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Capital Campaigns, Client Impact, Donor Relations, Fundraising, Major Donors, Team Building

Lighting the Fire Within

by Jules Glanzer
July 23, 2024

All non-profit leaders by nature of their responsibilities are bivocational fundraisers. Contrary to public opinion, fundraising is a noble profession because it brings meaning to money, and you are participating with God’s mission in the world. When raising funds for a Christian ministry or organization, we are engaged in a Holy partnership.

For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:9

You [God] led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 77:20

For many, fundraising is outside their comfort zone, and they are filled with fear of the thought of asking for money. Yet every leader knows money increases your impact and is required for projects to be effective. Most non-profits begin with a dream to make a significant difference addressing a perceived need. In order for the dream to become a reality, resources are required.

One of the ways to overcome the FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—is to engage a mentor who will serve as a mirror to your activities providing guidance to increase your fundraising capacity. The mentor’s role is to light the fire within.

Mentoring is a relationship that increases the growth and progress personally and professionally for the person being mentored. The mentor serves as a mirror and guide for the mentored, asking questions and providing feedback to increase understanding of their reality and preferred future.  Guided conversations, assignments, and action steps are recommended by the mentor. The mentor is responsible to equip and inspire but the responsibility for growth and progress lies with the mentored.

Mentoring is unique from coaching and consulting in that the focus is not on a predetermined outcome or promote a prescriptive model. Mentoring provides holistic personal and professional improvement that leads to desired outcomes. Mentoring is not therapy or counseling, although it often brings wholeness to the mentored.

Throughout my life, in each of the roles I assumed, there were mentors that influenced me in my leadership service. During seminary days, Professor Henry Schmidt met with three of us each Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. We drank bad coffee, ate bad donuts, and discussed a chapter of “The Measure of a Man” by Gene Getz. It was a formative time of my life.

While serving as a pastor and church planter, I sought out people willing to come alongside and provide guidance, encouragement, and direction. When I shifted from pastoral ministry to serving in Christian higher education, Dr. Rich Kriegbaum was on call 24/7 to help me navigate a role totally new to me. And as a rookie college president realizing a major part of the role required me to be a fundraiser, Pat McLaughlin came to the rescue. In each case, they lit fires within me to rise to the challenge. Now in this season of my life, I am finding great joy mentoring others.

I have discovered there are five leadership activities that create a meaningful mentoring relationship.

Listen. It all starts with listening. Listening to their story, their accomplishments and their challenges. Listening for their mindset and experiences that shaped their lives. Asking questions that clarify who they are and are becoming. What do they want to preserve? What do they want to avoid? What do they want to achieve? Listen for what is causing the resistance to fundraise.

See. Observing the habits, attitudes, and relationships provides insights that strengthen the feedback and assists in the assessment of the person, their environment and culture. What in the environment will either motivate or needs to be overcome to increase their fundraising capacity?

Learn. The process of listening and observing now gives way to identifying the hurdles that will need to be overcome. Defining their realities, clarifying their preferred future, and identifying the wet blankets that are extinguishing the flame within them. What resources will need to be brought to the table. What assignments will enable the mentored to increase their capacity? “One should begin with the end in mind. What actions will be needed to see their preferred future become a reality?” What tipping point attitude needs to be addressed?

Do. Taking action is where the rubber meets the road. All the listening, observing, and processing finds its expression in actions. Clear and precise assignments move the person along the road of increased capacity. Experiencing some success in fundraising can become motivating. What activities will move the person towards continuous effective fundraising?

Love. Mentoring is a relationship. The goal of a mentor is to light a fire in the person being mentored. It is not the carrot or the stick but the fire within that the mentor desires to light. And only love can make that happen.

If you want to light the fundraising fire within, consider engaging a mentor who will come alongside to equip and inspire you to increase your fundraising capacity.

About the Author: Jules Glanzer served as a pastor and church planter for 25 years, a seminary dean at George Fox University, and the college president at Tabor College. While at Tabor, God used his efforts to raise more than $53 million with no gift over $2 million. Jules serves as an adjunct professor, mentor, senior consultant with the Timothy Group, and recently authored Money. Money. Money. Actions for Effective Fundraising.

Capital Campaigns, Client Impact, Communication, Donor Relations, Extra Inspiration, Major Donors, Stewardship

Keep on Knocking: How Many Donor Connection Should You Make?

by Pat McLaughlin
July 23, 2024

As a major gift officer, you have 150 to 175 potential donors in your portfolio. What’s the best way to connect with them? Just 15 to 20 meaningful interactions a week, consisting of 10 phone calls and 5 face-to-face visits, will revolutionize your fundraising game!

Categorize your donor interactions into six areas:

  1. Research: Do your homework. Start with a discovery call to learn why they first gave. Find out what they care about so you can connect better.
  2. Relationship-building: Get to know them. Trust is crucial for big donations. Build a real relationship by staying in touch and showing you care.
  3. Request: Ask the right way. When it’s time to ask for money, be clear and specific. Match your request to their interests and show how their help makes a difference.
  4. Recognize: Say thanks. Show your gratitude often. A quick handwritten note within a day of receiving a donation can mean a lot.
  5. Recruit: Grow your network. Get your donors to help find new supporters. Ask them to connect you with friends who might be interested. Maybe they could host a party to spread the word about your cause.
  6. Report: Keep them in the loop. Don’t drop off the radar after receiving a donation. Update donors on what you’re doing at least seven times a year. This could include visits, tours, thank-you notes, success stories, newsletters, reports, or calls. Keeping donors informed helps them feel like part of the team.

This game plan keeps donors interested and leads to big fundraising wins in the long run.

Metrics That Matter

The number of calls made should be your primary tracking metric. You can control who you see, when you see them, where you see them, and how much you ask for, but you have no control over the size of the gift.

Your Fundraising Superpower Strategy

When planning your calls, focus on potential and productivity. Reach out to those who show promise for larger contributions. Don’t forget to touch base with your current major donors—they’re often your best source for ongoing support. Keep an eye out for individuals who might be ready to increase their involvement or giving.

A major gift officer at a Christian college made 15-20 calls every week for 12 years. Sticking to this routine, he raised more than $6 million, with most donations under $10k. This proves how being consistent can really pay off big time.

Every time you meet with someone, you’ve got a chance to make an impact and push your ministry forward. So, keep at it! Your team’s counting on you to make things happen!

Remember the 4 C’s

See the People! See the People! See the People! And See what God will do!

About the Author: Pat McLaughlin; President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 1,800 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

Capital Campaigns, Client Impact, Fundraising, Major Donors

CRM

by Jon Helder
February 5, 2024

Thanks for joining me at my recent “Shopping for Donor Databases/CRMs” presentation!

Here are the slides from my Presentation: Choosing a CRM

Along with The Timothy Group, I am here to serve nonprofits like yours! Would you like to schedule a 30-min, no obligation meeting to talk about your ministry and your CRM Needs? Simply fill out the form below and I, or another Timothy Group team member, will reach out to you soon. Thanks!

About the Author: Jonathan Helder, CFRE, ECRF, Consultant

With over a decade of proven fundraising experience and a love for data, Jonathan is blessed to serve nonprofits and help bolster their impact on the community. Jon enjoys helping ministries implement data-based strategies and tools to improve fundraising and organizational effectiveness. Jonathan has written articles as well as presented to local and national organizations including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (West Michigan), Do More Good, Nonprofit Hub and the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance.

 

 

Donor Relations, Capital Campaigns, Client Impact, Fundraising, Major Donors, Team Building

6 Questions to Ask Your Board When Considering a Capital Campaign

by Jules Glanzer
December 13, 2023

The decision to enter a capital campaign rests with the board, but often there is a lack of full support from the board. For a variety of reasons, boards often are hesitant to approve a capital campaign. Board culture, previous failed campaigns, personal cost, fear of failure, stakeholder concern, economic conditions, or reservations about current leadership are some of the possible reasons for not enthusiastically supporting the decision to launch a capital campaign.

Here are six questions to move your board toward full engagement.

  1. What is your understanding of the campaign? Probe each board member’s evolving understanding of the campaign—and the business case behind it. Check in on both their strategic (big picture) and tactical (step-by-step) understanding. This is not a time to defend or even share more details about the campaign. Rather it is a time to gather information about what they are thinking.
  2. What concerns do you have? Don’t ask board members if they have concerns—concerns are a given, so get them out in the open and discuss them. Help the board identify their deep-seated concerns and reservations. Another way of asking this is what do they want to avoid moving forward?
  3. How do you see your role? Don’t assume boards knows their role in a campaign. Verify and clarify their role. Many will be hesitant because it is implied that they will have to open their checkbooks more than they already are. Let your board members verbalize what their role is in the campaign. Equip them in understanding the importance of their engagement.
  4. What do you need? This question validates and diffuses any frustrations or fears a board member might be feeling with the campaign or its impact on stakeholders. Another way of asking this is What do they want to preserve moving forward?
  5. How would you describe your commitment to the campaign? Giving your board members a chance to be honest about their commitment allows you to better understand their motivations and increase their support. Knowing from the beginning which board members will fully support the campaign will be helpful during the campaign.
  6. What do you want to achieve? Begin with the end in mind and help the board think about the preferred future and the outcomes of the campaign. Help them understand the value of the campaign to the institution. This is an opportunity to inspire the board to engagement by envisioning the missional benefits.

When launching a campaign, full support of the board can make the difference between a successful campaign and a struggling campaign.

Adapted from “5 Questions to Get Your Project Team on the Same Page,” by Timothy R. Clark

About the Author: Jules Glanzer served as a pastor and church planter for 25 years, a seminary dean at George Fox University, and the college president at Tabor College. While at Tabor, God used his efforts to raise more than $53 million with no gift over $2 million. Jules serves as an adjunct professor, mentor, senior consultant with the Timothy Group, and recently authored Money. Money. Money. Actions for Effective Fundraising.

Capital Campaigns

Pitching a Successful Capital Campaign

by Pat McLaughlin
May 12, 2023

I’ve been a high school and college umpire for 35 years and have learned that successful capital campaigns are a lot like baseball. A pitcher needs to prepare and strategize before throwing the ball; your ministry needs to plan and set goals before pitching your campaign. Great pitchers deliver the ball with precision and accuracy to the catcher; great capital campaigns communicate their message clearly and effectively to potential donors. The main difference is in baseball the goal is to strike out the batter but in fundraising the goal is to encourage your donors to hit the ball out of the park. A pitcher also needs a strong team behind them to support their efforts; your ministry needs a dedicated team of staff, volunteers, and donors working together to achieve your fundraising goals. Without these key elements, both the pitcher and your ministry risk striking out. Implement these 12 winning principles:

  1. Start with a quality strategic plan: Develop a comprehensive plan that includes clear objectives, timelines, and budgets. Identify potential donors and build a strong team to execute the plan.
  2. Develop a strong case statement: Clearly articulate your organization’s vision, mission, and values. Show how the capital campaign will help you achieve your goals and make a significant impact in your community.
  3. Measure your weakness: Identify the gaps in your organization’s capacity and create a plan to address them. This will help you avoid potential pitfalls and ensure the success of your campaign.
  4. Raise capital dollars when you need them: Timing is critical in capital campaigns. Plan your fundraising efforts around specific milestones and capital needs to maximize your success.
  5. Big capital donors are attracted to big capital visions: Develop a compelling vision that inspires donors to give generously. Clearly communicate the impact of their gifts and recognize their contributions.
  6. A capital campaign is a series of small, individualized campaigns with 10-100 of your most capable donors: Focus on cultivating strong relationships with your top donors. Develop customized solicitation strategies that match their interests and capacity to give.
  7. Everybody wants to receive large gifts, but few are willing to invest the time required: Plan for the long haul and invest in building relationships with donors. This will pay off in the long run and help ensure the sustainability of your organization.
  8. Major donors are both customers and salespeople: Treat your donors as valued partners in your organization’s success. Ask them to encourage their friends to partner with you.
  9. Campaigns involve both fundraising and goodwill: Use your campaign as an opportunity to build goodwill in the community. Develop strategies to engage volunteers and leverage social media to raise awareness of your organization’s work.
  10. Your CEO must become your #1 fundraiser: The CEO plays a critical role in fundraising efforts. They should be visible and engaged in donor cultivation and stewardship.
  11. Recruit campaign leadership wisely: Build a strong campaign leadership team that is committed to your organization’s mission. Choose individuals with strong networks and experience in fundraising and management.
  12. No large ask should be a surprise, but too low may be an insult: Be strategic in your solicitation strategies and ensure that your asks are appropriate for each donor’s capacity to give. Communicate clearly and transparently about your needs and goals and recognize the value of each donor’s contribution.

Keep pitching your vision to your key donors. These simple steps will help you meet and exceed your campaign goals. We know what it takes to win and can coach you to a successful campaign!

About the Author: Pat McLaughlin President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 1,800 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

Capital Campaigns, Development, Donor Relations, Fundraising, Uncategorized

Using Metrics to Boost Your Fundraising

by Jon Helder
January 5, 2023

Are you looking at a map or the rearview mirror?

As a fellow fundraiser, let me begin by giving you my congratulations on completing an unprecedented fundraising year. I hope you can spend some time in the next few weeks to take a break and carry out some much-deserved self-care. Be sure to take time to appreciate your team members who contributed to your organization’s fundraising success.

Although the end of a fiscal year can bring a sense of relief, the start of a new year can understandably cause anxiety. The beginning of the fundraising year often leads to fundraisers asking themselves some age-old questions: What initiatives are working? Should we eliminate the golf outing? How can I measure and track our overall fundraising program?

Sadly, often before fundraisers can start to address these questions, they are quickly distracted by the next fundraising initiative. So, most nonprofit fundraising plans aren’t supported by data, but rather stem from inertia and intuition. Thankfully, 2023 provides an opportunity to determine how to improve our fundraising efforts.

So, how successful was your organization’s fundraising last year?
You might answer this question with metrics like the amount raised, the number of new donors or the number of donations. While these basic figures can be informative from a year-over-year trend perspective, they do a poor job answering questions like: Why did these metrics change? What are the weaknesses in my fundraising plan? Where should we focus our efforts this new fundraising year?

I consider those basic metrics to be “rearview mirror” metrics as they only tell you what has happened in the past. “Rearview mirror” metrics don’t point your organization to where you would like to head. What you really need are metrics that provide you with a plan of action, or a map, to help bolster your fundraising efforts.

Map Metrics
Although the topic of fundraising metrics isn’t very sexy, the payoff from a data-based fundraising plan will be. Fifteen years ago, I worked for a healthcare consulting firm with the motto: “you can’t move it if you don’t measure it.” I believe the same is true with fundraising. You need a detailed analysis to make an actionable plan to improve your fundraising efforts. Luckily, you can achieve a thorough analysis with these 10 key data points from either your CRM or accounting software.

10 Key Data Points
To start, you will need to compile the following data points. For simplicity’s sake, assume all data points are for 2022 unless otherwise noted.

  • Actual Fundraising Expense (include your best guess of the salary costs associated with employee’s time spent fundraising)
  • Organizational Expenses
  • Number of Contributions Received
  • Number of Contributions Received
  • 2021 Total Number of Donors
  • 2022 Total Number of Donors
  • The Number of New Donors This Year in 2022 (i.e. gave in 2022, but not in 2021)
  • 2022 Number of Retained Donors (i.e. gave in both 2022 & 2021)
  • The Number of Lapsed Donors in 2022 (i.e. did not give in 2022 but did give in 2021)
  • 2022 Total Amount of Contributions from Top 5 Donors

Obviously, to determine trends over time, you will need to obtain this information for multiple years. However, much can be learned from analyzing even a single year and comparing yourself to industry benchmarks.

Map Worthy Metrics
Because they are easy to understand, simple to calculate, and they efficiently measure the key drivers of a productive fundraising plan, I consider these metrics to be “map worthy”. Many of these can be applied to separate fundraising initiatives. But this article will focus primarily on how they can be used to assess your overall fundraising program. Also, I’ve provided several great tools toward the end of this article to help you with this process.

Donor Retention Rate
2022 Number of Retained Donors/2021 Total Number of Donors

Without question, your donor retention rate is one of the most important fundraising metrics. It’s possible to increase your giving in years where you lose more donors than you retain. But, it’s nearly impossible for a nonprofit to survive prolonged episodes of poor donor retention.

The closer your retention rate is to 100%, the better.  Currently, the average nonprofit has a retention rate of about ~45% which means that nonprofits are losing more donors than they can retain.

So why is donor retention such a big deal? According to preeminent fundraising scholar, Dr. Adrian Sargeant, a 10% improvement in donor retention rate can double the lifetime value of donors in your database. If you could only track one metric annually to monitor your fundraising, it should be donor retention.

Donor Attrition Rate
2022 Number of Lapsed Donors/2021 Total Number of Donors

In addition to using this formula, you can also calculate the donor attrition rate by subtracting the donor retention rate from 1. So, for example, if your retention rate last year was 55%, your attrition rate would be 45%. The closer your attrition rate is to 0%, the better.

Churn
2022 New Donors – 2022 Lapsed Donors

Churn is a great way to assess the net result of your donor retention and donor recruitment efforts. It helps you quickly identify whether your organization is experiencing a net inflow or outflow of donors. Often new donor counts and retention are measured separately and can feel disparate from each other. Churn eliminates any noise in the data, telling you if your active donor counts are heading in the right direction.

Donation Frequency
Number of 2022 donations / Number of 2022 Donors

Donor frequency helps distill how efficiently you’re increasing the number of donations per donor. The higher your frequency, the better. A large onslaught of single gifts would lower your frequency (a great problem for any nonprofit). But, a higher donation frequency means that your average donor is giving more frequently. For example, transitioning a large group of donors from an annual gift to monthly donations would drastically improve your donation frequency. There are two major reasons why that matters. One, the higher your frequency, the more likely your donations are evenly spread throughout the calendar year. Second, and perhaps more importantly, research shows that, on average, donors who give more than once a year give a greater amount each year, are more loyal to the organization, have higher retention rates, and as result, significantly improve your organization’s average Donor Lifetime Value.

Donor Lifetime Value (DLV)
Average Annual Gift / Attrition Rate

Perhaps self-explanatory, DLV shows the lifetime value of your average donor based on your Average Annual Gift. The Average Annual Gift is simply your Total amount of Contributions divided by the total number of donations. While there are multiple ways that DLV is calculated, most require you to calculate the average amount of time your donor is active with your organization (aka Donor Lifespan). As someone who has struggled through the process of calculating the average donor’s lifespan, I would recommend the above formula instead. In addition to being incredibly easy to calculate, I find it to be a perfectly adequate way to assess trends over time. Your goal is to always be increasing your DLV as that means you are retaining more donors and/or getting more donations per donor.

Lost Potential
Donor Lifetime Value x 2022 Number of Lapsed Donors

This number should be the core motivation for you to work on donor retention. If your DLV is $1000 and you lost 100 donors last year, the lifetime value of those donors would be $100,000. I
f you are looking for a bit of encouragement after calculating Lost Potential, I recommend calculating your Retained Value (DLV x # of your retained donors). Retained Value gives you a clear sense of the “true worth” of the active donors in your database.

Bonus Tip
As the old saying goes, “You’re likely to raise more money from existing donors than by acquiring new donors.” If you can determine the attrition rate of the average first-time donor vs. your retained donors, you will likely affirm the merits of this saying. Such data can be helpful to share with board members or bosses that are pushing for “more new donors” when you would rather prioritize untapped opportunities within your existing donor group.

Return on Investment (ROI)
(Total contributions – Fundraising Expenses)/ Fundraising Expenses

Cost to Raise a Dollar (CRD)
Fundraising Expenses / (Total contributions – Fundraising Expenses)

ROI and CRD help measure how efficiently your investments (aka fundraising expenses) lead to funds raised.  While ROI and CRD can be calculated to assess your overall fundraising program, these same metrics are excellent at assessing individual fundraising initiatives and trends over time. Most nonprofits assess their initiatives by net income (initiative revenue – initiative expenses). However, they may be surprised to learn that once staff time is included in the expenses, many of their initiatives have a negative ROI. Your goal with ROI is to be positive and the higher the number, the better.

CRD is a slightly more accessible way to communicate the success of your fundraising efforts and is simply the inverse of the ROI calculation. Basically, CRD is the amount you have to spend to raise $1. Your primary CRD goal is to be below $1. The lower your CRD, the better. Conversely, should your cost go above $1, you are losing money.

Dependency Quotient (DQ)
Total Amount of Contributions from Top 5 Donors/ Total Organizational Expenses

It is always good for organizations to assess their overall dependency on their top donors. As you can see, the DQ determines the share of your overall organizational expenses that rely on your top 5 donors’ donations. Perhaps obvious, your goal is to decrease your dependency quotient over time as that means that you are diversifying your contribution sources.

Dependency Quotient vs. Cost to Raise a Dollar
The interplay between these two metrics can provide a lot of insight as to where you should focus your efforts in the year ahead. If you are doing things correctly, you should be moving from High to Low in both DQ & CRD.

As someone who is always happy to borrow great ideas, the content to create the following table is from a  great Bloomerang article: 3 Metrics to Help Measure Fundraising Effectiveness. The article also provides helpful real-life examples of how organizations can move in the right direction.

  High Cost to Raise a Dollar Low Cost to Raise a Dollar
High Dependency Quotient You are investing heavily in many different strategies but are still highly dependent on just a few sources of funding. This is common for organizations who rely on just one big event a year for the majority of their funds. You are likely receiving big donations from a handful of donors but are at risk if you lose just one donor. Do you have a safety net that would continue to fund your mission?
Low Dependency Quotient You are likely investing heavily in fundraising programs that provide a diverse group of funders, but you’re spending a lot to make that happen. Are you missing opportunities to go after major gifts? Keep up the good work! This is the ideal scenario.

Is your head spinning yet?
While this all may seem overwhelming, much of the math above could be accomplished by the average third grader. The only thing keeping you from obtaining a clearer picture of your organization’s fundraising is a bit of time and some elbow grease. Luckily, I am happy to report that there are several resources available to help calculate the metrics you need to guide your fundraising plan:

Free Resources from The Timothy Group
We have created a simple, yet effective spreadsheet that calculates all the above metrics by simply providing the top 10 data points above. The spreadsheet also produces 13 graphs & charts to provide visuals for your organization’s past fundraising trends which are great for copying and pasting into your next board fundraising report. Also, for those of you that are interested in assessing your fundraising initiatives at a more granular level, we’ve added a bonus Initiative ROI Cheat Sheet that will quickly show you where your organization is getting its biggest bang for the buck, and perhaps more importantly, which initiatives should be discontinued. If you are interested in obtaining the spreadsheet, download it free here:


Metric Tools


Fundraising Metrics Slides


Your current CRM
While not every CRM has amazing reporting functionality, most do calculate many of the above metrics. I suggest that you try diving into the CRM’s dashboards or searching one of the above metrics or data points in their help/resources section. 

FundraisingReportCard.com (FRC)

By simply importing your organization’s gift dates, gift amounts, and profile ID (most systems have an anonymized alphanumeric ID available), FRC will not only calculate many of the metrics above, but it also quickly produces beautiful graphs, trend lines, and segmentations that make analysis a snap. If you are lucky enough to be using Kindful or Little Green Light as your CRM, they have a very simple integration that will do all the heavy lifting for you. Even if you don’t use their dashboards, be sure to check out their benchmarks page as it provides nonprofit sector-specific benchmarks that instantly help you see how you are doing compared to your sector. 

Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP)

The Association for Fundraising Professionals has created a set of free downloadable spreadsheets that will help you calculate many of the top metrics. 

You can do this! (and we’re here to help)

With no obligation, I would be happy to provide 30 minutes of my time to help you through this process. Whether it be helping you obtain your key data points, using one of the above tools, or analyzing your results, The Timothy Group is here to help. We have worked with many nonprofits to assess their programs and I promise it will be worth the effort. Let’s leave intuition and inertia in the review mirror and make 2023 the year you implement a data-driven fundraising plan!

Note: The above article is intended to provide quality actionable content for the reader. Jonathan Helder and the Timothy Group do not receive any compensation for the referral links to the article and/or fundraising tools listed above. 

About the Author: Jonathan Helder, CFRE, ECRF, Consultant

With over a decade of proven fundraising experience and a love for data, Jonathan is blessed to serve nonprofits and help bolster their impact on the community. Jon enjoys helping ministries implement data-based strategies and tools to improve fundraising and organizational effectiveness. Jonathan has written articles as well as presented to local and national organizations including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (West Michigan), Do More Good, Nonprofit Hub and the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance.

 

 

Capital Campaigns

Journey to Generosity

by Pat McLaughlin
November 10, 2022

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” What a great fundraising principle! The first gift is the hardest gift to ask for and receive but a $100 entry level gift could eventually grow into a $1 million gift if you carefully and prayerfully guide your donor along the generosity path. Five mile markers lead to a game-changing gift: (1) Information, (2) Education, (3) Cultivation, (4) Inspiration, and (5) Solicitation.

INFORMATION
We live in an information age. Everything we need to know is virtually at our fingertips. Donors with different capacities–entry level, mid-range, major, and mega donors–need different types of information to distinguish what makes your organization unique. There is truth in the phrase, “You never get a second change to make a first impression.” In this information phase of the relationship, you need to clearly share your mission, vision, and core values. Your mission is who you are and what you are about. Your vision statement states where you are going or at least want to go. Your core values express what you hold dearly. Let me say it another way, “What is the single most persuasive idea you can convey about your ministry?” Share what sets you apart from the other 1.8 million 501c3 organizations in the United States. Go beyond mission, vision, and core values—define your critical core competencies. What do you do best and what is unique about your ministry?

EDUCATION
There is an art and science to donor development. This is the art phase. Education can be defined as “the purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty.” You have shared information with your potential donor, now help them understand your organization. In the education process, we often try to weave in this question, “We wonder who would address these specific needs if we were not in business?” Donors have many giving choices. Why should they give to you? You are educating your donor about your organization, and they are educating you about who they are and their hot buttons. What is a hot button? It’s what makes a donor pound the table as they emphatically state, “This must be accomplished, and I will make it happen.” Information and education might not motivate your donor to make a 7-figure gift—there are a couple more steps, but you’re getting closer.

CULTIVATION
Cultivation is drilling deeper with your donor relationships. Ask your ministry partner how they want to receive information. Do they prefer snail mail, e-mail, text, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, in person, by phone, or smoke signals? Make sure you are communicating in ways they will receive your messages.

Both previous steps are important but in the cultivation phase you are personally communicating the human need you have identified and how you are addressing that need. Cultivation is sharing how your ministry is changing lives. It’s not about bricks and sticks, or endowment, it’s about the power of the Gospel in the lives of people—real people with real needs and how the work of Christ in their lives can change them for eternity.

Listen to the donor during this cultivation period. It’s a discovery phase for you to determine what really gets them excited about giving to your organization or a specific project. What gives them great satisfaction in their giving? A sign along a rural road in Kansas says, “Pray for a good harvest… but keep on hoeing.” A synonym for hoeing is cultivating. Work the soil of the mind, the heart, and the checkbook.

INSPIRATION
Donor development is story and plan. The inspiration step is all about your story. Share with your donor success stories of the people you serve. Let them see what you do through the lives of your service recipients, such as a student whose life has been changed, a homeless person who found Christ through your ministry, or a couple who have benefited from your counseling program. Let the people you serve help tell your story.

Inspiration doesn’t happen through a brochure, e-mail, or text. It’s the life-changing story you tell in person, or on zoom, or a video you share on your iPad. It’s your mission, vision, and core values seen in a real person who has experienced real change because of what God has accomplished in their lives through your ministry. Here are four words to help define inspiration: spur, stimulate, motivate, and encourage. Show your donor how you are impacting lives and how their gift can make an eternal difference. This inspirational message may come from your CEO or your Executive Director. It’s not about hype or empty publicity. This is where you meet the need of the donor “to know.” They want to look behind the scenes and be confident you are using their money wisely.

SOLICITATION
Here’s the fun part—the culmination of this donor process—the Ask! If you have been successful in building toward this with the other four steps, this one is truly enjoyable and easy. Consider this acrostic ROOF—Reason, Opportunity, Observation, and Follow Up.

The Reason for the donor visit should have been clearly defined by what you have shared with the donor in the ramp up to the Ask. By the way, 98% of the time this is a personal visit.

The Opportunity is the project you are asking them to fund and the timing of that funding.

Observation involves watching and listening to their response. Did you ask too low, too high, or about where you should be with this donor? Very likely if they do not gasp when you make this request you may have asked too low. Rarely will a donor who has been through this four-step process be offended by the Ask, even if it’s a large one.

Follow Up is working through their responses: Yes, Maybe, No, or even No Not Now. Once again, your response should be personal, which means following up with a phone call, text, and a handwritten note. You will need a signed commitment device or a letter of intent to confirm their commitment.

Overcome your FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) in the solicitation process. This is a friendly family discussion. Practice the Golden Rule, ask them as you would like to be asked. There is no reason to be shy! Utilize this 5-step process with Mid, Major, and Mega Donors on your file and you will achieve success by the Grace of God. In closing, please practice Pat’s 4 C’s:

  • See the People!
  • See the People!
  • See the People!
  • See what God’s going to do with the relationship!

As high tech we get in our fundraising process, don’t forget high touch!

About the Author: Pat McLaughlin President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 1,800 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

Donor Relations, Capital Campaigns, Client Impact, Communication, Major Donors

Asking and Receiving

by Ron Haas
September 8, 2022

Lessons from the Friend at Midnight
5 Then Jesus went on to say: Suppose one of you goes to a friend in the middle of the night and says, “Let me borrow three loaves of bread. 6 A friend of mine has dropped in, and I don’t have a thing for him to eat.” 7 And suppose your friend answers, “Don’t bother me! The door is bolted, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you something.”
8 He may not get up and give you the bread, just because you are his friend. But he will get up and give you as much as you need, simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.
9 So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. 10 Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks (Luke 11:5-10, CEV).
The parable of the friend at midnight teaches us some profound fundraising principles.

Our friend faced a desperate need.
Why couldn’t this man wait until morning? What was the compelling reason he needed three loaves of bread right then? Was his request made so he could save face with his guest? That seems a little shallow. Perhaps his visitor had just arrived from a long journey and hadn’t eaten in days. Perhaps he had small children who were crying from hunger or an elderly family member who was weak or sick. Whatever the situation, this man asked his friend because he couldn’t solve the problem by himself. You probably can’t write a personal check to accomplish all your ministry goals. What problems could you solve if you only had more resources? Who won’t be reached if you can’t move forward with your plans? What essential programs won’t be accomplished without help? Why should a donor make a significant gift to your ministry? How desperate are you?

The hour was late.
It was midnight—not an ideal time to make a donor call. Rudeness and obnoxiousness are not usually desirable character traits for development professionals. However, some people are so fearful about offending a friend that they never bring up the subject of money, even in broad daylight! By going at midnight this man proved how motivated he was to provide for his guest. This was urgent. Successful fundraisers have passion to do whatever it takes to meet the need. If you’re a board member who is not passionate enough about your cause to ask your friends for money, maybe you should question whether or not you should continue serving on the board. Effective board members are willing to give and to get others to give, even if it’s inconvenient.

Our friend was asking to benefit someone else.
Some executive directors struggle with asking because a portion of the gift will cover their salary. They stumble over a mental block because it feels like they are asking for their own benefit. It’s proper for non-profit organizations to pay their staff members. “The worker deserves his wages” (1 Tim. 5:18). Assuming that your salary isn’t exorbitant, it’s completely legitimate to ask for a gift. The man in this parable probably enjoyed a piece of bread with his guest, but the reason he asked for the bread was to benefit his guest, not himself. The same goes for every ministry fundraiser. The reason you ask for money is so that your ministry has enough resources to provide the programs that change lives. Keep yourself focused on the people who would be lost were it not for your ministry’s impact. As a fundraiser you must avoid the love of money at all costs, because “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:10).

Our friend turned to his friend for help.
If God called you to the mission field, who would you ask for prayer and financial support? The man in this parable asked his friend for help. He didn’t approach a total stranger; he went to the person with whom he had cultivated a close relationship. Many executive directors have reality show fantasies of an anonymous mega-donor knocking on the door with a big smile and a big cardboard check. They’ll have to keep dreaming. People give to people they know and trust. A generous donor in California has a vision to develop hospitals in third world countries. His strategy is, “I don’t have enough money to build these by myself, so I have to get my friends to help me.” A true friend will answer a midnight phone call.

Our friend wouldn’t listen to excuses.
People make lots of excuses for not being generous. Some excuses are legitimate, most are not. The friend in this parable was no exception. He had a laundry list of reasons for why he couldn’t give. “The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.” Today’s donors also have a list of ready excuses for why they can’t give you anything. “It’s an inconvenient time.” “I’m focused on other things.” “I’ve got my money locked up in something else.” Countless circumstances stand in the way of generosity. The bottom line for the man in our story was simply, “I can’t.” Notice that he didn’t say, “I don’t have anything to give you.” This man had the capacity to give; he just wasn’t motivated. It wasn’t a matter of “I can’t” but “I don’t want to.” That didn’t deter our friend, and it shouldn’t slow you down, either. You can’t make anyone give, but you can pray boldly that God would compel them.

His friend gave because our friend kept asking.
The interesting fundraising application from this parable is that the friend didn’t give just because he was a friend, which goes against all we think about friendship fundraising. “He may not get up and give you the bread, just because you are his friend. But he will get up and give you as much as you need, simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking” (Luke 11:8 CEV). Asking is the key. Friendship might get you in the door, but asking gets a gift. How many times should you call? A donor representative recently made six attempts to catch a prospect on the phone. On the seventh time, the donor answered, and they had a wonderful two-hour phone call. Most people give up too early. Persistence pays.

Don’t be ashamed to keep on asking!

Ron Haas has served the Lord as a pastor, the vice president of advancement of a Bible college, a Christian foundation director, a board member and a fundraising consultant. He’s authored three books: Ask for a Fish – Bold Faith-Based Fundraising, Simply Share – Bold, Grace-Based Giving, and Keep on Asking – Bold, Spirit-Led Fundraising. He regularly presents fundraising workshops at ministry conferences and has written fundraising articles for At the Center magazine and Christian Leadership Alliance’s Outcomes magazine.

Capital Campaigns

A $10,000 Donor Gets Excited!

by Pat McLaughlin
September 8, 2022

In every pre-campaign study, we ask the client to provide a profile for each of the donors they want us to visit in the personal interview process. I saved this typewritten donor prospect introduction that a school’s director of development attached to my interview form. I think you will find it interesting.

What I know of (name of donor) is that he just sold a local theme park (name of park) and netted $20 million. That apparently is a portion of his money. He seems very private and hard to reach. Our CEO told me he would take me to lunch if I even got him to answer the phone. After scheduling the appointment, I think my CEO should buy me dinner. He has grandchildren at our institution and is hopeful we will accept another special needs grandchild for the coming year. His family has offered to pay all costs associated with this special needs program. He gives $10,000 annually to our institution and I would not know (name of donor) if he walked in my office right now.

In the very cordial, one-hour interview I subsequently had with this donor, he shared a passion for both an annual operating/program-driven funding need as well as interest in seeing a major capital campaign launched. When we got to the range of giving/money section of the questionnaire, he would not indicate a specific amount. But he did make this statement:

“As a family we would like to see this educational program added to the school, and we are excited about the potential three-phased capital campaign.” (A pre-campaign study should position campaigns in phases.) He went on to say, “If those two projects have the potential of becoming a reality, we have the capacity to contribute several million dollars.” When I thanked him for his keen interest and then asked him what “several million dollars” meant, he told me in the $3-$5 million range.

This donor shared how busy and profitable their various companies were, and I became convinced this was a really high-capacity donor. I went back to the school and asked the CEO and director of development how fast they could get out and introduce themselves to this donor. Remember, the director of development said he would not know this donor if he walked into his office!

They got to know this donor and his family, who have since generously invested their time, talent, and treasure in the school. They have helped access their contacts in a variety of businesses and corporations to help in the capital project in particular. And, oh, by the way, to date the family has contributed $4,500,000 toward the school’s academic and capital projects.

How will you lay a solid foundation for a conundrum-free capital campaign if you do not ask questions and invite people to step up as never before to invest in your organization? How will you know who will serve on your campaign committees/teams and open new doors to foundations, corporations, philanthropists, and new giving sources? You need donor research, and certainly some of it can come from scientific, hard-asset research by one of the search organizations (Donor Search, Wealth Engine, Blackbaud, etc.). But you will never find the “millionaire next door” unless you sit down and have a discussion over a case statement and a questionnaire. As high tech as we have become in our society, organizations still need to be high touch with their donor base.

John Humphrey, a partner at the high-tech software company Pariveda Solutions in Dallas, told me that 67 percent of all business communication in the world is non-verbal. High-tech communication will not achieve the goal you desire in your donor research. A pre-campaign study allows you to be high touch in defining your current services and the need to move forward with a capital campaign to fund new programs, purchase new property, and add new personnel (the 3 P’s of capital campaigns).

Please understand, I firmly believe Psalm 127:1 (NLT): “Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.” But I also firmly believe conundrum-free campaigns begin with good research.

The success stories I just shared with you may have become a reality without a study, but I don’t think so. I ask you to carefully and prayerfully consider all options before launching a campaign to give your organization a fair opportunity for a conundrum-free campaign. Plan your work, then work your plan. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” A study gives you that additional opportunity with donors to test your organizational/campaign vision. It allows you to raise the flag and see who salutes. As good as you think your plan may be, if your donor base does not show your plan favor in a study you cannot and will not be successful.

Will you discover surprises in your pre-campaign study? Absolutely!

To learn more about planning and implementing a conundrum-free campaign, order your copy of Pat’s book, The C Factor: The Common Cure for Your Capital Campaign Conundrums. 

About the Author: Pat McLaughlin President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 1,800 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

Capital Campaigns

12. No Surprises – No Insults

by Pat McLaughlin
November 5, 2021

As the COVID Cloud seems to be dissipating, at least we hope so, it gives all of us the opportunity to get back into the field with our ministry partners. This is a great time to ask your top 10, next 20, or even your top 50 donors for a personal year end appeal. You have already done your internal and external donor research to know their giving capacity (the first “R”). Hopefully, during this COVID downtime you have deepened your donor relationships by sharing how much you love and appreciate them (the second “R”). Now, you are ready to make a request (the third “R”). Here are a few tips for your mega/major donor relationship asks.

Goldilocks gives us some fundraising insight. The porridge was either too hot, too cold, or about right. Your gift request can be too high, too low, or about right. To determine the right amount, you should ask some key questions. What was their gift last year? Are you sharing an urgent need, launching an innovative program, or asking for a project they are keenly interested in? Have they had a recent wealth event such as a business sale, inheritance, or other windfall? All these factors make a difference. If your need is large enough you may want to ask them to share a large year end gift and roll part of their fulfillment into the next fiscal year.

This is somewhat counterintuitive; asking too low could offend your major donors. If in doubt, ask high, or even higher. It is usually better to stretch a donor’s stewardship decision rather than to feel like you asked too low. If it’s too high, they will tell you. Rarely will they say, “You didn’t ask for enough so how about we add a zero or two to your request?” My old pal Dr. Charlie Phillips of the Maclellan Foundation wrote, “No large ask should be a surprise; every smaller ask could be an insult.”

For the past 40 years, I have regularly been in the field with a CEO, president, major gifts officer, or an advancement officer making a personal request. Why? It’s fun! It is also where true stewardship decisions are made. This week, a college president and I visited some ministry partners. As we sat at their dining room table, the president shared the case for support and I shared a personalized request. In a pre-campaign study, they indicated their potential gift of $25K so we asked for $25K-$50K over two years. I concluded my ask with this famous fundraising phrase, “If you can do more than the amount we requested, we certainly need it and will appreciate it.” They surprised us with, “We can do more than you asked. If we had three years, we could give $100,000.” Of course, the President said, “YES!” We asked too low, but God-Jehovah Jireh, our Provider had already intervened. Five days earlier, they had received a bonus and wanted to share part of their unexpected bounty with the college.

Major donors want to make an impact with their dollars. They want to be challenged to consider a large gift. No reason to be shy. Asking too low may communicate to your key ministry partners the following:

  1. You don’t really know them.
  2. You don’t really know their hot buttons. Do you know what makes your donor pound the table and say, “Yes, we want this to happen, and we can help in a big way!”?
  3. You suffer from “Ministry FUD” (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), and are afraid to really challenge them.
  4. Your faith is too small; you’re not trusting God to meet and exceed your need.

There is an art and science to any major donor presentation. If you ask too high the donor will likely say, “That is more than we were thinking.” A good response is, “Mr. and Mrs. Donor this is the largest step of faith in our 40-year history. We are asking our ministry partners to take this step of faith with us and consider the largest gift they have ever given.”

Don’t offend them by asking too low. Pray for open minds, hearts, and checkbooks for each of your mega/major donors asks this calendar year end. Do your homework, determine if you have the relationship, present a clear and credible need, and invite their major/huge participation.

For individualized help with your major donor ask strategies contact Pat at pmclaughlin@timothygroup.com

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About the Author: Pat McLaughlin President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 1,800 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

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