Up Close and Personal
As traffic in LA lurches to a virtual stop, no matter what time you are trying to travel, I try to do more and more of my work meetings via zoom or on the phone. And I love/hate that.
I love not having to drive for 2 plus hours for a one-hour meeting. I also love that I am never without the documents I need. But there is something magical that happens in person that is just not the same when we can’t look directly into each other’s eyes.
This is even more true when you are fundraising. The best appeal letter, a special email, a great video, or even a terrific phone call pale in comparison to the connections that can be made face to face.
There is a saying in fundraising—or more accurately, it is something I always say—that the closer you get to your donor (with your donor’s permission), the more likely that donor is to say yes and to make a much larger gift. A lot of that is because up close and personal you can actually have a conversation, find out what truly matters to your donor, and talk about how to ensure that both the organization’s and the donor’s needs are met.
Alas, in most smaller nonprofits—and a reason I think they remain smaller—most fundraising is arm’s length. And the further away from your donors you are, the less you know about them, and the less you can encourage them to stay connected to you, the more your donor attrition rates rise, and the less those who continue to give increase their giving levels.
While I understand why many nonprofits focus most of their fundraising efforts on transactional and arm’s length techniques, I find it dispiriting that despite all the proof that this may not be the best way to raise needed funds, too many nonprofits refuse to transform what they are doing.
Yes, direct mail, social media, special events all reach out to the many. That gives nonprofits a sense of engaging with lots of people who might care about what they do. They believe that new people are coming to the organization and some of those people become supporters. But—and here’s the rub—most of those become supporters for only one year. And, generally, that support is at a very low level for that donor.
Events often make it seem that you are getting up close and personal with the attendees. You see them, meet them, sit down with them, talk with them. Those who work at performing arts organizations also feel that when they see their donors at performances. They are convinced that they are meeting their donors in a meaningful way. The truth is that conversations will largely be about the event or the performance. There is not much time—nor is it the place—to find out what they really feel and what they are hoping they can do by being a philanthropic partner with you.
I’m not saying these are not important elements to your fundraising and outreach programs. They are important but often in the same way all our donors are important. Yes, someone who gives you $100 a year matters, but unless you figure which $100 donor could make a larger gift because of real interest as well as capacity and how to get in front of that donor, the odds are he or she will stop giving next year. And if they continue giving, unless you do something beyond what you are doing, their gift will always stay in the low three-figures.
Most fundraising professionals know all this. But they are dealing with the politics. The board, your boss, all pretend to believe that yet another event will turn the tide and in accommodating this erroneous belief you make it impossible for you to build real relationships with those who could make transformative gifts. Instead, we spend all our time worrying about sustainability—as if holding up and keeping in existence were our purpose.
We must focus on how we can be stronger, more resilient. That means finding ways to ensure that we have the resources to support ourselves today, tomorrow, and as far in the future as you can imagine.
That takes having the time to talk about shared dreams. And while it’s not impossible to do that on the phone or via Zoom, WebX, Skype or other video platforms, it is far more difficult and far less likely to happen than when you can lean forward, look into someone’s eyes—and let them look into yours.
#Relational Fundraising