Monday, April 28, 2008

4 Tips for Creating a Successful Major Donor Program

Looking to build or expand a major donor program? Figuring out the best place to start and getting it up and running with limited staff and agency resources may well be your toughest obstacle. So how do you make the move to major gifts?

1. Know Your Agency's Needs and Develop a Strategy to Meet Them: Effective fundraising starts with a realistic assessment of organizational needs, both now and in the future. If your board, staff, and solicitors aren't clear about what your organization's needs are, they can't effectively communicate them to anyone else.

Once you have consensus about the organization's need, you must tie it to your organization's mission, and then to the donor's interest. For example, "We need X because it will enable us to do Y which will help our clients do Z. While doing all this for your agency, your gift will enable you to do/feel/be A."

2. Don't Be Afraid to Ask for (And Maybe Pay For) Help: Many times, an organization feels it has the potential to raise major gifts, but concludes that it doesn't have a clue about how to begin the process. An outside consultant often has the objectivity, the broad knowledge, and experience to help your organization identify solicitors and donors, implement a system for managing the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship process, conduct solicitation training, and provide guidance about how to manage the various constituencies involved in the campaign.

3. Develop a Systematic Strategy for Managing the Solicitation Process: Develop a system for capturing information about major donor prospects. Have your solicitors fill out call reports or give you the information verbally about their meetings with prospects. Know when prospects have been visited and when you need to call them. Keep track of your solicitors' progress, ask for specific follow-up dates, and hold your solicitors accountable for doing what they say they will do.

4. Develop a Communications Plan for Constituencies: As the number of individual gifts to your organization grows, it's important to make sure you're communicating regularly with your donors. Once a person makes a commitment to your organization, it's your responsibility to make sure that they're thanked appropriately, visited, sent invitations to events, etc. If you have individuals with a giving history, take a risk. Call to thank them for their gift and offer to meet with them to let them know about the impact it's had. Make it your goal to get to know your donors and prospects and focus on building your organization's relationship with them.

No comments: