Moves Management Cultivating Donor Relationships Desirae Davis Principal

Moves Management: Cultivating Donor Relationships Desirae Davis Principal Consultant Gobel Group Mary. Ellen Dickey Sr. Vice President of Advancement Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries 1

How Does Fundraising Impact Your Organization? • $$$$$ • Organization Awareness in the Community • Relationship Development…Partnerships with individuals & businesses that are different from those you serve 2

How do you, a professional fundraiser, calculate success? • Total $ raised • Increased new donors • Campaign goals achieved • Increased # of CGA’s written – More Legacy donors (planned gifts) 3

How does your organization calculate your success? • Total cash received…aka…revenue • Work within your budget • ROI 4

Times are a changing…get on board! • • • Fundraising is no longer a “Grip and Grin” process It is a professional business Donors are smarter and well informed They expect you to be prepared Your board expects statistics… Proof of Success 5

How do we better prepare for your donor interactions? • Do your research • Make a donor plan • Determine how you will "move” your donor towards a gift with every step 6

Identifying the Prospect How do you identify suspects and prospects? – History of Giving – Research • Wealth-screening • Data Analytics – Faculty / Staff – Volunteers • Peer Review 7

Setting the Appointment Goals: – Secure a visit – Or, ask for annual gift Pre-Call Checklist – Review notes and background material • Database • Giving history • Preliminary research – Preference for Date and time for the appointment The Conversation 8

Qualifying the Prospect Goals: – Build rapport and credibility – Determine interest and capacity – Identify next step or ask for annual gift Pre-Visit Checklist – How long is the appointment? – Who will be at the meeting? (spouse, child, etc. ) – What leave behinds need to be brought to the appointment? – What is the agenda for the meeting? – What next steps could you potentially align the prospect to? 9

Qualifying the Prospect Conversation – Preliminary pleasantries – Introductory statements • Who are you • What is your role • What do you want – Information collection • Experience • Background/History 10

Cultivating to Identify Interest Goals: – Take information the prospect has already shared and ask more questions to further define interest – Use this information to make connection to institutional priorities – Align prospect for next visit or ask for annual gift Pre-Visit Checklist – Same as previous meeting • Confirmation? , Location? , How long? , Who will be there? , and Agenda? 11

Cultivating to Identify Interest Conversation – Further determine areas of interest Moving Forward – Ask for a next visit • Will likely include someone who can articulate a case for support – Ask for a leadership annual gift • If the prospect says no, reassign to annual gift fund 12

Articulate Case for Support Goals: – Connect prospect’s interests to priorities – Articulate a case for support – If ready, soft ask for gift Pre-Visit Checklist – Same as previous meeting • Confirmation? , Location? , How long? , Who will be there? , and Agenda? 13

Articulate Case for Support Conversation – Elevate the conversation and make case for support – Summarize past discussions – Opportunity to have impact on the future Moving Forward – If ready, soft Ask: Open to beginning a conversation about a gift – If not, continue cultivation 14

Making the Ask Goals: – At this point the question is not whether the prospect will give, but how much they will give Pre-Visit Checklist • What are you asking for? • How much are you asking for? • What recognition will you provide the donor? Any compromise on lower gift? • If you close, what questions do you need to ask concerning stewardship of the gift 15

Making the Ask Conversation – Reaffirm the prospects interests and thank them for considering a gift – Ask for the gift – Wait for a response from donor • Likely responses: – Sounds great, lets do it – Sounds interesting; let me talk to my family and get back to you. – I would like to help but money is tight or not the best time for me. – Prospect says no – ask for annual gift 16

Making the Ask If it appears that the prospect is not going to make a major gift at this time: – Ask for a leadership-level unrestricted gift or multiyear pledge – Ask for a leadership-level restricted gift or multi-year pledge – Defer any ask and wait for a better time to renew discussion 17

Closing the Gift Goals: – Working out the details of the gift: • How much • For what purpose • Terms of payment – Working out details of Stewardship 18

Closing the Gift Conversation Reiterate the ask and ask if they had a chance to talk to their family about the gift Make sure the donor understands their options: – Payment options – Types of assets that can be used for gift – Acknowledgement and recognition 19

Stewardship Best prospects are past donors! – Yet gift officers spend very little time or effort on stewardship Four aspects to stewardship a gift officer needs to consider: – Gift Information – Acknowledgement – Recognition – Next Steps 20

How do you provide your leadership with proof of success? • Statistics • Benchmarks • Metrics 21

Metrics • Having metrics will create a stronger relationship between development and finance – Talk the same language • You will be able to show ROI & trends – Total giving to expenses – Revenue to expenses • Metrics for the department and each officer creates a professional environment for goal setting and evaluation 22

What does Diakon do? • We create goals on total giving, not just cash • Each development officer has a total giving goal of at least 3 x his/her total cost • Each officers goal includes separate goals for major gifts, endowments & CGA’s • We benchmark against ourselves from year to year and best of last 3 years • All activity is reviewed monthly • Development pipelines are held monthly – Currently working with Gobel 23

Diakon’s Officers' Activity Metrics • 8 face to face visits/wk • Of those 5 moves visits, 2 stewardship visits, 1 COI visit • Make 2 asks for funding/wk • Manage approx. 150 prospects/donors in pipeline…must always be moving them 24

Questions? Desirae Davis Principal Consultant Gobel Group desirae@gobelgroup. com 585 -598 -1171 Mary. Ellen Dickey Sr. Vice President of Advancement Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries dickeym@diakon. org 610 -682 -1218 25