Measure Twice...Then Invite

Recently I spoke with a good friend who was formerly a major donor (MD) fundraiser.  I asked her to tell me about her experience in fundraising.

My question:  “As a fundraiser, what did you enjoy most?”

Without hesitation, she responded.  “Rather than focusing primarily on the end fundraising goals, our organization’s leadership and board were primarily focused on the activities my team was undertaking to cultivate MD relationships,

“And how did that go?”  

She continued, “Well, we hit or exceeded our goals every year.  However, I believe that was because we were very thoughtful about cultivation moves and we set goals based on those activities.”

“What was the  most challenging part of the job for you?  

She thought for a minute. “I guess it was  meeting with potential donors for purely social reasons. Even though the pressure wasn’t there, I always had that dollar goal lingering in the back of my mind.”

Isn’t that interesting?  As development professionals and team leaders, we sometimes think our fundraising teams forget about the dollar goals, so we constantly put it in front of them, believing that’s the positive motivation they need.

Furthermore, we are reluctant to celebrate strategic cultivation activities like play, storytelling, family relationships, etc. because they feel intangible.  Yes, yes, we say, those  are important, but don’t forget about the end goal!

In other words, don’t forget about the one thing that you are NOT in control of.  Ouch.

My encouragement to you today is to focus primarily on measuring important cultivation activities; ones that are proven to produce revenue, ones that you and your team are able to control:

👉Leave a voice message

👉Send a touchpoint email or text

👉Send a handwritten note

👉Send a resource packet via email or postal mail

👉Track the number of constituents who responded to email/text/call

👉Have conversations via phone/video

👉Schedule in person meetings

👉In conversation/meeting, talk about giving and/or extended a specific invitation to give

Like any farmer, these are activities that prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and water the crops. Then, by God’s grace, we reap a wonderful harvest.  

What would you add to the list?

I have a resource I created called a “MD scoring audit”.  You might try using this to monthly and quarterly assess how your activities are going.  Are you hitting your ideal score within a normal week of activity?  If you’re interested in learning more, send me a note or feel free to schedule a 30 minute call to talk further.

I am praying for you and grateful for all the good work you’re doing!

Until next time.

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Depending on your day to day needs in major donor fundraising, I have three options you can choose from to energize your efforts:

• ‍The Catalyst Course - a major donor fundraising course for those who are new to the task.
• ‍The High-Performance Course (inquire directly if interested) - a major donor fundraising course for experienced professionals.
• ‍The Flywheel Package - a customized six month consultation for people who are leading teams of major donor fundraisers.

‍The Catalyst Course is affordable at a cost of $500 and can be done in a schedule that fits best for you, taking anywhere from four weeks to three months to complete. Everything I have learned, successes and failures, is packed into these courses for your benefit and enjoyment. I have taken hundreds of folks through this content, helping them with fundraising strategies to empower causes all over the world.  

‍Now is the time to take advantage of these resources!

‍I look forward to hearing about your good work.

Blessings,