I'll never forget the major-gifts officer who had booked a flight to a city in another state to "visit" donors and he hadn't (a) actually analyzed whether they were the right donors (they weren't), or (b) booked any meetings. He was just gonna show up and "make it happen."
Then there's the major-gifts manager who has no plans for her MGOs, doesn't monitor (or care) who they're talking to, has never considered what programs and projects should be presented to donors, has no reporting in place and simply leads her staff with, "If the donor gives more than $1,000 in one financial period, then you manage them." Whew. This is just amazing. And what's more shocking is that the management above this person allows it.
I am repeatedly shocked at how so many major-gifts programs, managers and MGOs operate without any plans or any logical approach to work. You wouldn't plan a vacation that way, where you do not give thought to your destination until the morning you start out — although I have to admit that might be fun.
Yet, in many major-gifts programs we see (and we see a lot of them in North America and Europe), there is no formal logical approach to planning. It's no wonder that those programs are failing as managers and MGOs "lead from the gut."
In our writings for this blog, Jeff and I have carefully laid out what the initial planning process for a major-gifts program should be. Stated simply, it's basically this:
- You need to have the right talent. We've told you that criteria.
- You need to select the right donors. This is about recency, amount and capacity.
- You need to contact those donors and see if they want to relate to you — that's qualifying.
- Once you have your list of qualified donors, you need to set financial goals for each donor.
- You need to tier the donors in some hierarchy that shows relative value (A,B,C) so you know how to spend your time. Not all donors are equal.
- Then you have to create contact, cultivation and ask plans for each donor.
- You can't move forward without securing program information — something to present to the donors not only for reporting back on how their gifts made a difference but also preparing asks.
- And finally you need to, along with your manager, create performance evaluation measurements and reports in order to let people outside yourself know how you are doing.
So, before you can even get started you need to do all of this planning. If you don't, then you will be "leading from the gut," and I guarantee you will be off course by the end of the first day! If you're bored and impatient as you read this, you might want to consider a different job. Seriously, you will not succeed as you could, unless you line things up properly.
Now you're ready to hit the road and execute your plan. Having a good administrative assistant will help.
In addition to the initial planning, Jeff and I have very strong opinions about what planning activity needs to be happening on an ongoing basis.
Besides executing your plan, you need to do two things on a weekly basis:
- Stay in touch with your cause. We've written about often. It is the subject of making sure your heart and your head is connected to your cause. Do not allow yourself to get buried in the plans, the numbers, the day to day such that you forget the cause. I always start my day — always — with some form of the following thought: "I am so thankful I am alive today. I am thankful I am loved and cherished. I am thankful I can help others make a difference in our world and thereby make a difference myself. Today I will seek to stay in touch with the pain, tragedy and hurt of humankind and the state of our planet so I can keep my heart soft and my motivation to help high. I am thankful for my problems, because they keep me humble, human and open to the wisdom and circumstances of others." You must stay in touch with the why of your work. And I would do this every day, not every week.
- Plan next week's actions. Every week, dedicate some time to plan next week in sufficient detail so you know you are working effectively and efficiently.
Then on a monthly basis:
- Assess your progress against goals and plans. It is very important to look at what you purposed to do (the plan) and how you are progressing against it. Go to a quiet place and take two hours or more to do this once a month. Some of your individual donor plans may need to change. Do it. It will reset your compass.
- Secure program info. In the initial planning you already secured program information. Now, on a monthly basis, you should continue to do so. This includes visiting program, if you can, talking to program people, talking to the people helped, etc. Get your face and heart into it. You must do this every month, or you will lose touch with the core of what you are doing. You need this information for your heart, your head and your donor. Plan to get it, every month.
- Report to management. Of course, you need to report what you are doing to those outside yourself. It's in your interest to tell your boss and others what you are up to.
On a quarterly basis:
- Assess progress against goals and plans. See above, under monthly. Also, modify individual donor plans as needed.
- Assess donor qualification. Take a look at your caseload donors and determine whether some of them have simply, through their behavior — or lack of it — shut down. In other words, while you thought they would be connecting with you, every attempt you have made to connect has failed and, therefore, it may be time to replace them with other donors who do want to connect. Be careful here, we don't want you trading a bunch of donors out every quarter. That would undermine the integrity of your caseload. But you may have a few that require some attention. The point is, look at this once a quarter.
- Evaluate donor tiers. While you are evaluating donor qualification, also evaluate your original tiering (A,B,C). Now that you have a quarter under your belt, you have more information on each individual donor's "value" and potential. You may want to upgrade some donors to an A status, where you will spend more time. You may downgrade others.
- Assess quality of program info. You have been securing program info every month, or even more frequently. Now it's time to evaluate if you are getting the right information and if the program information system you are using is really working for you. If it's not, i.e. if you are not getting meaningful and useable program information, then you need to re-engineer your program info gathering system. Do it so you can get back on track in this important area.
And, finally, on a yearly basis:
- Assess progress against goals and plans. See above, under monthly. But also, on a yearly basis, evaluate how effective your planning has been for each donor. What do you need to change? What worked? What didn't?
- Re-calibrate your caseload. This is the time you take a very serious look at your caseload and decide what donors to keep on the caseload and which ones to replace. The key criteria for replacing donors is simply this: You have discovered, by contacting the donor, that she is just not interested in partnering with you as you thought she might be. That's it. You must move on. And as you re-calibrate you will need to go through the process outlined at the top of this post to re-qualify and plan.
- Evaluate the year's efforts. Much like point No. 1 above, this is the time you step back and look at how you did, what you did and what worked. You then purpose to keep doing the stuff that worked. You also purpose to identify where you have failed, where you need help, what you could do differently. You do this so you can get help and change your ways. This is very important. There is no sense to just doing the same old things.
There you have it — a blueprint for major-gifts planning. You may want to print this out and post it where you can see it regularly. Some of our client MGOs have actually scheduled these planning points on their calendar to make sure they do them. Good idea.
The point is, you really do need to have a structure and logic for what you're doing and where you're going with your donors. If you don't, your donor will suffer, the organization you work for will suffer and, just as important, you will suffer.
There is no need to let all of that happen!
Richard
- Categories:
- Major Gifts
If you’re hanging with Richard it won’t be long before you’ll be laughing.
He always finds something funny in everything. But when the conversation is about people, their money and giving, you’ll find a deeply caring counselor who helps donors fulfill their passions and interests. Richard believes that successful major-gift fundraising is not fundamentally about securing revenue for good causes. Instead it is about helping donors express who they are through their giving. The Connections blog will provide practical information on how to do this successfully. Richard has more than 30 years of nonprofit leadership and fundraising experience, and is founding partner of the Veritus Group.