Free Nonprofit Webinar: How to Build Your Major Donor Portfolio

0:00

Oh, and I should add in any size, fundraising shop. So we promise we're not going to take questions, questions, per se, but I just want to get a feel for the kind of who's on the webinar. So if you can just type into the questions box, What percentage of your funding stream relies on major donors?

0:20

If you just want to type that in, What percentage of your funding stream relies on major donors?

0:30

Alright, and while you're typing that in, I'm gonna get started with a little bit about who I am. I'm your topic expert, as Marcella said, Robin.

0:40

And I have actually 27 years working for an with not for profits. I own a small boutique consulting firm in the northeast United States called Development Consulting Solutions. And I have a Sir, I'm a certified fundraising executive.

1:00

I have a master's in philanthropy and fund development, and I'm a member of the Fund Raising Institute of Australia.

1:09

And I have literally, you know, worked with many, many, many, hundreds, I don't know, maybe even thousands this, at this point of non-profit professionals that are looking to advance in their career. So over the 27 years, I Yeah, I've been a consultant, but I've also been in your seat.

1:29

And I've been a Development director and have worked in a variety of different causes, from local to worldwide and I have a Master's in Philanthropy and Fund Development from Saint Mary's University and as a certified fundraising executive, I know a little bit about major gifts, to say the least and die.

1:51

Failed to mention that in my previous positions, I was an, a major gift person, four for both regional and national organizations, which I enjoyed very much. So here's what we will cover today. So we're gonna look at, number one, why major gifts, right? Like, Why do we focus on them? Why are they important?

2:17

And then we're gonna look at the number one question that I get is, Where do I find our, How do I find and identify major gift prospects?

2:27

And then, you know, everybody says, Oh, you should well screen him, and I say, Yeah. Yeah.

2:31

That's all good, but you also need to do something called a rate and ranking session, so I'll take you through that.

2:38

And then we'll go through. This is like, step one. Step two, step three.

2:42

So we'll look at qualifying your prospect's after you rate and rank them, and how do you have Discovery call visits?

2:50

Then, the most often, well, the next, and most often question I get is, how many major donors should be in my portfolio?

2:58

Right, and then developing a revenue fundraising goal.

3:02

And then, once you have your revenue goal, what are the moves, the next steps, then, you know, how do you do this, when you've got so much to do? Right? Like, how many out there, like, ..., do you do all this, and you've got so much to do? And then, I will touch a little bit, on cases with supports, because I think those are so critical to major gift for buck, But, but, let's see who we have here.

3:25

So, how much of your revenue, the question was, let me go back.

3:31

What percentage of your funding stream relies on major donors?

3:35

So, look at this 25 less than five Jasmin, 50, 75 LASIK great, almost 100.

3:43

Wow, 8150, not sure. OK.

3:47

Michelle, you want to get sure 50% want to build a major donor base, so that's why you're here, 40%, and Oh, Daina, Yeah. You're muted.

4:00

You just now, sorry about that. Alright. So let's start off by doing this poll. I'm going to launch this. So, uh, so here we go, right? I just want to see this depicted.

4:14

If you can just type in what percentage of your current funding comes from major gifts, let's see what we have here.

4:21

Jill says, Not sure a share to learn, OK.

4:26

So let's see. I can kind of see the back end.

4:31

Yeah.

4:33

Now, you all remember the 8020 rule, right? Like, how many of you know that rule, 80% of your income should come from 20% of your donors.

4:43

And I'm probably going to get into the presentation before actually getting into the presentation. But I'm going to close the poll.

4:49

So if you have not yet had a chance to weigh in, please do in, like, the next NaN, want to make sure you're included.

5:01

All right, here we go.

5:05

Let's see, 25 to 50% is the majority here, 45% of you. Almost half.

5:13

Wow, OK.

5:14

So that's, that's interesting, a very low percentage of 6% gets 70, 75% of their income from major gifts.

5:24

Interesting. So let's talk about why major gifts, because some of you, I'm going to say, Yes, yes. Most of you are skewed, probably a little bit incorrectly, right?

5:34

So why major gifts, and what are the stages of a major gift, is what we're going to look at.

5:41

Well, stat is a little bit old, so it's about 70% of all charitable giving in the United States comes comes from individuals.

5:52

And I do webinars for charity, how to on capital campaign fundraising.

5:58

And the one thing that I say is, when we look at different charts, is that it should be an 80 20 rule, right?

6:06

What does that mean, 80% of your income right, comes from 20% of your donors.

6:14

So those of you who were like, in the 75 plus, yeah, right, Like, that's kinda where you should be, your, your small number of donors, are going to provide the largest donation amount, OK.

6:30

And major gifts besides endowment and planned gifts are some of the largest gifts or capital campaign gifts that your organization will receive.

6:41

And what we do know is that if you focus on major donors, they really become ambassadors or advocates for your mission.

6:51

And if you provide focused cultivation and stewardship, I can guarantee you you will have effective results.

7:02

What we know, and what we're seeing, statistically is that major gifts, donor numbers are growing at a higher rate than other donors in any time in the past.

7:14

So, here are the stages of a major gift, and we're going to go through each one of these stages throughout this presentation, OK, the first stage is identification.

7:28

Where do we find these major donors?

7:33

Right.

7:34

So, and, and how do we know when a suspect is a prospect, right?

7:42

The next stage is what we call qualification.

7:47

We're going to qualify you to determine whether or not you are actually interested in having more of a relationship with us, qualification, cultivation. Once we qualify you and we deem that, yes, you want to enter into a deeper relationship with us.

8:08

Then we're going to cultivate you.

8:10

We're gonna know, take you on a tour. We're going to share no information.

8:16

Once we've gone through a cycle of cultivation, then we're going to ask you, right, for the gift amount, the project, that, that you will be inspired by.

8:28

And I may add one more here and that stewardship, but that's kind of like called cultivation, but after you give a gift, how do you steward or care for donor care?

8:40

Care for that relationship?

8:43

OK, step number one, Identification, So where do we find?

8:51

he's major gift prospects and people will say, Where can we find out there are other?

8:58

So, we're going to start off by looking in several places, Your database, we're going to explore their capacity.

9:06

Then we're gonna look out there, right?

9:08

And when I say out there, I mean, outside of your organization, most people want to start out there first, right? Like, how many of you want to start out there? That was your natural inclination to say where are the major donors out there? How do I find them? How do I attract them?

9:26

Well, first off, I bet you don't even know like enough about your existing donors on your list, right.

9:35

So, who are your current donors?

9:38

What do you How about them?

9:42

No. Why do they support you?

9:44

They believe in your mission.

9:46

They're already what I call warm or even hot, major gift prospects, OK?

9:53

So who are they?

9:55

Who are your significant donors who are, you're a lawyer, or they may not give it significant capacity but yet, they give often enough to signify loyalty, OK, and Loyally is identified through someone who makes multiple gifts throughout the year. So significant, consistent giving, right?

10:19

OK, so, no, if you don't know anything about your donors, it's time to get out there and know about them, and we'll talk more about qualification in a minute.

10:28

But go visit. Ask them, questions like, Why do you give what? drew you here?

10:35

So once you have those known entities in your data file, the significant ones and the loyal ones, then started to put together a list of them.

10:45

And, you know, don't look at, you know, don't go too deep because, you know, it should be about two to 3% of your database. Because what we know is 80, 20, 80% of the monies come from 20% of the donors.

10:59

And maybe with this group, you want to do some well screening or some searching, and come up with some particular notations on them.

11:11

Now, where do we find those potential donors? We know it's OK, so we know we've got a limited finite supply of current donors.

11:20

So, then our mind should turn to, where do we find new ones?

11:24

And I say, look at similar, not for profits with similar missions. Right.

11:32

Or or, OK, so great job for board members.

11:37

What about asking them to introduce you to potential prospects?

11:43

We don't want to trespass on personal relationships, but do they know of anyone who may be interested in what it is that you're doing?

11:53

Network.

11:54

I met a woman once and she said, I said how to grow your data file by X amount of names. And she said, I went everywhere and spoke on the organization and collected business cards everywhere I went.

12:08

I was like, whoa, wow, network, I mean, it's hard to do right now during a pandemic but do it, OK?

12:15

And we're going to talk about the case for support an elevator speech later on in this presentation, OK?

12:21

Cool, all right.

12:23

So let's do another one. Alright, here we go.

12:29

Does your organization have a standard standard ranking system?

12:37

for a major gift donors? Do you have somebody? You're going to say, no. Some of you are going to say, yes, I'm curious. How many, right?

12:50

Let's see here. Give you, there's a quite a number of you on this webinar.

12:56

There are hundreds, but we're just going to give you a minute, or, you know, a couple of seconds to, to vote here because the voting is a little bit slower or the more people we have on the webinar.

13:10

See, all right, let's give you, I'm gonna give you like a five second warning here, Please vote quickly.

13:17

All right, NaN.

13:23

All right, Let's see what we have, OK.

13:28

Wow, OK, 81% of you say That you do not have a standard ranking system. This is important, because, when you're working, how many of you just type quickly into the questions box? If you are working in a small, fun racing shop, yes or no?

13:47

How many of you are in a small nonprofit fundraising shop?

13:50

Right. And you're wearing multiple hats, right? You're the grant writer and the special events person, and you know, casually, you take out the trash because no one else does in the office and how many of you in that position?

14:04

yes. Right?

14:06

So, a lot of you, so, we need to have a focused portfolio. You can't just have everyone on your list, right?

14:16

All right, Like how many agree with that? So rating and ranking.

14:21

We'll allow you to develop a focused portfolio So that you, with everything that you have to do, because I've been a development director with everything that you have to do, you're going to spend your time efficiently in major gifts, OK?

14:40

So in this, in this section, I'm going to take you through conducting a person, a prospect rating session, prospect research which we use these years ago, and then sort donors into tears, and I don't mean sort them into tears, like crying, tears, tears.

14:59

So, you know, people will say to me, and actually, you know, I'm working with a client right now, and we, we had some names, well screen, and I said, that's all great, great, OK, well, screening is great, but it only provides, it only provides publicly held data.

15:19

So if someone has an estate that is privately held, you're not going to pick up the assets of that estate.

15:27

So don't rely completely on wealth screening.

15:33

Use other tools, use other methods and use, I mean, 27 years ago, when I did my first capital campaign for a YMCA, we did an old rating and ranking session, and those are still extremely valuable to this day.

15:56

And I'm going to step you through, what does a rating and rake rating and ranking cession look like, OK?

16:03

Well, this is a method in which you can prioritize your portfolio.

16:11

And what it is, is you can, you can do this through Zoom.

16:14

Right, you don't have to be in person, but you're going to invite a group of donors, volunteers, board members, to a session.

16:26

And you're going to pick a nice venue where maybe you have it over lunch or dinner, but you definitely have some food, and you're going to prepare some packets. And this is a highly confidential session, because you are going to be talking about donors.

16:41

So, maybe you have a privacy ladder, you have a confidentiality statement, you have your list of prospects that you're going to be taking a look at, and some ranking sheets. Right, OK, so, you give them a packet of this information.

16:55

Now, what does an actual session look like?

16:58

Well, during this session, just from experience, I know that conversation can get derailed very, very quickly so you need someone who is a good facilitator who can keep things moving quite easily, right?

17:18

So, And you definitely want to share how this information is going to be used, right?

17:22

Like, you know, you're not going to go out and gossip about, It's going to remain highly confidential, and there's someone who has been through this process multiple times. People are going to be throwing names, and numbers and everything else at your notes, So have to note, notetakers.

17:39

Now, what I recommend is that you use a numerical ranking system And you rating people based upon financial capacity, interest, and affiliation.

17:50

1 through five, if they have a high capacity of like, let's just say, 25,000 or more, they get a pie.

17:57

If it's medium, and maybe it's 10000, they get it through it.

18:01

If it's under 5000 and below, maybe they're going to want If their interest is, like none, they get a zero.

18:09

If it's mediocre, they get a three OK?

18:12

If it's super off the charts, they get a five, because then what you're gonna do is you're gonna tally all of these scores up for, like, mister Smith, and say, wow.

18:23

three fives Filiation Capacity Interests 15, oh, Miska brawl 3339 oh, way, OK?

18:33

So we start to see who the top donors are.

18:37

Not only is that, but this data that you'll get from this session, We'll help round out any wells screening data you could ever find, Because whereas, well screening will just say to you, Mrs.

18:50

Smith, how's the house valued at no, $700,000?

18:56

Your board member, mister mister ..., will say yes, but she's going through a divorce at the moment, and her assets are tied up. You'll find that information out, OK?

19:08

Once you've gone through that rating and ranking session, maybe had a well screen.

19:13

You will then tier your donors.

19:16

You will say everybody who's, like, uh, know, a three or a four, and above will be in TRA, and those are the folks who have the highest affinity, the greatest capacity, and, know, the deepest giving history, OK.

19:35

And then, you know, these are certainly people that you know who are interested. They're up for a visit.

19:41

They are the top 10 donors who should be on your list, who are going to receive your effort, when you, especially when you're in a small shop. So you're going to call, you're going to visit with them.

19:55

That's how you're going to do it.

19:56

And then, the next third, it's going to be these being rank donors.

20:01

OK, they may have some capacity, they may have some giving history, They may be open to your visit. They're not so much. I hate the word low hanging fruit. The TAs are, but that's kinda what I mean. And they may be engaged with your organization and they may be open to cultivation.

20:20

OK, and this is about 40 or so donors and maybe get about 30% of your energies right, and you may want to, you know, engage these folks further.

20:31

Because what we know is engagement be begets deeper relationships and deeper support.

20:40

So maybe you want to invite them to be on a committee. Ask them for their advice network with them.

20:45

But your main job is, as with all donors, is to help to upgrade them so that they become at some point eventual A's.

20:55

And then you're seeing ones are like, OK, they may have capacity, or they may have interest, and there's someone engaged.

21:01

But these are the 100 or so that are like the ones and the twos.

21:06

Maybe they're going to get 10% of your effort.

21:09

And that effort may be things like, I'll send them a newsletter, I'll send them some direct mail, I'll do those kinds of things.

21:16

And maybe your, your goal with them Is to try to move them into the B tier, OK, cool, everybody, got it?

21:24

Just type into the questions box if this is making sense.

21:27

Just say Yes, yes, yes, no, no, no Just to give me a sense of how we're pacing here. OK. Love a good good, Ashley.

21:37

So, after you're done with identifying, now you've rated and ranked, now you're gonna qualify them, right?

21:44

You gotta figure out, are they interested and having a relationship with you. It's kinda like dating, isn't it? So, what are you going to do?

21:53

You're going to visit them, whether it's in person or on zoom, so you're going to arrange for that visit.

21:59

You're gonna do a discovery and then follow up afterwards. It's all in the follow up, isn't it?

22:06

All right, so we've got our tier A in our ... B and we're going to qualify them.

22:12

Haven't been qualified up until this point.

22:14

So I suggest starting with A's.

22:17

And, and, and people will ask me, Do I just give them a call? I say, and I have a sample.

22:26

If anyone's interested, I can get it to Marsala.

22:28

But I have a pre call ladder that I send out in advance, basically says, Hi, my name is Robin, I'm gonna give you, you know, I'm going to call you to set up a visit, not to ask you for any money, but to share some updates and just to get to know you better.

22:42

I have actually sent out that pre call letter. And guess what?

22:47

People will say to me, I was waiting for your call. I got your letter. We know people don't get much mail these days. So, that kind of does what we call warm up the visit, OK. I mean, you can just call if you wanted to, but a free call lot of works nice. Right? It warms up the visit. to use schedule a visit and now you're on your merry way whether it's in person or Zoom.

23:13

And what do you do during a discovery visit? Well, here's what you do. Number one, if they are a current donor, thank them.

23:21

Thank them for letting you enter the house. Thank you for their past support. Thank them, thank them. Thank them.

23:28

Could go prepared with a list of inquiry, questions, things like, what interests them?

23:35

How would they like to be recognized?

23:38

What, if anything, would prompt a larger gift, OK?

23:42

And you may want to go and explore this with them, right? Explore. What are their motivations to giving?

23:49

What made them first give?

23:51

How did they learn about the organization, you know, what would inspire deeper levels of giving? Are they interested in staying in touch?

23:59

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you may want to share with them a little update, but the idea is to understand, how are they interested, OK, so when you're done with your visit, you're going to get a sense of, number one, if they gave you a visit, definitely interested.

24:16

Number two, what happened during that visit, and what did they say they were interested in?

24:20

Because that will form the solicitation that you make later on.

24:26

So go back to your office after you're done or maybe get off a Zoom and write up a call report.

24:33

Obviously, send them a nice little thank you letter, but note, note, Note, everything in your CRM for historical purposes, OK?

24:45

Now sometimes you're going to do this and someone's going to say, I'm just not interested in meeting with you. And of course, we always say in major gift fundraising that doesn't mean no forever.

24:54

Don't take it personally, I say, fundraising is a no game. How many of you like, yep. It's a no game for every 10 knows, or nine knows. You'll get 1 1 yes, right, how many like yep, yep, yep, just type in Yep, Yep, I feel that way. So don't take it personally. Just keep them engaged in the organization, OK?

25:20

Now, how many of you out there are wondering, OK, Robin, this is great, But I've got grants and direct mail appeal letters and everything else to do.

25:29

So, like how many people need to be in this so-called portfolio that you're talking about, right? Like how many of you are wondering that?

25:38

Alright, probably many, yeah.

25:40

So here's what we're going to look at. What is that ideal size?

25:45

And it's not just what is the ideal size, but what about the size for your organization?

25:53

All right? How many staff do you have?

25:56

Know, what kind of mission, you know, what, what is it? What does the industry say?

26:01

So here is what we say, or what I say when it comes to developing a portfolio.

26:09

Now, I've always heard the average major gift portfolio is 150 names.

26:17

How many of you out there?

26:20

I've heard the same thing. Right?

26:22

Like, 150 names is a major gift portfolio.

26:26

Well, that's all fine and good if that's all you do, and you are a dedicated, major gifts officer.

26:34

But, as many of us on this Webinar know, that's not all we do, Right. That's not all.

26:42

We do.

26:44

Some of us do grants and events, and all of those.

26:49

So, it depends.

26:51

It depends upon your non-profit size.

26:56

Who's managing the portfolio, is it the Director of development?

27:01

Is it a major gift officer, is it no, whatever. Right?

27:11

So in a small ****, it is small.

27:16

Schott Directors take on many roles, right?

27:21

They take on many roles.

27:25

Basically executive Directors have they have to. They have to, they have to do it all, don't that.

27:33

So, they still have a portfolio, and there's, the CEO, could be 10 to 15.

27:41

The development director is somewhere between 15 and 25 because you're managing the entire department. Right? Yeah.

27:54

So, how many of you are breathing a sigh of relief at that moment going, I don't have to carry 150 donors.

28:03

Right, like 15 to 25 for a development director or CEO is 10 to 15. Yeah, if you're doing more of a major gift role, then you can be doing more. You'll have a bigger portfolio.

28:14

OK, print this slide out, bring it to your executive director, how many of you are breathing a sigh of relief? Hearing this?

28:23

How many, type into the questions box, right?

28:25

I can't hear you, I can't hear the size, you're just gonna have to Like, type hamar, OK, yes, all right.

28:33

They should.

28:34

No, they can and should differ between different roles within a department, right?

28:42

Definitely.

28:44

And, they should have full caseload, right? Managers should not have full caseload.

28:52

And, you know, certainly, relationships are key, and those are going to take time, right?

28:59

So, what is that best fit? I say, start small.

29:05

Now, you could have, you could have staff dedicated just to this or a percentage of their time, but that is always, always going to be difficult to maintain that focus, right? If you're doing multiple things.

29:23

And this tiered system, that's why I bring it up.

29:26

A, B, C makes it manageable and it's, it's about relationships and personal contact.

29:35

So, you've got to your CEO, you have got to allocate time to do in that relationship, building stuff like the call's, visits, all of that and you need time. Right, so that's why accountability is important.

29:52

Now, here's a great blog. I didn't create this. I stole it. I do credited at the end the Veritas group V E R I T U S. Veritas group.

30:06

Talks a lot about major donors.

30:08

So, if you're not signed up for, they're mailing lists then you want to be right if you're not signed up for their mailing list and you'll want to be because they talk all about major contributions.

30:21

But you'll see here, look, 50% of your effort, very personal, strategic, is on that top tier, then 40.

30:30

No, 30% is on that middle, and then 20% less personal, less tactical is on that, that bigger base, OK?

30:39

You get the picture, literally, you get the picture.

30:43

All right, here we go.

30:44

Do you set yearly revenue goals for each of your major donors?

30:53

Do you set revenue goals for each of your major donors? Yes or no?

31:02

I'll give you some time, too, to fill out this poll, because the polls take longer.

31:07

The more people that we have on the webinar, So, now, now that you've done the.

31:13

You've developed your portfolio. You've read and ranked.

31:16

You've qualified, you've developed your portfolio, now we need to set a revenue goal for each of them.

31:24

To have.

31:25

Yesterday, I asked someone on a call, OK, what is your revenue goal for your entire portfolio?

31:32

What is that revenue goal? You'll know straight off how much you're expecting to possibly raise.

31:45

Is this helping you out, is this helpful, gotta take a sippy break there.

31:52

Sigh of relief. OK, Cool, Let's see, we have, if we could just have this is the five second warning. Few more people, though.

32:04

All right.

32:08

All right, Here we go.

32:12

Do you set yearly revenue goals 81% of you say, No, then, how much?

32:18

do you know what you're going to raise from your major gift portfolio? OK, need to know that, How do you do a budget? Right?

32:27

So, here's how we do that.

32:30

First off, you want to make sure that every donor on your in your portfolio is qualified, And then we're gonna look at, you need to look at their past behavior, if you've done a well screen, and then set that goal.

32:45

So, I mean, we've already gone through the qualification process, but, you know, well, screen, rank the donors', meet with them, have discovery call visits, identify their motivations, their affinity, their interests.

33:00

Explore their capacity with them in conversation.

33:04

Look at the notes, Right? Look at the notes.

33:07

Decide, is it the right time?

33:09

Because just because they're on your portfolio, doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right time.

33:17

You don't want to ask a donor to orela before it's their time.

33:21

So look at the history, the timing of gifts. Right? Look at their past giving history.

33:27

What is the timing of their gifts?

33:31

What are they given to? that will give you an idea of what they're interested in?

33:36

What are some of, do they have some outstanding pledges?

33:39

Previous pledges, what's their past giving history?

33:46

Then maybe you've done a well screen, You don't, as I said, you don't want to rely on that data completely.

33:52

You want to use it as a guide, but remember that data from the rating and ranking, so, Mel, the two of those data sources, and determine lots of other things, like, do they have children in college? Do they have outstanding pledges elsewhere?

34:09

Because that will impact how much they can give to your organization.

34:15

Look at what they've given to other organizations. And if you've done a well screen, you will get that data as well, right, they look at that, they source out annual reports, and so forth.

34:26

Then you sit down, OK, you've looked at the past historical data, you've looked at the well screening, the rating and ranking sessions, and you go through each of your donors, And what do you do? You set a minimum and maximum amount for the next gift, and sometimes well, screenings will actually do that for you.

34:45

But I wouldn't rely on that.

34:46

I think you still need to go through this manual process and you do a minimum maximum and a target. Ask, OK?

34:55

And certainly, of course, one of the goals, of course, with all your donors should always be upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, How do we get that person to the next level of giving Don't be afraid to ask for a stretch gift, and certainly, Consider asking for a multi year pledge, OK?

35:24

A multi year pledge, OK?

35:28

So do that right Consider asking for it, OK?

35:36

So you know, you could ask for even a general operating pledge over three years, all right, so that and then once you have all of those Then you can get a whole target range for your entire portfolio.

35:53

So how do you create a schedule of moves for each identified prospect within your tears?

35:59

OK, so now that you've got to target range, you've got to move them along, So here we're gonna look at What is that?

36:06

How do we develop a major gift strategy to do that, OK?

36:13

So number one: Identify your donor. Determine their interest and capacity. Set a goal with them.

36:20

Follow your strategy. Take actionable steps.

36:24

Listen to your donor, right? Record your results and track that data. So listen reconnaissance when you have that discovery call visit.

36:35

The idea is to try to get an understanding of what interests them, right?

36:42

What is what? interests them about what you do, OK?

36:46

And then from there, You want to Develop a set of at least at least three moves before every one ask at least three moves before every one ask So do that, right, OK?

37:11

Now, how many of you feel like this is all great, Robin? But what do I do? if I only have so much time? Type into the questions box, me, me me, right? Is that you?

37:23

Um, so, how many of you are like, How do I do all this?

37:30

And I've only got so much time in the week.

37:34

OK, How many of you?

37:39

Let's see, here, Let me just move this down to see Wait a minute, I can't get the cursor in the right spot.

37:47

Mimi, Yes?

37:49

Yep, OK, what do you consider, Mo, my boss, the schedules like the Sharon don't understand why so many moves. Why so many moves because you don't ask on the first day to get married do?

38:02

No, you don't.

38:03

It's about building a relationship.

38:06

You may be able to ask on the first move.

38:09

You may need 6 or 7 or 8 moves to get someone to an eventual gift. It's called cultivation to call relationship building.

38:21

It's the same thing as dating, right? You just don't rush in.

38:26

Although some people do. Right, OK.

38:28

So, how do we, How do we do this? Well, you have to manage your time carefully.

38:34

You need accountability, right? So, it takes time and care. This answers Matthew's question of why? How many so many moves? The average major Gift Program takes.

38:47

This is the average major gift program takes a year.

38:53

Take a year and a half to show real results, OK.

38:58

This is about really knowing your donors and making what I call is a match made in heaven.

39:08

Right, You want to match up their interests.

39:12

When is a project of yours?

39:15

And that takes meeting with them, listening to them, having conversations with them, so that's why it takes that long.

39:26

Make sure you have qualified prospects, you tear them, you have a plan for each of them. You're heavier.

39:32

Next, three, moves.

39:34

And your document.

39:37

I say that you should review your portfolio twice a year, because there are going to be some people who are no longer interested or qualified, want to have a relationship with you.

39:49

So you're going to move some of them along. You're going to eliminate some.

39:53

And when you do that, you want to be sure that you've always got a pipeline of additional prospects to add.

40:01

And you want to keep that top tier, the ones that you're working with.

40:08

And we're gonna, this is the last section.

40:11

So hold your questions, and, um, we're going to have a few minutes at the end, too.

40:17

They take those questions, all right.

40:21

OK, so support is so critical, because this is what will inspire a donor to give, and this is the place where and I do a companion webinar just on developing cases for support for, for charity, how to, I believe it's coming up.

40:37

I'm soon in the next couple of weeks.

40:39

So this is where you tell your story.

40:42

Know your story, right?

40:44

Tell us, what does it need out there? What are you trying to solve? How are you trying to solve it? How are you different from everyone else?

40:52

Is your case for support A more emotional, compelling, and urgent, And how are you calling a donor to take action, OK?

41:03

And then once you have outlined that, then you can put it in something like a brochure, or video, or PowerPoint, and I give you samples here.

41:15

But no, what, what is it?

41:17

So who are you serving, and how much is it costing you to serve those?

41:23

And people will say, Oh, that's all great.

41:25

But how about those overhead costs? And I say wrap them in, right?

41:29

Like, you need staff need lights, heat in the building to provide the services that you do.

41:36

It's all part of it. Right? So include it.

41:40

and certainly, know your cause and know your role in that.

41:45

Because, you know, there's many, many groups working on hunger and homelessness, but how is your solution different?

41:52

What is your unique selling proposition as we call it a marketing?

41:57

And how is your solution different, and how are you going to pitch that to a donor when you meet with them?

42:06

And of course, your case includes things like your vision, your plan, your cost.

42:11

It has to be urgent and it has to call a donor to action.

42:16

Lots of, lots of lots of great resources went into preparing this presentation, look at them all.

42:23

But at this time, I would like to call Marcela back.

42:28

And maybe we have about 10 minutes.

42:32

Take a look at some questions that may have come up.

42:37

And you can just type them into the questions box.

42:41

And Marisella is going to talk to you about a survey that needs to be filled out. Yeah, So, about that short little survey, just so everyone knows, depending on your comments, we value our contents, and we make improvements. So, we take everything you have to say about today's session, under consideration. So, please make sure that after the webinar ends, you complete the survey that will pop up, just so you know it is anonymous and it'll take you NaN to complete.

43:10

So, thanks in advance for taking care of that.

43:12

And, um, while you guys type in your questions, I also wanted to ask you to kindly go to a landing page that I'm going to post into the questions box in a second. That is to a place where you can submit a short video testimonial.

43:28

If you decide to help us get some videos from you in your learning experience, we will give you a free premium webinar of your choice, any effort, the webinars, that we offer for pay. We'll give it to you for free. You just let us know the name of the webinar, and we will register you for it in Exchange for that video testimonial, plus, you will get a chance to win! A $500 Amazon gift card and a Gold membership subscription that you can share with three more if you're a non-profit colleagues and that will grant you access to everything that we have to offer for free for an entire year. So that's the link videos, that charity, how to come and back to you, Robin. I see some questions in there.

44:15

They're coming in, let's say, here what we have.

44:18

What do you do? This is from Heather. What do you do when a donor changes their mind and pulls back?

44:24

Ah, that's a great question.

44:26

So, does that mean Heather? Like when they're ready to, you're soliciting them and they change their mind. I mean, you obviously have to honor that.

44:34

I would certainly explore why they're changing their mind as at the time.

44:40

Is it the timing of the ask?

44:42

Is it how long, you know, is it something that's going on in their lives because you can always offer solutions, too to a, to an issue, right?

44:51

So if it's timing, maybe you could say, if you make a pledge, you can start play pledge payments at some other time, like next year, or what have you.

45:01

Or if it's a, if it's an amount issue, you know, you can explore pledging again or a different amount.

45:09

If it's a program you can explore other programs or projects. So, you know, I wouldn't know. Of course, if a donor wants to change their mind, that is their prerogative but I certainly would want to explore why a donor is particularly interested in changing their mind. Right?

45:29

So, you can kind of either provide them with some alternative options or, you know, keep that on file and figure out when you can circle back does not help Heather.

45:40

See, answer your question Matthews.

45:44

So, in the rate and rank, exercise, do you provide all the prospect names rather than ask your donors for them? Do you have a good way of asking them from names?

45:52

Yeah, well, Usually it's interesting because I'm getting ready for another one, actually, it's in Australia, so that'll probably have to pay assume. But.

46:04

um, the point is, you should have a Master list of maybe past donors and prospects that you've identified, but also while you're going through this rating and rank rating and ranking session, Matthew, you can put it out there and say, this, is there anyone on this list that we may not have included? That should be there?

46:27

And then you can allow donors, volunteers to suggest other names that they haven't seen on the list.

46:34

That, perhaps, should be on the list. Does that answer the question? Matthew?

46:39

Heather, back again, let's see here.

46:42

They wanted to support an exhibit at our museum.

46:44

And one of their team members do not did not think the exhibit got enough traffic, OK? But you certainly could explore that piece of it.

46:52

And so if traffic is important to them, are there other exhibits in your museum that would have greater traffic that you could offer to them now that you know that's a larger motivation?

47:06

Heather says, yes. Matthew says yes.

47:09

Anyone else have some questions that, that I have not answered? Lynn, here, are some going up above?

47:18

What do you consider a model that could be anything more could be a thank you letter, could be a notecard, it could be sending them an article that could be calling them on the phone just to say, how are you doing?

47:31

Thank you very much, but it also could be much bigger things like an, a in person meeting or a tour of the facility or what have you.

47:39

So a MOOC could be a, you know, and I would mix them up based on what your strat what you are determined strategy is.

47:50

Anyone else have questions?

47:53

If you have time, my supplementary question would be, how long lists can you really expect people to look at? And that's a great question.

48:01

I mean, depending upon the amount of time, and that's why I say a rating and rake rating and ranking session needs to be very, very focused, and highly prioritized, and you need someone who is a good facilitator, and can keep, keep people on track.

48:18

Because what does end up happening, Matthew is sad sometimes.

48:23

As you rightly know, we'll start talking about someone or something, and get carried away, and there goes 5 or 10 minutes just on one donor's name.

48:33

So, you want to keep it very, very focused, you know, Mary Smith, capacity.

48:38

How do you writer 1 through five?

48:41

Interests, 1 through 5.

48:43

But is there anything that we need to know about Mary Smith that would impact her giving?

48:48

No. You know, you'll have some conversations there.

48:52

But try to keep them focused. Does that help keep people on task?

48:59

That's why it's good to have.

49:00

two people want you to note takers, two people kind of facilitating and trying to get through as many names as feasibly possible.

49:11

And I don't know what that averages.

49:13

I know you're probably wondering, because I'm wondering, in my brain, what is that average?

49:18

And I should know that, but every session is different.

49:22

Any other questions before we conclude for the day?

49:26

This was great. We had great attendance.

49:29

Great participation.

49:32

Any others? Let's see here.

49:35

And now, it does take a while to type into the questions box.

49:39

Thank you.

49:40

Anyone else, before we go, I'll give you, say, 10. So, 10 more seconds.

49:47

And then, Marcello, we'll close out the webinar then, Ah, whereas a survey, I cannot find it myself. I just want to, Yeah, the survey will pop up once we close the webinar. Just allow it two to NaN to pop up after we end.

50:05

Alright, well, I don't see any other questions.

50:08

So would you like to, should we go ahead and close it out and give them that survey?

50:13

Yes, let's so thanks everyone for joining us today. We hope you have had a blast and learned a lot.

50:20

And we hope to see you soon on another charity, how to webinar, and that said have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks for coming to my cell up by.