Highly Successful Fundraisers Adapt and Innovate to "Virtually Ask" and Close Major Gifts

How have your virtual major gift solicitations gone over the last year?

How have your virtual major gift solicitations gone over the last year?

We don’t know how long in-person meetings will continue to be disrupted. As such, folks, we’ve got to talk about this…

In our efforts to Identify, Cultivate, Solicit, and Steward, which of these is the toughest and most critical to do virtually, in this time of social distancing with restrictions for meeting face-to-face with major donors?

I submit that the most challenging and most critical today is to SOLICIT major donors.

Why are you talking about this, Ben? I do my major gift solicitations face-to-face, in-person…WELL, IF YOU’RE STILL HOLDING OUT FOR THIS, YOU MAY NOT BE SOLICITING A MAJOR GIFT FOR AN UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME!

How is that going to work out for your nonprofit?...

Here is the situation: nonprofits help millions of people every year. The people who nonprofits serve need—and I do mean need—our help more than ever. The 90/10 Rule (grown out of the Pareto Principle) says that 90% of funds raised for a nonprofit come from 10% of the donors. 

WE HAVE TO RAISE MAJOR GIFTS FOR OUR NONPROFITS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THOSE WE SERVE. And most likely, we can’t continue to wait for when “normal” fully returns.

HOW ARE WE GOING TO RAISE MAJOR GIFTS VIRTUALLY? 

I posed this question to some of my highly successful fundraising friends, each outstanding in their work and committed to philanthropy, including Keith Barber, Jim Broschart, Stephen Clouse, David Costanzo, Brian Sischo, Jennifer Viets, and Tommy von der Heydt.

Let me start where we left off. In these tough times, we must first make our stewardship calls and show donors we care. By now, you should've already done this months ago. If not, then this must become a priority.

Next, we must define our case for donors to support our organization in light of our mission and today’s environment, challenges, and opportunities. We must have an inspiring and motivating reason for our donors to give today.

Regarding this, David Costanzo wrote, “My job has not changed at all. My goal is still to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness (or the pandemic, in this case). Our donors WANT to move away from the paralysis of fear. Hope, perfect hope, casts out all fear. Our job is to inspire donors with the good our nonprofit organizations are accomplishing and striving to achieve. They give because we inspire hope. We are to be agents of light, especially in times of greatest darkness.” 

We must identify the donors who are ready to consider a major gift. Never assume someone is not ready nor presume someone is prepared. This will evolve. Some of our donors are ready and able to make a gift right now. More and more of our major donors will be ready to make gifts as health and wealth issues continue to become more stable and begin to turn more positive. When the donor is ready, you want to have a solid relationship that enables you to ask for and successfully close the major gift. 

Brian Sischo observed, “I think the average fundraiser can sometimes be ‘afraid’ that by bringing up a gift conversation, they are being insensitive to the donor. So, it is critical to this topic and the relationship with the donor to always give the donor the choice and never violate sound fundraising principles. By keeping the decision to engage in the donor's court, they can decide when and if they want to participate!”

Now, let’s think about how to “virtually ask” and successfully close a major gift. 

Tommy von der Heydt encourages us to, “Be willing to adapt and innovate. Your hands are not tied by social distancing.” Tommy rightfully asks, “Isn’t the substance of what you’re asking a donor to support more important than the medium through which you’re asking?” 

Tommy advances another good thought. “Don’t assume that a donor will be offended by being solicited virtually. After all, they are having to adapt to the new normal of social distancing in all other aspects of their lives.”Tommy observes, “As we adapt and innovate, we must also understand the potential disadvantages of engaging donors virtually versus in person.” Those that can be immediately encountered are: 

1. Building rapport and trust. Sometimes the best part of meeting a donor in-person is the informal small talk before your meeting officially begins. This might not seem as natural over a video conference call or by phone, but it can be done. Nothing says you have to skip over the informal relationship building just because you’re not talking in-person.
2. Picking up on social cues/body language. Engaging your donors virtually may necessitate asking more questions than usual to ensure you’re getting traction. “Is this helpful?,” “Does this resonate with you?,” or “Is this clear?” are questions you might need to ask much more frequently to make up for those social cues you might be missing.
3. Sischo notes that, “Many of the donors in our portfolios are tech-savvy, but there are a lot of the 60+ age group that still use flip phones, so virtual communication can be much more challenging for them. Many of our major gift prospects fall into this category. Be mindful of your donor’s tech comfort level.”  
4. Jim Broschart notes that, “With these concerns in mind, and knowing ‘virtual asking’ is new, we must be deliberate to ‘invite the major gift donor in’ to participate in a conversation in this manner.”

Having been thoughtful about the “virtual ask,” here are some ideas to get you started. I believe we will best serve our major gift donors by using many channels for this discussion. Consider: 

1. A phone discussion with the donor to confirm s/he is ready to consider a major gift, and seek their willingness to have the conversation virtually. Be prepared to state why the meeting is urgent and why it can’t wait to be in person. It is crucial to be sure that you received the donor’s approval to move forward. 
2. A video conference call with the fundraiser/prospect manager, your nonprofit’s CEO or the appropriate program director, and the donor (and spouse, if appropriate). Conduct the meeting as you would any fundraising meeting and/or other virtual meetings. My favorite services for video conferences include Zoom, Free Conference Call, Microsoft Team, Skype, and others. A good rule of thumb is to ask if your donor has a personal preference.
3. You may want to send a proposal via mail or email prior to the video meeting, or as a follow-up. If you send it before, you may want to bring it up on the screen to review it with the donor.
4. You may want to prepare a brief PowerPoint presentation that can be shared on the screen to review critical points (seven slides max).
5. You will want to consider ways to liven up your discussion - Here are three ideas for that: Include a beneficiary of your services dialed in to start the meeting with a brief testimony of how the program has impacted their life. Provide a short “virtual flight” through your services, your offices to meet staff, and/or your campus. Have a two-minute pre-recorded video of your largest donor or significant volunteer leader for your nonprofit or the project stating why s/he gives and thanking the donor for so generously considering a meaningful gift (thanks to Stephen Clouse for these impactful suggestions.)
6. The video call can end with a clear request for a specific gift or pledge.
7. Be sure to allow time for discussion and to answer questions and objections.
8. If the donor asks for more information or is not yet ready to make a commitment, agree to a plan for follow-up.
9. Immediately send an email from the CEO or program director following up and thanking the donor for their consideration.
10. Send a handwritten note from the fundraiser affirming the conversation and confirming when follow-up will take place.
11. Follow-up on your request with a phone call to close the gift.

NOTE: Depending on the relationship, there may not need to be so many steps. Be thoughtful, creative, and prepared. Stay focused on what we CAN do. 

 Here are a few additional thoughts:

1. Be clear and keep it simple. Clarity and simplicity are even more important for virtual engagement. Longwinded pitches are never good, but they’re especially ineffective when you’re not face-to-face.
2. Why now? As noted above, given all the competing priorities a donor is dealing with right now, you need to be more precise than ever before when answering this question. If you fail to address the urgency/timeliness of your solicitation, you’re pushing a rock up a hill. 
3. Double and triple-check that a donor has the bandwidth and liquidity to explore a potential gift with you. In a “virtual ask,” and considering today’s environment, you need to be more conscientious than ever about a donor’s willingness to explore a financial contribution, regardless of the merit of your organization's work.

Even when things return to “normal,” many believe that “Virtual asking” will remain for the foreseeable future. Virtual asking might be a residual impact of COVID-19, just as long security lines at airports were a residual effect of 9/11. See it as an opportunity. Just in the example above, you can see there are opportunities to engage more people in the solicitation, make it more engaging for the donors, saving the donor’s time, and saving your nonprofit travel money!

Keith Barber points out that, “When we can travel and are no longer worrying about social distancing, ‘virtual asking’ may have helped us refinish some of the staleness we all go through from time to time. ‘Virtual asking’ will likely be another tool in the toolbox. Do more than fit the new mold - CREATE IT!”

No one knows how long social distancing and restrictions for face-to-face interactions will be necessary. Therefore, the sooner we learn, adapt to, and use these techniques, the better.

Let me close this Tip with a note from one of our Tipsters, who wrote, “Being kind and informative has led to numerous requests for planned giving information, as well as several major gifts in the last couple of weeks, including an out-of-the-blue $2 million gift from someone who had until now given a whopping $36!”

A highly successful fundraiser knows how to adapt and innovate. They find the road to success. They will learn how to “virtually ask” as another way to close major gifts.