“Once I have the updated case statement, I’ll be ready to visit with these 3 donors. . .” A gift officer recently said to me.
“Can you share the case with me now?” I responded. “No,” she said, “I’m still waiting for it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear,” I said. “I meant, can you tell me the case? Can you verbalize it as if I was one of those 3 donors?”
And, with that, she stumbled a bit and started and stopped. But, ultimately, she did a nice job of sharing the case for the campaign and why it mattered.
“Which do you think is most important to deliver to the donor?” I asked her after she was done.
“The printed case statement or your enthusiastic delivery of the case?”
When we wait for the updated case statement. . . or the website. . . or the proposal. . .0r any other collateral material, before we visit with our donors, we are missing a fundamental point:
These are supporting materials. And they support us and our message. We are not there to support the materials.
We are the primary delivery systems for the case.
People give to people.
