How I've been failing my clients

My work is to help nonprofits hone their messaging, develop their prospect lists and strategize how to approach people and foundations for support. I train, I coach, I cheerlead. I chart progress, I commiserate when times get tough and celebrate when times go well.

But what happens after someone agrees to that gift? When the campaign closes, but pledge payments still need to be collected for the next two, three or even five years?

These three recent occurrences have shown me that I’m not giving near enough emphasis in my counsel to the importance of follow-through and locking in the details.

1) I attended a fundraising dinner for an organization I both admire and have supported. When the envelopes were passed out, I decided it was time to commit to a monthly gift. But, leery of writing down my credit card number on a slip of paper, I instead wrote that I wanted to make a monthly gift of a certain amount and asked to be called so I could make payment arrangements. I even left my phone number. It’s been months, and no call.

2) I made a three-installment pledge to another organization. I paid the first installment at the time I made the pledge, and have two left. The date for the second installment has come and gone and I haven’t received a pledge reminder.

3) I received a call from a colleague asking if my business would become a sponsor for a nonprofit. This was followed by an email that outlined the sponsorship opportunities. After reviewing the list, I emailed the person back saying that I would do one of the sponsorship levels, and asking if we could talk about how to make the payment, timing, etc. No response.

We all rely on technology to do much of this work. But for all the benefit of databases, survey tools, email apps, wealth and capacity analytics, and now, heaven help us, AI, we can forget that ours is a human-centered profession. Tech can tell us what to do and when to do it, but a human being still needs to carry the ball over the goal line.

Here’s my invitation. If you haven’t done it lately, it may be worth taking the time to ensure your systems, both human and tech, aren’t literally leaving the money that people have already said they want to give you on the proverbial table.?