Cultivation equals Relationship Building

How are you at making new friends?  That skill alone can make or break your development efforts...seriously.

Your organization hosted a Trivia Night and had 40 "guests" in attendance who came with a friend or colleague.  These 40 guests were not previously in our data base and therefore not on our radar.

At your event, as all good development people should,  you made an ask of attendees beyond the auction and ticket sales, to donate to your cause.

Of those 40, ten did make a small contribution and two individuals made a more substantial first gift.

These 40 should be added into your data base and proper research done; however, your primary attention should be given to the 12 who gave.

Depending on your time and staff, you might choose to meet each of twelve in person but definitely you must, you must meet the two who gave larger gifts in person.  Invite them and the person who invited them to the trivia night to coffee one morning to get to know them better.

The remaining ten need, in addition to their formal tax letter receipt, a personal thank you note from  YOU.

Finally, the next time you do an email solicitation or direct mail solicitation, include the remaining trivia-based contacts and reference in the solicitation the trivia event where they first came in contact with your organization.

Back to your 12 now hot prospects.  These folks are you newest donors.  They need to be stewarded carefully.  This is why you would want to visit the two (I would visit the 12) in person.  

Why a visit you ask?  You need to get to know them...truly.  Begin to build a long-lasting relationship.  In most visits, you need to come prepared to give any additional information about your organization.  Your primary purpose, though, is listening.  Do they have a story which connects them personally to the purpose of your organization?  Share a bit about you and listen to a lot about them.

Follow your visit with a personal thank you.  

Stewardship at this point will also include the added things you would do for a friend.  For example, did you see something in the paper that Susie Supporter, one of your two larger gifts from Trivia Night, mentioned when you visited her.  Cut that piece out and send it to her with a note.  If it is electronic, email it to her with a note.  

When the next Trivia Night rolls around, you can count on Susie to return...and hopefully bring more friends.  

In addition to Trivia, you will want to include Susie and all of your new donors in your complete development plan and roll them into your planned communications for current/new donors.  

The remaining new friends who did not make a donation fall into your prospect pool which also deserves attention to turn your prospects into donors.  

You will never turn them all into donors but you will gain some, you will also gain publicity that only word-of-mouth can grant.  Susie, and all of the 40 for that  matter, will share what they did Friday night and this new organization to which they were introduced.  

Development relationship building really is like making a new friend...finding out more about them and in the process point them to areas of funding that most closely reflect their goals and desires for giving.

 

The Development (Fundraising) Process

As a small nonprofit that is just beginning or even a nonprofit seeking to build up your donor base, it is vital to keep the steps to successful fundraising in mind.

Development (Fundraising) is a process and it is equally a full set of systems that comprise that process and we'll explain that in more detail later.

Your overall objective is raising money, correct?  Your goal (which is best matched to your budget and vice versa) determines your measurement for whether or not you've achieved that objective.

In some respects you are introducing people to your organization and helping them to learn more about it by engaging them in organizational activities.  As you meet people through a variety of events,  opportunities, even mailings, etc. you begin to "cultivate" these prospects.  

• Cultivation is step ONE in the development process.  Cultivation occurs in every meaningful contact related to your organization and that individual, foundation, or business/corporation.  From a solicitation done through direct mail because they were on a list of businesses from your local chamber of commerce to a lunch you scheduled with them to share more about your organization to an event for your organization to which you invited them.   Cultivation can also include birthday, anniversary, and Christmas cards as well as sending a newspaper article about a common interest to say, "hey, I thought about you when I saw this."  All of those steps are cultivation.

As you determine a specific strategy for a prospect, you begin to be more involved in steps that could better be described as Solicitation.  Solicitation starts when you begin to introduce your prospect to a specific way or ways they can help support your organization.

• Solicitation is step TWO in the development process.  Solicitation occurs when you realize that Mr. Jones is very interested in private, Christian education and he and his family attended Christian schools.  His business is close in proximity to your school and does business as a vendor.  He has both the personal affinity to your organization and is related to it through business.  You may need a new Scoreboard in your gym that would cost approximately $5,000 and based on your research, that would be a gift he could make.  Your job now is to determine your strategy for soliciting Mr. Jones.

After you've successfully asked Mr. Jones for his gift of $5,000 to purchase the scoreboard in the gym, you need to be sure to steward this donor and the relationship he has with your organization.  This is a common sense step unfortunately all-too-often overlooked.

• Stewardship is step THREE in the development process.  Stewardship can also involve birthday, anniversary, and Christmas cards but it also includes a photo of that beautiful scoreboard with Mr. Jones and your students with the press release sent to the local papers.  It includes continuing the connection and continually working on the relationship so that the donor feels connected to his gift after it has been given.  All of these details will ensure that the next time you have a need which fits with Mr. Jones' giving interests, he will be more likely to help again.

Check back next week and we'll unpack the cultivation step a little more.  

Have a good week and happy fundraising!