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Friend-raising, Fund-raising and Advisor-raising…… Are you doing all three?

Cultivating major gifts is never easy.  There is not a “one size fits all” or cookie cutter approach.  I have found that the best way to manage the moves management process is by grouping my supporters into three seperate types of activities or categories: (1) Friend-raising; (2) Fund-raising; (3) Advisor-raising.

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

The term “friend-raising” has been popularized in our industry as an interchangable substitute for “fundraising”.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Friend-raising happens with new major donors and with supporters who have recently upgraded their giving or been identified as a friend with high gift capacity.  This is the first level of fund development in the moves management process.  You are building trust, rapport and identifying areas of interest shared by your supporter.  Major donors at this level of moves management will increase giving based upon their connection with the fundraiser.  Friendship and trust matter!  Giving growth happens organically as mutal rapport builds.

The next level in the moves management proces is where real fundraising begins.  That is why I call it the “Fund-raising” level.. the development professional grows giving by making strategic “asks” based upon the donor’s interest, desires and previous giving amounts.  The skilled fundraiser identifies where the donors heart is and makes a strategic ask designed to grow giving levels above the previous year.  Most importantly, the fundraiser positions herself as the donors friend and giving advisor, setting the stage for the next level of the moves management process.

The final level of relationship building is what I call “Advisor-raising”.  After a year or two of strategic asks at the fundraising stage, the supporter begins to see the development professional as their giving advisor.  They anticipate and look forward to an annual planning meeting to discuss the impact of their last gift and the options available for their next gift.

A veteran development pro with 3 to 5 years at a specific charity should have at least 50% of their caseload composed of “Advisor-raising” level relationships.  Based upon the number of new major donors a charity procures each year, the percentage can fluctuate.  The goal would be to have a balanced caseload, but to never let the number of new “friend-raising” relationships to exceed one-third of the total.

A full time major gift officer should conduct an average of between 3 to 5 visits a week.  That equates to 12 to 15 visits a month; 145 to 180 meetings a year.  Devlopment professionals should visit approximately 75 percent of their portfolio each year.  So if the minimal annual meeting goal is 150, the maximum number of assignments to a gift officer should never exceed 200 people.  Approximately one-third of a gift officer’s portfolio should be in the solicitation phase at any time of the year.

Remember, the secret to successful major gift fundraising is measuring the activity, not counting the money.  Trust me when I tell you that if the activity is being measured and the major gift staff is held to a standard of activity HUGE SUMS OF CASH WILL FOLLOW.  Take a look at the top end of your donor file.  How many financial supporters are you friend-raising, fund-raising or advisor-raising?

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What I am Thankful for… a year of thanks and giving at THANKSGIVING

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

This has been a tremendous year of learning, growth and preparation. I am convinced at the age of 53 that the next decade of my work in philanthropy is going to be most impactful of my life.  I often told my sons as they were growing up and facing some specific challenge that God was preparing them for something BIG.  Well, I guess I know in my heart that the next BIG thing is yet to come in my life.  He has truly used this year to prepare me for the something special.

I have sat down this year, face to face and personally interviewed 117 major donors. People with hearts that are so unique.  People whose careers and businesses are not about amassing wealth.  People who believe their purpose for living is giving.  They have dedicated homes, careers and businesses to alleviate suffering, helping the homeless, feeding the hungry and providing clean, cool water to those who thirst.

These wonderful people opened their hearts to me. These supporters have cried. They have shared their hearts. They have asked for my advise on how to best give of their time, talent and treasure. However, the most important thing to me was what they said when I asked for their advise. As a major giving advisor, what could I do better… what could the organization do better?  Time and time again it came down to two things, two critically important words. Two verbs of action… that required me to get better and to improve. Those two words were: LISTEN & IMPACT.

Our financial partners wanted only two things: a chance to be listened too and a chance to see the impact their investment was having. There is no doubt about it, everytime I simply listened, giving increased… sometimes right on the spot. Once a donor becomes convinced you are listening to them and have become their advocate they give more. Its just that simple.
 
I am so thankful for these courageous philanthropists and financial investors in charity.  (I truly don’t like refering to them as “major donors”.)  These special people taught me that the importance of listening and demonstrating impact are critical to increasing major giving.  The thing I saw time and time again was if I create more ways for our financial partners to “get their hands dirty” in the work of Jesus it always had a profound impact on their giving.
 
I am so thankful for my co-workers who taught me so much this year.  Event management has been the key learning.  Most importantly, making sure that every detail of every event is centered on one thing: the impact you have having on lives.  
 
I learned so much from each of you. I learned the importance of integrating email and text messaging into my communications with donors. The phone and handwritten notes are important, but to build regular communications you have to email and text in this day and age to grow the relationship.
 
Most importantly, this year I learned to cry. I have cried with so many of you with your struggle to reach your goals. I have cried with donors as we have prayed for children all over the world. I have cried often in my prayers for each of you as you have worked so hard to raise the resources you need. The “old Coach Ro Jo” was afraid to share his emotions, but the man I am today is not afraid to tear up and wear his heart on his sleeve.
 
Thank you. You each know I am your friend and supporter for life. My home is always open and my cell phone is always on. I truly believe we’ll be helping others through philanthropy for many, many years.     

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How 100 Cups of Coffee Could Save Your Charity

Roy C. Jones, CFRE RoyJonesReports.com
Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

I have had a unique career.  I have worked as a vice president of philanthropy, a director of development, and a major gift officer.  Today, I advise non-profits and provide training and support for growing their organizations.  I love sharing what I’ve learned first hand from the experiences I’ve had with thousands of finanicial partners (a.k.a. donors) and with the marketing programs used identify and communicate with them.

Over the last few weeks I have met with several wonderful charities… all facing tremendous financial challenges.  After discussions about their websites, giving pages, number of direct response appeals, ask handles, gift arrays, fundraising banquets and mail formats I ask a question that often brings long, self reflective, periods of silence:

“How many indidvidual, face-to-face, meetings did you do last year?”

After sometime passes, I expain that over the last year I worked with a charity where we made a remarkable difference in income by meeting with financial partners… I have personally met with 117 families over the last 12 months.  Of course, I always thank them for their support.  Then I listend to why they give and tailor an “ask” based upon their desires, not mine.

Make no mistake about it, it does begin with acquisition.  Acquiring donors with both capacity and donative intent only happens by design.  Then getting donors to renew their giving and increase their giving requires a plan for moving each and every donor up the “giving pyramid”.  I like to call it “climbing the ladder.”

Are your donors climbing the ladder?

As you identify donors who give or have  4-figure and 5-figure capacity your organization must put a plan in place to meet them personally.  You must thank them and, as importantly, ask them personally.

So often the thought of carving out time to meet with donors seems like an impossible task for development directors and executive directors.  My recommendation is to simply begin where you are… decide how many meetings you can do a week or a month and then DO IT!

I like to give people an easy way to visualize the task… “100 cups of coffee.”  The fact is if your charity will meet each year with your top 100 supporters you will increase giving dramatically.  Could you do just 2 coffee meetings a week? That’s all it takes…

100 cups a coffee a year will transform your charity.  I challenge you to try it!

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Are You Listening To Your Supporters?

Roy C. Jones, CFRE RoyJonesReports.com
Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

Every Friday I do an analysis of my teams activity to ensure they are reaching their goals for communicating with major donors.  Each member of the team details in a one page report the number of conversations they’ve had; the number of actual meetings and the number of proposals they’ve discussed with supporters.  I even go to the extreme of counting how many emails were sent and how many times the phone was dialed.

Metrics like this are important if each member of the development team is going to meet their goal of visiting face to face 100 to 150 supporters each calendar year.  However, development professionals have to take precautions to ensure that their activitity is not just about the numbers.  The real question is whether or not they are listening to the needs of their supporters.

Everyweek, after each visit with the friends of our ministry, I take the time to ask myself a few critical questions:

1. What unique thing did I learn about this friend of our organization?

2. What unique fact or message did this supporter try to tell me during our meeting?

3. What needs does this partner have on a personal level for their family, business or future?

4. What unique thing does this sponsor want to do to help our organization?

If you leave every meeting with the answers to these

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

four questions rest assured that you are going to see revenue increase for your nonprofit.  It will happen because you made the visit about meeting the needs of the donor, instead of just meeting the needs of your organization.

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Are you preparing your Christmas “check list” in August?

I am surprised at the number of blank stares I get these days from not-for-profit leaders when I use the term “LYBUNT”. If there is one thing a fundraising and development professional should be doing as 4th quarter approaches it should be making a list LYBUNTs “and checking it twice, you have to find out who has been naughty or nice.”

LYBUNT is an acronym that stands for “last year, but unfortunately not this year.” This is a term used frequently in the fundraising world to represent donors who gave your organization money last year but, who have not given you money yet this year. Fundraisers typically target this group of last year’s donors differently than people who haven’t made a gift at all.

A donor in this group is also sometimes referred to as a “low hanging fruit” or a “warm” donor since that individual could be expected to give a gift again. If you are an Executive Director, President, Board member or Director of Development there is not a better use of your time at this time of year than calling and meeting with your top donors from last year, but who have not yet given this year.

Focus on the top 15 – 30 donors who haven’t made a gift yet this year. Integration is the key to getting your calls returned: use in combination emails, voice mails, hand written notes and drop by visits to remind your LYBUNTs not to forget your charity this year. Don’t just make the purpose for the call or visit all about getting the money, use it instead, to build a real friendship with each person. Begin every call, contact or meeting with the words: “We’ve missed you this year.” Find out what’s going on in their lives, and what’s still important to them about the work you’re doing. Then ask them to make a year-end commitment to ensure that important work can continue.

Remember, in most cases the LYBUNT donor thinks that they have made a gift, most certainly within the last year. It is truly an oversight on their part so have a spirit of forgiveness and be as welcoming as possible. For those LYBUNT donors who did not forget to send you a gift, you should never presume that they lapsed because of something your organization did or didn’t do. Many donors stop giving for many reasons we might never know, like big purchases, lifestyle and work changes, and new priorities in their giving plans.

Roy C. Jones, CFRE

As 4th quarter approaches, one thing is for sure… if your donor knows that “you a making a list and checking it twice and that you’ll find out soon who’s naughty or nice” they are going to make sure that there is a gift under the tree at your charitable organization. Merry Christmas!

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Do You Have A Heart For DONORS?

I sat with another precious family today… I’ve met with more than 100 supporters over the last 12 months. I asked them if they knew how many consecutive years they’d been giving? They shook their heads no… I told them “27 years… thank you, you are so special to us!” I paused just to let […]

About Roy Jones

Roy Jones has more than 30 years of relationship building, coalition development, marketing and fundraising experience. He is recognized professionally as one of the top relationship managers in the country.
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