“Thanks for the lunch invitation. I appreciating you visiting with me,” the donor said.
Before the gift officer could respond, the donor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a check for $3,000. “And before I forget, I wanted to make sure I gave this to you,” he said.
The gift was larger than last year’s gift of $2,500. However, the gift officer was there to ask for $5,000 for this year’s annual fund.
The gift officer took the check, read it, immediately smiled and said, “Thank you. You continue to be one of our most consistent and generous donors. We are grateful.”
At that point, for most gift officers, the gift-giving discussion would have ended. Perhaps the discussion would turn to the donor’s children, his business, the stock market, or the weather. Just about any topic other than making a gift. That’s because it might appear unseemly to continue pursuing an additional gift when one has just been offered. Most gift officers take the preemptively given check, extend gratitude, smile, and move on to other topics.
But not the gift officer that was recounting this episode for me. He is a capable, seasoned gift officer and his response was both instructional and a reminder for how we should approach our work in developing the purposeful donor relationship. Here is how he responded after he said, “We are grateful.”
“I must tell you, though, my intent today was to ask you for a gift of $5,000. Since we are now in the public phase of our campaign, we are asking every donor to consider a stretch gift. You’ve been so loyal and this gift today is yet another example of your generous support. Would you be willing to allow us to use today’s gift as the first installment on a commitment of $5,000 this year?”
“Yes. Yes, I’ll do that,” came the smiling reply.
After receiving the preemptive gift, many, if not most, gift officers would not have shared their intent for the visit. But this gift officer expressed gratitude and then went about doing an important part of our work – encouraging a donor’s best gift by setting expectations. It didn’t take courage or daring to respond as this gift officer did. It simply took a commitment to share his intent for the meeting.
“I went there to invite him to give $5,000,” the gift officer told me. “When he preempted my ask, I thought, ‘well, he just showed me what he was thinking so I should at least tell him what I had in mind.'”
If we only accept what is given, we aren’t doing development and advancement work, we are simply fund raising.
