The biggest hurdle newer gift officers face is not how to effectively outreach to assigned donors or prospective donors. We have proven strategies and outreach approaches that increase the likelihood that gift officers can get their foot in the door.
Instead, the biggest hurdle for most newer gift officers is their mental approach to first visits.
It is common for gift officers early in their careers to hear two things consistently: 1. relationships with your donors and prospects are what will make you successful, and, 2. the best way to deepen relationships with your donors and prospects is to get visits with them.
So, gift officers go about the business of securing as many visits as they can. And, since “relationships” are the key to success, they behave in ways they believe will create warm, positive, and generally nice interactions with the donors and prospects.
In other words, they behave during first visits as if they are just “glad to be there.”
While creating warm and positive interactions with donors is helpful, it is not the goal. The goal is to learn.
Learn about them as people and as donors. Learn about their giving patterns and habits and why they exist. Learn about their family and professional life. Learn about their philanthropic interests and capacity. Learn about their values and motivations.
When gift officers begin to view first visits with a curious and purposeful mindset and a goal to learn more about specific areas of a prospect’s life and their giving, they will have surmounted their biggest early career hurdle.
Helping newer gift officers develop a curious mindset and the artful ways to ask questions is far more effective for their development than preaching that “relationships and visits” will make them successful.
