I once closed a million-dollar gift over Zoom, after just two visits and a phone call, held over a six-month period.
Here is the story…
Let’s call the donor Bob.
Bob was in his 80s. He was a previous board member, business owner, grandfather, and dedicated husband.
He was also a longtime donor. He had been supporting this organization for more than two decades.
Bob’s giving was generous but sporadic. He did not give every year. But when he did give, it was among the top donations made to the nonprofit where I was working, usually somewhere in the 4- to 5-figure range.
I reached out to Bob first by letter. Yes, letter. I mailed it in the mail. Signed it in blue ink. And used the letter to tell Bob we were having a great year, that we had just finished writing our newest strategic plan, and that I would love to tell him more about what we were up to.
I followed up that letter with an email. Bob responded. And we put the meeting on the calendar.
For our first Zoom meeting, I came with a PowerPoint presentation. Nothing fancy. Just a few slides with high-level talking points summarizing the strategic plan. I included numbers that quantified what we had accomplished in programming, and I shared general plans for the future.
And that was it. I went through the slides quickly, doing my best to make each sentence count. And I kept the overall tone of the meeting light, personable, and informative.
I also made sure to thank Bob for his giving, and we briefly discussed the endowment Bob and his wife had established some years ago.
A few months passed, and I reached out to Bob with a phone call to check in. We had a nice conversation. He wasn’t interested in a follow-up meeting, but he did encourage me to reach out again in the new year.
Towards the end of the year, Bob’s wife passed. It was sad for him and for us. They had been an important part of our nonprofit community for many years.
I worked with nonprofit leadership to connect with Bob as soon as we heard about her passing. Nothing too extravagant. We sent him a card and some flowers, and we made a phone call expressing our sympathies. Everything was sincere and tasteful.
Then in the new year, we sent Bob a financial report on his endowment. Also nothing too fancy. It was one page, accompanied by a cover letter from the organization’s Executive Director. The report included a statement on the balance of his endowment, the gains since the endowment was established, and a brief summary of what we had accomplished through the endowed funds.
We stewarded Bob personally and financially.
After a few months passed, I reached out to Bob again, asking if he would like to schedule a follow up meeting.
Bob agreed, and we connected via Zoom.
This time, I did not come with a formal presentation. The purpose was to check in personally with Bob, especially given the recent passing of his wife, and continue cultivating the relationship.
Our conversation was easy. I gave him a brief update from the nonprofit, and we discussed his family, his winter activities, and his plans for the spring.
Then when the conversation turned to philanthropy, Bob dropped some big news: he wanted to increase the balance on his endowment to $1 million.
I was dumbfounded.
I knew Bob had potential to make a big gift, but I didn’t think it would be this big. To get his endowment to $1 million, Bob would need to make a donation of $850,000.
He wanted facilitate a stock transfer and asked me for instructions.
I told him I would share this news with my team and get back to him as soon as I could.
I did share it with my team, and everyone was understandably excited. It was a big donation.
But the best fundraisers know that an ideal gift is an unrestricted gift.
So in my follow up phone call to Bob, I asked him to consider making an additional $150,000 donation to our annual fund.
And sure enough, he agreed.
We worked with Bob to facilitate the stock transfer. We put the $850,000 in his endowment, put the rest in unrestricted funds.
And we made sure to steward Bob with a whole bunch of authenticity and care.
It was a learning moment for me, and a transformational moment for this small nonprofit.
And it demonstrated to me that sometimes, all you need to do is show up.
When you steward the right donors, they will give.
I’ll unpack more of this amazing story in future posts. So be sure to stay tuned.
