Major Gift Solicitation at Year End
by Ron Huddleston, President
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I would like to thank all of you that attended the CASE Conference for Community Colleges in Anaheim this last month and attended our workshop “Planned Giving in a Small Shop”, the room was packed, and Brent Hunter and I are extremely appreciative. Also, do not forget to download all the handouts you need on our website with the special link we gave you at the conference. If you lost it just drop me an email at ron@thehuddlestongroup.com and I will send you a new one.
Well, it that time of the year that many of you are doing what you can to get those all-important year end gifts. Unfortunately, many of you are only counting on email and/or direct mail when you should be counting on face-to-face solicitations from your board members and executive staff. Many of your donors are waiting for those solicitations so do not let them down. You will surely raise more money and strengthen relationships with one-on-one meetings. So, our year end message will be on Major Gift Solicitation.
Most of us through our church, school, college/university, museum, performing arts, medical/health organizations, youth programs, libraries etc. participate in some type of fund raising for the multitudes of non-profit organizations. Last year according Giving USA more than $484 billion dollars were donated to charitable organizations in the United States alone. Individuals, people like you and I, contributed more than 86% of all that money, with foundations and corporations making up the difference. That makes Philanthropy a pretty big business, one of the biggest.
Major Gift Fund Raising
This will be comprised of three parts:
- How to know when you are
- Prospect
- Major Gift Solicitation
How to Know if and When You’re Ready
Most of us through our church, school, college/university, museum, performing arts, medical/health organizations, youth programs, libraries etc. participate in some type of fund raising for the multitudes of non-profit organizations. Last year according Giving USA more than $484 billion dollars were donated to charitable organizations in the United States alone. Individuals, people like you and I, contributed more than 86% of all that money, with foundations and corporations making up the difference. That makes Philanthropy a pretty big business, one of the biggest.
Any good development program should spend considerable time and effort in addressing the following questions both internally and externally before any major funding begins.
- Can your organization present a compelling case for support? That is, why should individuals, corporations, foundations, etc., provide you financial support?
- Are your needs valid, worthy of support and sufficiently exciting to augment the case?
- What fund raising leadership – current and potential is available to you?
- What is your support constituency? Has it been measured and are there opportunities to generate the levels of gifts required to underwrite your needs?
- Is your R. program and donor cultivation program effective?
- What are your timing considerations?
- What type of development structure is best suited for your organization?
It is our opinion that these seven questions are the key to any successful fund-raising effort, especially major gift solicitation. Major donor prospects are generally quite astute in business and finance and in most cases may ask you questions regarding the issues mentioned above.
Assuming you have answered these questions and have generated the documents pleading your case, what do you do with it?
Prospect Cultivation Program
Every organization interested in mounting a major gift solicitation effort should have a strong organized program for cultivating its supporting constituencies. This program should include well-planned and professionally executed public relations activities and should be in operation for a while before any major gift solicitation begins.
Cultivation of major gift prospects is the most important factor in any development program. Cultivation becomes especially vital when you realize that fund raising is more psychological than financial. The basic rule of cultivation is that you must constantly view the situation from the potential donor’s point of view and not from that of your organization (i.e. – we need their money). You need to associate the donor intimately and genuinely with your institution/organization.
Your cultivation program, for instance, should involve five steps: identification, information, interest, involvement, and investment. The final four steps comprise a continuing cycle that consists of finding additional information about a potential donor, furthering their interest, getting them more deeply involved and ultimately receiving their added investment.
An ongoing and systematic cultivation program for prospects is an essential prerequisite for a successful major gift effort.
Okay, we have our case and needs well documented. We have in place an ongoing cultivation program – now how do we ask for the order?
Major Gift Solicitation Process
We fully believe donors, especially major gift prospects, give to volunteers – not to letters or phone calls, and in most cases development officers, but to peers – face to face. This, of course, involves the careful pairing of prospects and solicitors. Your volunteer should be on the same wavelength as your prospect so that a natural conversation can develop. Solicitation should always be conducted on an equal or higher plane. Your assigning of prospects should be done so that the volunteer has the same or higher giving potential as the prospect. Nevertheless, within that range, we have found it best to allow your volunteer to choose his or her own prospects.
Well, where do we start? Benjamin Franklin said it best:
“In the first place, I advise you to apply to all those you know will give something; next to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not; and show them the list of those who have given; and lastly; do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken.”
In other words, large gift solicitation should start with those closest to the organization.
Before the solicitation, you should make sure the volunteer solicitor has considered the following:
- Do they know the needs of your organization and its plans for the future?
- Have they made their own gift at the highest possible level?
- What are the prospects’ views of the institution and their connections with it?
- What other causes does the prospect support, and what were their previous gifts to the institution?
- What is the prospects’ gift potential?
- Who can help make the case with the prospect?
One problem we have come across on our campaigns is convincing volunteers that they should have a definite amount in mind when talking to each prospect. Most people give a certain amount because they are asked to do so by someone they respect within the constituency. I also suggest that your volunteers deal in round numbers and allow the prospect time to think over the suggested amount. We like to brief our volunteer to use a line similar to this:
“We would like you and your spouse to consider a gift of $ over a three-to-five-year period. You may wish to give more or less and whatever you give will be deeply appreciated and help the XYZ Organization.”
Then, give the prospect some time, as Si Seymour (one of the early founders of this process) said “you can’t make a good pickle first by squirting vinegar on a cucumber – it has to soak a while.”
To Summarize:
- Know your organization – develop your case and needs and make sure the need is
- Start placing your major prospect on your mailing list; invite them to your special events, follow- up with personal visits, lunches whatever – get them
- Develop your own volunteer leadership. Are they familiar with your needs? Are they supportive (financially)?
- Research, research, and research is the key to any good development
- Remember asking for the order is easy, but getting it means taking the right steps in the right order at the right
Now pick up the phone and set a few meetings with your donor prospects.
Good Luck
Ron Huddleston President
PS: If you are using direct mail/email for your year-end giving please customize your correspondence. Remember fundraising is all about relationships and a generic letter addressed to Dear Donor with a mailing label on the envelope does not equate to caring. I just got one of those letters today and it went promptly into the trash.
