Many of the subscribers to my blog have attended Academic Impressions conferences.  I know this because I’ve met many of you through AI events! For those unfamiliar, Academic Impressions is a professional development content company focused on higher education professionals.  But, even if you serve another type of non-profit, they offer outstanding conference and webcast content and I would encourage any development professional to consider attending one of their offerings.

Recently, I had the privilege of sitting down with AI for an interview which was published in their ”Higher Ed Impact:  Weekly Analysis” e-newsletter.  I discussed 3 development concepts that new academic leaders must master if they are to be successful in the development process.  Even if you aren’t in higher education, these 3 concepts can help you prepare other leaders of your organization to be successful in development work.

And if you are in higher education and are interested in strengthening the ways in which you partner with deans, department chairs, or other faculty, check out Session 2 of the webcast “50 Things Every Department Chair Should Know” on March 19.  I’ll be answering 10 important questions about fundraising for academic leaders so that they will better understand, appreciate, and participate in your work!

Why do donors make major gifts to organization X and not organization Z?  If our organization isn’t receiving as many major gifts as we would like, we may tend to believe it is because other organizations are bigger, have larger budgets, have more contacts, are more well-known, or are just plain lucky.  The truth, though, as I’ve seen in my own experience, and in the experiences of my clients – both large and small – is that development is a process.  And there are principles to the process that apply to all organizations and most all donors.

Here, then, are my 5 principles of encouraging major gifts.   Donors will give your organization more major gifts when:

1.  They are involved in your organization.  They are asked to volunteer – on your board, on an advisory council, for a project, something.  Or perhaps you aren’t ready to ask them to serve in a formal way.  What about setting up lunch to ask them for their advice or counsel in an informal way?  The idea is that giving of themselves (their time, advice, etc.) is an important precursor to making a meaningful financial gift.  There is a saying that the most valuable thing a person can give you is their attention.  Donors who make meaningful charitable gifts, typically give attention and become involved first.

2.   Your organization’s work is in alignment with their values.  Simply put, they understand that your organization does the kind of work they believe is needed in the world.  This is the question of mission-fit.  In their eyes, your organization’s work is important.   Perhaps their family’s life was negatively impacted by a disease and they value seeing the production of a cure.  Or maybe it is the belief that having an educated society is the best possible path toward lasting global peace and prosperity.  Whatever their beliefs and values, they view your organization as helping to advance them.

3. They view your organization’s vision for the future as compelling.  Donors make meaningful gifts when they come to believe that such an investment at this point in time and for a specific purpose will advance a cause they care about in a substantial way.  Our job, then, is to create a vision – clear and convincing “proof” that their gift will serve to accomplish a big impact.

4.  They believe they will receive something else from the gift.  Let’s start with the notion that a major donor believes she should give to you because it is simply a good thing to do.  Most donors hold this belief at some level or they wouldn’t give at all.  However, to believe that such altruism is the only reason for their giving is a mistake.  Most major donors are encouraged to make large gifts based on the presence of additional benefits.  What are those benefits?  It could be personal/familial recognition, it could be wanting to give at a level which gains them entrance into a particular social circle, it could be to honor a teacher or other influential person.  Our work is to know them well enough to uncover and address these additional needs.

5.  They are asked by the right person. In my experience, the case for support is important.  The timing of the ask is important.  The location of the ask is important.  But the person doing the asking is critical.   Who has influence with the donor?  Who can encourage the donor in a way that will be heard?  Who is a leader through their own giving?  Answering such questions is key to choosing the right person to be involved in the giving conversation.

Our job as development professionals is not to raise money.  Our job as development professionals is to create environments within which donors are encouraged to act generously.  If we understand and act upon these 5 principles regularly, our organizations will receive more major gifts and will attract more donors.

How do you create the most effective messages to acquire donors?  Whether it is direct mail, an e-blast, or phonathon script, how do you construct the key phrases designed to encourage your prospects to become donors?

From my experience, many organizations use the “WUTLY” approach (We Used This Last Year).  They tweak a phrase here or there, maybe even rearrange whole sentences and add new paragraphs.  Maybe a whole new theme is created, but the point is they start with WUTLY.  Of course, no one can pinpoint the origin of last year’s message.  So, they end up with a chain of messages based on. . . well, they really don’t know what it is based on, other than double or triple WUTLY.

Here’s a thought:  Do some quick modeling of your database and create a rough profile of your annual giving donor.  Yes,there are companies, most notable Target Analytics, who do a very nice job with this.  But even if you haven’t set aside money in your budget this year to purchase a predictive modeling service, there remain questions you can answer quite easily in your shop.  In most instances, with only a little bit of effort you can find out the following five things about your donors:

• The % of donors by gender;
• The % of donors by age range;
• The % of donors by geographic location;
• The % of donors by affiliation (friend, alum, parent, etc.)
• The breakdown of gift allocation for your donors (unrestricted, designated, or restricted);

Think about how your donor acquisition message can be shape just be running a few simple analytics.  You may find that most of your donors are 50-65 year old female alumni who live in your local community and like to give to student scholarships (I’m using an educational institution as an example, but you get the picture).  Based on this information, how much more effective can you now be in messaging potential donors?

Jeff Brooks, at Future Fundraising Now suggests that messaging for fundraising copy can take either a male or female voice.  He offers up phrase examples to utilize when communicating with one or the other audience.  It’s interesting copy.  When we know who gives to us now, we can use this information to create effective messages to prospects who have similar demographics.   We have an enhanced opportunity to message them effectively and, as a wonderful byproduct, we can save some time, effort, and money as well.

Over the years I’ve collected some less-than-inspiring statements and sayings from a variety of leaders and organizations.  In most instances, all of the folks and organizations were well intentioned.  But, in each instance they used phrases – either verbally or in correspondence – which turned off donors.

Below are some of those phrases, along with comments and thoughts from a donor’s perspective:

1.  “I’ve been so busy. . .” – We should never answer the perfunctory, “how have things been?” question with this complaint.  I have witnessed donors get turned off by a staff member saying this.  In fact, I would suggest that donors (and especially volunteers) can easily be offended by statements like this.  Donors are working their jobs (being “so busy”), and in addition, are assisting us!  So, articulating our woes may not go over well.  The best donors consider themselves to be partners with our organization.  They won’t partner for long with whiners.

2.  “We really need funding for. . . (fill in the blank).” – Even if a donor asks what you need, or how you would use their gift, please refrain from framing your answer this way.  Instead, explain how their gift will help you meet needs.  Don’t tell them you have needs.  The former inspires, the latter makes donors retreat from giving you a larger gift.

3. “The economy really has been difficult.” – This and similar statements turn off donors in a variety of ways.  First, this phrase beats a dead horse as everyone knows the economy is in rough shape.  Second, we give donors an “out” – a reason why they can’t support us with a bigger gift.  Our job is not to give them reasons to avoid being generous, but to have good responses when they provide such objections.  Finally, this phrase focuses on negative situations none of us can readily control.  Instead, we should inspire our donors by focusing their attention on our good work and how their giving will transform lives and communities.

4.  “Participation is just as important as gift amount.” – This, of course, is an age-old approach to increasing participation with specific groups of donors.  The problem with it is that it isn’t true!  Of course, participation is not as important as gift amount.  Participation may be a goal, but don’t try to kid your donors and tell them that a gift of a lower amount is just as important as a gift of a higher amount, because both donors have “participated.”  They know that makes no sense and it hurts your credibility.

5. “Enclosed is your invoice.” – I’ve seen this more than I care to admit written on pledge reminders.  As development professionals, we should work to develop a culture of philanthropy among our donors and prospects.  This is a phrase of business, of transactions, not of giving and philanthropy.  We should never invoice donors.  We should remind donors of their commitments.  Donors may not voice a concern with a phrase like this, but the problem is still present.  We may have just dampened their enthusiasm for giving without their fully understanding why.

There are more than 5 phrases that turn off donors, of course.  But these are 5 that I have personally heard or witnessed.  I’m sure you and members of your staff don’t use these phrases – but you may want to keep a hand on the tracks from time to time just to make sure.