The Mathematics of Fundraising | Part III: Don’t Just Hold Hands: Turn Small Donors into Lifelong Partners

The Mathematics of Fundraising | Part III: Don’t Just Hold Hands: Turn Small Donors into Lifelong Partners

The final installment of our 3-part series on the mathematics of fundraising

Dating certainly isn’t what it used to be, with apps and swipes replacing secret notes passed during homeroom. But once you strip away the technological fluff, the fundamentals of relationships remain. First dates are as stressful as they ever were. If one participant tries to move the conversation along too quickly, the other is likely to be eyeing the nearest exit. Taking your relationship goals from “surviving” first dates to a “thriving” partnerships requires time and patience to build trust, loyalty, respect, kindness, and commitment – qualities that continue to serve as the basis for long-term human connection.

The previous two parts of this series, The Mathematics of Fundraising Part I: Setting Up a Gift Pyramid and The Mathematics of Fundraising | Part II: Mine Your Database to Fuel Your Fundraising Engine, laid out how to build the framework of a donor pipeline. We broke down the nitty-gritty of determining the number of prospects you will need at the various levels you determined for your particular fundraising goal, and advised you on setting parameters for identifying and qualifying prospects for each level. This last piece of the puzzle will show you how to put these best practice principles into play. There will be a tiny bit of math for you to consider, but only a little!

Best Practice #1: Begin with a Top-Down / Inside-Out Approach

Earlier installments of this series mentioned taking a “top-down/inside-out” approach to building your donor pipeline. What this means is that your board chair, committee chairs and board members, executive staff and top volunteers should be first on your list of solicitations. These are the people who are most passionate about your mission, and who already have a deep appreciation for the value you are bringing to your community. Securing their support first creates the momentum and social proof needed for an external campaign.

Best Practice #2: Create Individual Plans for Your Top 20%

The 80/20 guideline for fundraising, which holds that 80% of a fundraising campaign will be contributed by 20% of donors, was introduced as well. Qualifying and sorting your prospects with this in mind allows you to focus your resources with laser-like intensity on those individuals, corporations and foundations that are most likely to make a gift in the upper echelons of your giving pyramid.

Begin by developing an individual cultivation plan for each of your most important donor prospects that includes personalized touchpoints and opportunities for involvement, all leading to a major gift solicitation. What aspects of your organization’s work seem to resonate with this prospect? Can you identify avenues for further aligning their outside interests, and perhaps those of their families, with your cause? Would they respond to hands-on activities, or perhaps a behind-the-scenes view? Every action is a powerful give and take. Your donors will be receiving memorable experiences that heighten their involvement. You will be learning more about what attracts them to your organization. As you align your actions to their interests, engagement deepens into transformative partnership.

Best Practice #3: Carefully Curate the Team

Consider also who should be involved in cultivation and solicitation, such as your chief executive and key volunteers. Who in your network is most likely to inspire additional commitment? Although you will begin each cultivation plan with a similar framework, you can expect to end with unique paths to solicitation. Pro tip: Involving key donors and volunteers in the process is a powerful way to cultivate those key donors and volunteers as well as the prospect.

Feeling the intensity of the process? You should. It can take up to 18 months of concerted effort to bring a qualified major donor prospect to the point of commitment. Wondering if you have the people power to pursue this time-tested path for taking a nonprofit from surviving to thriving? Here’s another guideline: If you and your staff don't have the time to manage 20 or more individual cultivation plans, you are facing a staffing gap.

Best Practice #4: Build a Culture of Stewardship

Congratulations on implementing twelve to 18 months of a thoughtful individual cultivation and solicitation plan, leading to a significant gift commitment. Let the stewardship begin!

A gift commitment signals the beginning of a new cultivation cycle, which means that each donor cultivation plan should include two levels of stewardship. First, a checklist of standard actions for every donor: prompt gift acknowledgment from the organization; thank you calls and notes from the chief executive and volunteers involved in the solicitation; timely reporting on the impact of the gift. Second-level actions are those coordinated with the donor, and might include things like a public gift announcement, a plaque unveiling and reception, or a special lunch or dinner to celebrate. In other words, thank, thank and thank again. 

Thriving nonprofits know that the most important part of the cycle happens after a gift is made, and that the next campaign is just around the corner. They also know the high value of adequate staffing to ensure timely and strategic stewardship.

Go from Surviving to Thriving by Going from Transactional to Transformational

The best practices I have outlined here will take your fundraising beyond tactics and transactional asks to building transformational partnerships. Creating and executing these plans is the highest value work a fundraiser can do.

But if your team is stuck in the weeds of event planning and grant writing, it will be hard to manage the continuity and consistency required. Fractional expertise can help. A Fractional Development Officer can provide the senior-level focus needed to move your relationships forward, fielding committees to support the campaign, providing solicitor training as needed, developing campaign messaging, and designing an effective stewardship program to make sure the donors you’ve added become habitual supporters of your organization. A specially trained Nonprofit Virtual Assistant (NPVA®) can keep cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship tasks on track, from thank you letters to meeting planning and action reminders.

Every nonprofit professional reading this series is encouraged to take from it the confidence to make the leap from a survival mindset to a thriving one. Building a revenue stream suitable for sustainability and growth isn’t magic – it is the result of strategic thinking and consistent follow-through (and yes, a little math).