When it comes to philanthropy, here is an important question: “Do different generations think differently when it comes to giving?” ”Does the same thing that motivates a boomer, motivate a millennial?” “How do we adjust our approach?”
When it comes to philanthropy, here is an important question: “Do different generations think differently when it comes to giving?” ”Does the same thing that motivates a boomer, motivate a millennial?” “How do we adjust our approach?”
If you’ve been around development work for any amount of time, or have worked with major donors at all, you’ve probably asked yourself this question – maybe more than once. “Successful fundraising is the right person asking the right prospect for the right amount for the right project at the right time in the right way1”.
If you are involved in non-profit ministry and/or fund-raising for long, you will probably hear the term “elevator pitch.” Are you familiar with it?
From Wikipedia, ”an elevator pitch, elevator speech, or elevator statement is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value proposition.” (Pincus, Aileen. “The Perfect (Elevator) Pitch”.)
When employees arrive for their first day at Apple they are greeted with this inspirational note:
“There’s work and there’s your life’s work. The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you’d never compromise on. That you’d sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don’t come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end. They want their work to add up to something. Something big. Something that couldn’t happen anywhere else. Welcome to Apple.”
How do you know when the donor isn’t ready? If you’ve been involved in development work for long, you’ve probably had a situation where you made the “ask” of a donor before they’re weren’t ready. How so? A couple of differing ways, probably – either they were offended, said “no”, or gave a significantly smaller amount than you hoped for. No worries, we have all been there a time or two.
Maybe a better question is – how can you know (for next time)? The relationship between a donor, the development staff person or volunteer assigned to the donor, and the institution in need of support is a tricky one. There are guidelines of when a donor is ultimately “ready” for solicitation, but no hard, fast rules. Every donor, every organization, and every campaign is different.
I’m sure you’ve heard this expression, “There are no small dreams”… maybe in a leadership class… or maybe from a motivational speaker … or perhaps in a good article on business best practices? One of the more famous quotes in this vein reads, “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” That was penned by German poet, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. I’m not sure exactly when he said it, but I believe it was in the late 1700’s.
