Three Easy Secrets to Major Gift Success
Major gifts programs can become a money-raising machine for your wonderful cause.
Here are three secrets that will dramatically improve your results from your fundraising activities and events.
1. Narrow, narrow, narrow down your focus.
Restrict yourself to fewer relationships rather than more.
This is the most important thing I could ever share with you about major gift success.
You simply cannot spread yourself too thin.
You can only work with a fewer number of prospective donors if you want to give them quality attention.
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And quality attention is what will generate gifts.
My first fundraising mentor at Duke University told me once that working with major donors is like spinning plates on a stick.
Each plate is a wonderful prospective donor you are lavishing attention on.
You can’t spin but so many plates (or donors) at one time, because each one requires constant attention.
You have to go back and forth applying a little spin to each plate to keep it going.
Working with major donors is like spinning plates on a stick.
When a donor is ready to give, you take the plate off the stick and gently put it down.
Then you start working on another donor.
Some fundraising gurus are even saying that you can raise MORE MONEY if you have fewer donors.
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That’s because you can give them more attention. What about that!
2. Listen, listen, listen to your prospective donor.
One of my favorite fundraising mottos is, “When in doubt, shut up.”
Listen your way to the gift!
It’s taken me far with lots of donors!
Listening is a gift to the person who’s being listened to.
Nobody seems to listen much any more.
You’ll stand out when you keep your mouth shut around your favorite donors. : )
- It’s listening that will open the door to your donor’s heart, her dreams and her vision.
- It’s listening that will give you a road map to her cultivation plan.
- It’s listening that will tell you her hot buttons to emphasize when it comes time to solicit.
- It’s listening that tells you when she’s ready to be solicited.
3. Love, love, love your donors and prospects a lot.
Everybody laughs when I say this in my presentations. But it’s so very true!
What does a relationship look like anyway?
- It’s cordial.
- It’s friendly.
- It’s genuine.
- It’s authentic.
When I am cultivating a donor, I enjoy the friendmaking part of my work.
Fundraising is not about money; it’s about making and keeping Friends.
I like to get to know them.
I learn about their interests, their families, their hopes and dreams.
It’s fascinating. And it’s fun.
Make it an enjoyable, friendly experience for your donors and they will want to spend time with you and your cause.
Each visit with a donor is like a step-by-step cultivation move.
Now, I bet you are chomping at the bit to get to work with your own major donors.
I bet you can just see the funding that is just barely out of reach.
If only you could connect with your wonderful prospects and ask them correctly.
If you really want to bring in large, transformational gifts that can take your organization to an entirely new level, I’d love to help you.
Join me for an online workshop I’m doing next week to help you focus clearly on major, major donors.
So you can bring in the bigger gifts you really need.
Skyrocket Your Fundraising with a Systematic Major Gifts Program
This hands-on virtual workshop will help you develop and refine your major gift efforts.
It’s next Thursday, March 28 from 2-4pm. And I’m opening up only 50 seats.
Click here to find out more and register right now.
In this online workshop, you’ll learn and review all the steps and elements of assembling a strong major gifts program so that you can dramatically improve the results from your fundraising activities and events.
Major donors are where the money is!
You’ll also get every available means that I’ve learned over 25 years in fundraising to strengthen your donor relationships and get a “yes” when you ask for your major gifts.
And you know I love shortcuts!
This will be a “ruthlessly practical” approach to securing your major gifts!
You’ll get my battle-hardened, learned-the-hard-way strategies to help you get the most out of your own limited staff time, conflicting priorities and donor reluctance.
You’ll also get a complete workbook: “Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Major Gifts Program from the Ground Up” in a neat package for your reference and use.
You’ll get examples of successful donor cultivation conversations called to your attention and analyzed for you so you can adapt it to your own fundraising process.
And you’ll also have time in the workshop to work on your OWN plan. I’ll be helping you tailor these approaches to your specific situation.
Let’s turn your fundraising office into a money raising machine!
There’s never been a more important time to focus your energy clearly and target it on a few wonderful people who believe in your cause deeply. And raise some big money.
Click here to find out more and register right now.
The Virtual Workshop is designed to help:
1. Small shops who struggle with conflicting priorities and overloaded staff.
2. Larger shops who know they are leaving money on the table with their donors and want to take action immediately.
3. Any organization facing a significant financial shortfall that needs a plan now.
The webinar will give you lots of tools to skyrocket your fundraising and secure your organization’s financial sustainability.
I really hope you can join me! Next Thursday March 28, from 2-4pm. Seats will be going fast, so definitely register right now.
Let’s raise some money for your cause right now!
Click here to find out more and register.
Email me if you have a question!
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
