent a gift. It turned out to be the biggest January for income the organization ever had.
Certainly, it’s not possible to raise money without asking for money, but when we care more about the donor than the donation, donations tend to follow.
Relationship + ministry
Donors need relationship and ministry far more than I need their money.
If we don’t see relationship with the donor as our higher calling, our donors are destined to be mere objects in our lives and in our organizations — and the connection between us and them will be sadly unsatisfying.
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is about trust: “How do donors learn to trust your friendship when they know what you do for a living, and that you really want them to give to your organization?”
To answer the question, we can look at any healthy friendship and inspect the dynamics of the interaction between the two parties. Then, follow suit!
I set out to make a friend. I don’t do that by talking all about myself, my work, my ministry, my need. Eventually, that friend may become a donor to my organization. But by that time, I have already had the privilege of entering into a friendship, a valuable relationship, with that person; I have already ministered to that person relationally.
You may be thinking, Oh, sure, but from the very beginning, that person knows your ultimate intention.
I hear this objection frequently. Someone whose work focuses on major donors is often put in the position of being introduced to a prospective donor for the express purpose of acquiring a contribution. It’s an essentially “artificial” way to meet a new friend, isn’t it!
The fact is that many of our relationships in life begin in this “artificial” way — they start out based on one reason, but morph into something else.
Don’t dismiss your chance intersections in other people’s lives. They could become part of the journey of your lifetime.
Tried … and still true
Today, after decades of fundraising, I see these same time-tested methods working as effectively as when I started.
- When meeting with major donors or prospects, focus on them, not yourself.
- Focus on their lives, not your ministry organization’s next challenge.
- And certainly don’t ask them for money every time you get together with them.
The truth is that only a slender percentage of your life and work should involve asking for money. Spend much more time listening to and ministering to donors!
Excerpted from the book, “Donors Are People Too” by Timothy Smith.
Timothy Smith has over 30 years of experience in non-profit administration, management and fund development. He has served a variety of roles, currently as managing partner for Non-Profit DNA. He also works with Premier Donor Strategies, which engages donors and organizations through major events. Smith was formerly the chief development officer of the Museum of the Bible.
