Raising money through major gifts takes time.
Let me give you two examples.
PART 1 OF 2
Both of these examples are taken from an organization I’ve worked with for four years. Their annual budget hovers around $350,000. (When I started it was about $120,000.)
They have four full-time staff and a handful of part-timers, including me.
They are a hybrid organization that holds regular online educational sessions. They host webinars and conferences, tours, volunteer days. And they’ve landed on a couple industry-leading projects that have given them a good name in their region.
So when Donor #1 – let’s call him Mr. R – learned about this organization through a friend, he was simultaneously intrigued and cautious.
This was a tiny organization, run by people he knew, doing interesting things, but also quite small and not yet established enough to warrant a really big gift.
So in 2019, he gave $500.
It was his first gift to the organization.
The leadership of this organization had a feeling that he had more capacity. And they began to cultivate him accordingly.
But the donor still had questions.
Legit questions, like:
– Am I the only person supporting this org?
– Is this organization going to survive?
– How are you cultivating other lead donors?
– What is the long-term plan?
So in 2020, he gave $500 again.
The leadership answered his questions honestly and stewarded the giving he provided.
And just as importantly, they ran an organization that continued to grow (never quickly, always with challenges) – but that grew nonetheless. And that did its very best to carry out a mission Mr. R. believed in. Because that’s what they believed in as well.
So in 2021, he gave $1,000.
Then later that year, when I started working with this organization, I held a qualification Zoom meeting with Mr. R.
During this meeting, I learned that he had a career as an engineer. That he had grown a startup to a 1,000-person firm. That he had sold the firm. Sold it again. And was now working as a consultant in his retirement.
And I thought to myself – verrryyy interresstiinng.
Mr. R. had some good capacity.
So we kept stewarding him:
– We continued to answer his questions.
– We continued to take his advice – always with a grain of salt but always authentically.
– We continued to plug him in as a volunteer.
– We asked him to host one of our visiting speakers.
– And we introduced him to our interns and staff.
Then, when Mr. R’s spouse passed, we walked alongside him – nothing more intimate than was appropriate for our donor-nonprofit relationship. But we played the role we were supposed to play.
And as we were stewarding Mr. R., we were also cultivating other donors.
And we would tell him about that.
And gradually, as both the organization and our donor base grew, Mr. R’s confidence grew as well.
So in 2022, we asked him for $75,000.
And he gave $10,000.
That’s right. In response to our request for $75,000, he gave $10,000.
And we celebrated that gift like we had just won the lottery.
We remained in close touch. Kept him engaged. Stewarded him well. And listened to his advice.
We made sure Mr. R felt valued and appreciated.
And we leaned even deeper into our stewardship strategy for him – things like introducing him to the next generation of constituents and demonstrating our plans for taking this particular mission into the next iteration of awesome.
And it worked.
Because in 2023, he gave $11,000.
Then in 2024, he gave $25,000.
And this year, he has pledged to give $50,000.
~~~~~
I tell you that story because Mr. R.’s giving at a major level did not happen overnight.
It was the result of many years of cultivation – inviting him into the heart of this organization and making him feel like an authentic part of our mission-based community.
Mr. R. was invested as a volunteer, and he saw firsthand how his giving impacted the work we all believed in.
And over time, Mr. R’s trust in our organization grew to match his capacity. (And we think there is more capacity there.)
So the moral of this story is basically something like this:
If you are an executive director – if you’re a fundraiser just hoping for that next big donor…
Don’t give up.
Don’t stop trying.
Don’t think that just because a donor says “no” – or if they don’t give as much as you were hoping for or if they ask you tough questions – don’t think that you have failed.
The timing was just not right.
And their questions are probably good ones.
So just hang in there and answer those questions.
Continue to build an amazing organization.
Continue to build trust.
Continue to communicate your vision and programming.
Continue to tell your donors all the amazing things you do.
Continue to steward them with consistent gratitude and honest reports about how their dollars are being invested in ways that advance the mission you both believe in.
And continue to ask.
Not aggressively so.
Not in a way that is pushy or tasteless.
But in a way that is gently persistent.
That consistently demonstrates how partnering with your organization is a great way to achieve great things.
If you do that authentically – always tastefully, always coming from a place of genuine care and conviction – then your donors will give.
Trust them.
Trust the process.
And you’ll eventually see your organization growing alongside your donor’s generosity.
Photo by Steshka Croes: https://www.pexels.com/photo/shallow-focus-photo-of-man-3018993/
