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I have to apologize. I noted in an earlier post that I was ranked #3 by Google for Jewish Fundraising Consultant. Well look at this, out of103,000 results, I’m now ranked #1!
I suppose it’s time to get back to blogging about fundraising again. Stay tuned.
OK, before you get too excited about that title, you have to first read the previous post on How Not to Ask for a Major Gift. This is not a primer on how to do it from the beggining, but the continuation of the story on how I had cultivated a donor for a major gift when my client decided to write him a letter, without telling me, in which he asked for a $5 million gift. Needless to say, I don’t recommend solicitations for millions of dollars by mail.
So when we left our fair fundraising consultant, he was about to visit the potential donor, the prospect, “the man” as I referred to him in the last post. Did he agree to meet with me to give me a piece of his mind, or to give me a piece of his estate? Should I mention the $5 million letter, or not? There were many questions, but one thing was clear, it was time to ask for the gift in person, the right way.
Normally if I were going to solicit a prospect for a major gift, I would insist that my client be present, and possibly do the asking. Of course I would provide a full briefing and we would rehearse the ask and all th possible answers, trying to anticipate and prepare for to parlee any objection into a good reason to make the gift.
But my client was overseas and had already written the letter. We had no indication how the man would respond, only that he had not been available to meet for several months, including the past 2 since the letter was sent. Maybe I was just the fundraising consultant, but I had started the realtionship, cultivated the donor, introduced the President, and now I would have to be the one to make the ask.
I arrived early and at the appointed hour I was shown into his office. He immediately asked me what was knew at my client’s organization and I shared with him a few minor things before noting the eagerness to make progress on the capital campaign for our latest building.
He told me of the pressures he was getting from the other charities which he had been involved in for 30 years or more. They needed to expand in the areas he believed in and with the weakness of the dollar, donations were not going as far as they used to. I responded by asking how much they raised each year. “$100 million?” I asked, knowing the number was higher than that. He noted that they raised more than that. I tested the waters, telling him that a $1 or $2 million gift to us would go much further than the same to them.
My research had told me that he might be capable of a gift that large but that the more likely gift size was $250,000. Given the $5 million letter, I thought I would try a little test and see if there was a reaction. There was very little other than an acknowledgment that I was probably right.
He told me that they were expecting a chunk of change to be coming in at the end of June and so he needed to make a decision before then. The family would be meeting in April. I asked if he needed additonal information from me, and he asked for a couple of pages of information to share. Basically, he said, their comes a time in any transaction when the sale has been made and the buyer just needs to commit. There was nothing more for us to do other than to call back after the family had met. He wanted to make the gift to us, he just needed the agreement of the rest of the family.
Clearly he already had a number in mind and was just making a decision whether it would be coming our way, or going the other way. Normally I always advocate asking for a specific number. “Please consider a gift of $500,000 that will go so far to launching our new intiative that will have an incredible impact on our youth…” I might have said. (Actually, I would have said it better and more specifically, but as you might have figured out, I’m trying to hide the identity and even type of organization of my client.) But here it was clear to me that the number was already in his head, and choosing the wrong number to ask for might be dangerous, given the faux pas of the letter.
“How much of an impact are you considering having on our institution,” I queried. He said that it would be about $250,000, just as I had thought. This would be his first gift to us and he noted that he is o push over. He listed the other instituions that had all asked and he ahd turned down. But he believed in us and our mission and that we could succeed in providing a critical service.
I asked about his friends that visited on his behalf. They both gave rave reveiws but when he had asked them to give as well they told him that they had other priorities right now. Though his plan had not worked, he had opened doors for us to two very wealthy prospects. I thanked him and assured him that my collegue will be following up with them. He was pleased that we had a plan.
Finally, knowing that the man is well into his eighties, I wanted to open a door to his estate plan. Whenever a donor tells you that he wishes he could do more, there is usually an opportunity for him to do through a variety of planned giving vehicles, or even somthing as simple as a bequest in his will.
I assured him that normally I would not bring up the subject so early in our relationship, but he had noted earlier that wishes he had more resources to give. I was curious in his long experience as a philanthropist whether he had established any charitable trusts or whether he had included his favortie institutions in his will.
He noted that they had established 2 CLATs, charitable lead annuity trusts, and I knew before he acknowledged it that their main purpose was to pass assets to the next generation. He described them, noting that the income from the trusts was going into the family foundation. It was clear that income was not an issue, so we didn’t discuss other types of trusts and it was too early to ask to be included in his will. There would be time to do that at a later date, another meeitng.
I thanked him for his time and for his tentative commitment. I promised to send him the information he asked for and I made a note to myself to have my colleage send him a list of appropriate naming opportunities, with a proposal for each one. At that level there would be 3 or 4. We agreed to talk again after April 15, and we will.
Everything was working out as planned. I had hired a researcher to identify potential prospects for my client. His name was one of many who were long time board members of a simlar but much more established institution. He had made major gifts including one large enough to have his name on a prominent building. And when I called him to intrroduce myself and my client, he was willing to listen.
He asked me to send additional information including our financials. He looked them over and agreed to meet. After 4 cancellations, one of which came while I was on the train to New York just to see him, we finally met. Not only was he impressed, he thought we were right on target and that we were serving a need that the other more established institution was not. He told me that he wanted to hear more and that he was gong to check us out.
A month later the President of my client was in from overseas and the three of us met. The prospect loved what he heard and offered to help us. Here was his plan… He would ask his friends, all very wealthy as well, to check us out for him. Since they lived within an hour or two and he lived in NYC, it was a reasonable request. He said he would have 2-3 friends call the President to set up a time to visit.
Hungry for major gifts. the President asked whether he would be willing to ask his friends to match his gift to us. The man instead revealed his own plan. When his friends had checked us out, and reported back to him with positive feedback, he would ask them if he should make a gift to us. When they told him he should, he would aks them why, if he should, shouldn’t they? Brilliant. He was not only going to engage new donors for us, he was going to solicit them as well. Talk about a great fundraising idea and the ideal donor.
His friends visited. They were animated and the meetings were very positive. I spoke with the man and he told me he received positive reports. He was going to be traveling for a few months but we should get together when he got back after the first of the year. Then February. Now March. I meet with him in 2 days.
I had encouraged the President to call him to stay in touch, to say hi. They would meet on his next trip to NYC. But the President didn’t always like to pick up the phone. In fact, I learned just recently, several weeks after it was sent, that the President had sent the man a letter. My client never showed me the letter, but I understand he asked him for a gift of $5 million.
Yes, you may have guessed that as a fundraising consultant this is not my idea of either a great client, or a smart fundraiser. You do not ask for $5 million via a letter. The good news is that the man has agreed to meet with me. I have to assume that if he was totally offended by the letter, that he would not have agreed to meet. Then again, a colleague pointed out, perhaps he just wants to yell at me.
Now is the time to make lemonade. Perhaps we will ultimately receive a gift larger than we might have asked for intially. Usually I prefer to dance before getting intimate, to date before proposing marriage. But sometimes, things just slip out, and you work with what you are given. Of course I’ll let you know what ultimately happens.
In the mean time, do you have any ideas or advice on how you think I should handle this meeting? How would you do it?
In the digital world there is too much spam, what we used to just call junk mail. But, being a direct marketier as well as a fundraiser, I’m one of those who actually like junk mail. There is much to learn from reading the sales pitch or solicitation that another organization invests in sending. And if you see it three or four times, you know it is profitable.
Spam on the other hand, has few redeeming qualities. While ostensibly we can learn from those emails that coninue to show up, yes, if they continually use the same ones it means they are profitable, they waste more time and resoiurces than they are worth. Permission based marketing is the only way to go when it comes to email.
Yesterday I spoke to Doug at Estrella Marketing Solutions about testing some permission based email. He assured me that Estrella is one of only 4 email list brokers that both uses double opt-in permission and is whitelisted by AOL, where he tol me 52% of U.S. email addresses are still housed. Doouble opt-in means that not only odes someone have to sing up to receive email, but they have to verify a link in the first email they receive. It ensures that they want to receive offers.
I will most likely be testing a broadcast email for one of my clients. I think that prospecting is a good fundraising idea that finally ahs made its way into the digital age. Of course I will let you know the results. Ten thousand targeted names can be sent to twice for $1000. Thats a nickel per email sent. If that test works we can roll out to 200,000 in my target market for $4,000.
Some quick math shows that a 1% response rate and an average gift of $20, might even break even on the first mailing. That is heaven for any direct marketer. Most direct mailers are willing to spend 3 or 4 times the intial purchase to acquire a lead.
Now don’t try this at home kids. You don’t want to be prospecting by sending out unsolicted emails to any email address you can find. That’s called spam. If you are going to try this one, go with a reputable firm that insists on double opt-ins and is already whitelisted by AOL. You can call Doug at Estrella or track down the other firms that fit the bill.
This is one fundraising idea I haven’t yet tried. But I’m looking forward to it.
Forbes Philanthropy
