|
By John Shehane
If you’re a development staff person, chances
are you’ve made a gift to a nonprofit. Hopefully,
it made you feel that wonderful little tinge associated
with the “joy of giving.” It’s that
feeling we want to share with others. Events and direct
mail and telephone banks have their rewards, but it’s
giving or getting a major gift that brings elation to
most professionals. This brief article is about the
joy of getting.
Pretend this is you.
You’re a prospective donor – a respected
civic leader, captain or at least lieutenant of industry
–an obvious target of the solicitations and engagement
activities of multiple nonprofits (such as your church
or perhaps the super sleuths in the alumni office of
your alma mater who have finally found out where you
live). You serve on a few boards, some more actively
than others, and dread the call that you know leads
to one of two onerous tasks – giving or getting
money. Which do you prefer…the former, the latter
or perhaps neither!
Here are some questions you might ask yourself if approached
to give.
Who’s asking?
Exactly who is calling wanting to come to my home or
office to pose the important question? Is it someone
I respect? Someone who flatters me by personally calling
or visiting, or is it a minion of the person I’d
prefer to see…a secretary, paid fundraiser or
unknown volunteer recruited to ask me?
Or perhaps it’s a combination of people. If a
social or business peer or the CEO of the organization
called me, would that be so much more acceptable than
if a secretary called on behalf of the peer or CEO?
Was the peer or CEO so busy or self-important that they
couldn’t take the time to make this call themselves?
Am I of such little importance to them that they sent
a flunky or a hit person to do the job?
Has this person asking me for money made a gift that
relatively speaking is as significant as what they are
asking me to do?
Do I owe this person a positive response because they
responded to me positively before? Do I want to be positive
in my response to continue my solid relationship with
this person? Or, can I buy them off with a relatively
small gift or even beg off the commitment and be done
with it? (Go ahead and admit it. We’ve all been
“bought off” by a donor’s offer of
a minor gift just to get rid of us. Consequently, minor
gets are difficult to celebrate.)
Why are they asking me instead of someone else?
What makes them think I will want to help? Are they
making this call or visit just because they value my
money? Have I given before and if I did, can I remember
whether or not I’ve heard from them since? Have
I been a volunteer and had some other direct role with
their activities? Have I directly or even indirectly
benefited from their work? Have they helped someone
I know or care about?
Would my support of this nonprofit benefit my business
or raise my prestige in the community? What’s
in it for me that suggests I’m someone they should
ask for a gift?
Who will know of my response to this request? And while
I’m thinking about this, why haven’t they
considered that others might be involved in the gift
decision – my spouse, for example? Are they aware
of how decisions about giving are made in our family?
Why now?
What’s the urgency about this? Is the nonprofit
in crises? Will a match or deadline pass soon if I don’t
help? Would their work be hampered in some way if I
and the others they are asking don’t make commitments
right now? Will my gift put them over the top if it
is realized before a certain deadline? Do they want
to use my gift to leverage others? Couldn’t I
put this off for a time?
Do I care?
This is the values question. What is it about this
organization that resonates with me if at all? Do their
work and service goals match what’s important
to me, my family, my community and the world at large?
Has this person suggested aspects of the organization
or this particular project or campaign that have impact
and meaning in my life? Is the goal something I really
want to see happen?
Do I have “it” to give?
Here it is – the dollar figure they want. Can
I do what this person suggests? Do I have the resources
to fulfill the ask, currently or available to me in
a reasonably responsive time period?
Are we talking assets or cash or in-kind or planned
gift or a combination of all or some of these? What
are my options for meeting the request? Did the person
ask me at just the right (or wrong) time? Do they not
know my circumstances and capacities? Am I flattered
by the amount they asked for…thinking I have “that”
kind of money. Or am I insulted by the amount, wasting
my time with a frivolous request, telling me that whatever
I care to do is fine? That’s like saying, their
work isn’t all that important, isn’t it?
Did they ask me for time I can’t spare or to perform
a task that I can’t perform no matter how much
help they offer me?
Do you think through all or some of these questions
when asked for a gift? If not, then to you this is not
a major gift under consideration. If you’ve ever
asked for a “major” gift – that is
major from your perspective – and the donor responded
almost immediately with a yes, then you are fairly safe
to assume you didn’t ask for enough and likely
that, to the donor, the gift may not be all that major.
.
Engineering major gift solicitations requires professionals
to think through as many of these questions as can be
logically answered. If the time to do so isn’t
taken, expected results will not follow. Perhaps these
questions will stimulate professionals and volunteers
in your organization to think about how they might have
answered these questions and how they can make your
major gifts program more effective, leading to real
ownership of the solicitation process. Too often, professionals
and volunteers alike short-cut the development of solicitation
strategies, failing to realize that the “getting”
of each major gift is, in and of itself, a campaign.
|
