A New Year Goal: 100 Cups of Coffee

It’s time to finally keep a New Year’s Resolution: let’s stop looking for shortcuts to doing major gift?development. Major gift development is not like direct mail, paid social media, SEM or even community events.?There is not a major gift system that you can just “set it and forget it” and then count the money.?It does not work that way.??

There is not a major gift consultant out there who has a secret black book of donors that will just start to magically give to your ministry.?I am amazed at the number of executive directors and development professionals who believe they can create this “system” while setting at their desk. They mistakenly believe that major donors will show up at their office or just begin to send checks in the mail if they can create the right frequency of mail or email.?Again, it just does not work that way…

Major gift development is not a single plan that can be implemented at a distance with the click of your mouse on a computer screen.?Major gift development is an in-person ministry, one person or one family at a time.?And time is what it takes.?Just imagine if you could meet face-to-face with every donor on your file to say thank you and simply ask, “what do YOU want to do next?” The spike in giving would be astronomical.

Of course, the optimal word is “time”.?You cannot meet with every donor, but you can meet with some.?How much time last year did you spend with your biggest donor; your 10 biggest donors; your top 100 donors??Most nonprofit leaders spend most of their time trying to come up with systems to procure major gifts, instead of spending time with as many high-capacity donors as they can.

Could you meet someone for coffee once a week??Well, that is 52 meetings a year, 50 if you take two weeks’ vacation.?What would happen if you did just two coffees a week??That would be 100 donor visits a year.?What would happen if you met with your 100 largest donors for coffee this year, thanked them for their support and then asked, “what do you want to do this year?”

A hundred cups of coffee would solve a lot of challenges in your ministry.?The time spent ministering to your top donors is worth every second.?I want to challenge you to make a new year’s resolution to share 100 cups of coffee with the people who shoulder the biggest gifts to your ministry. Stop looking for short cuts.?Invest your time in relationships with your top supporters. FitFundraising.com