Donor Development Strategies

Donor development strategies are one of the most important tasks of any nonprofit leader.

But for many, it’s one of the most fear-provoking activities they can think of.

This is why many not-for-profits don’t grow.

For example, in the U.S. today, only 2% of not-for-profit organizations break $1M in revenue. Only .4% break $10M.

The number of dollars you raise does not determine the value of your impact.

It's an indicator of your donor development strategies.

Bigger does not equal better. It equals better funding and better donor development strategies.

You can change this today.

If you are only developing donors when the time comes to ask for money you are not developing donors.

You are hoping for an ATM withdrawal.

The amount you withdraw will eventually stagnate — becoming less and less.

If you want to learn how to really develop your donors this is the article for you.

By the end of this article, you'll learn our proven strategies to develop donors.

What is Donor Development

Donor development (also called donors engagement) is the ongoing process of creating meaningful connections with your donors – current, future and lapsed. You do this so that you are ALWAYS:

1. Adding Value

2. Building Trust

3. Connecting them to your mission

These are the ABCs of donor development. A simple framework and it works!

But it's not easy to do. Which is why so few nonprofits succeed.

For this to work you need the right mindset.

Donor Engagement Mindset

Engaging with your donors is not a task to check off the list. It should flow from the heart and soul of your organization. Starting with top leaders.

I have many examples where top leaders want to engage donors only when they need a big check.

Do you know what happens?

Donors lose heart and they feel used.

The checks get smaller and eventually fade.

This is often when we get called to help.

The inverse is also true. When the leadership of an organization puts a prime focus on engaging donors, amazing things start to happen. It's beautiful to watch. I get to see it every day!

Donor development is not a trick, tip or hack.

Donors are real people. They have worked hard to earn their money. They work hard to give it away wisely.

The most important thing a leader can learn is a ‘you before me’ mindset.

Many leaders think they should put messaging into a megaphone and talk loudly. This communicates that you are trying to get the donors to do something for you.

How do you show this mindset?

Start with questions. Here are a few samples:

· What do you care most about?

· What do you long to see different in our world?

· What are your giving priorities?

· How do you make giving decisions?

· What made you say yes to meeting with me today?

· What project has given you the most joy to engage with?

Questions lead to conversations. Conversations based on their answers.

These conversations add value to the donor! And you can build on this by sending them content relevant to the things they care about. These conversations and articles should focus on them, and their passions.

Yes, it can connect to the journey you are on with the donor to fund your organizations. But don't downplay content that connects to their personal interests. This transforms your interactions from a 'you to them' format to a 'you and me' relationship.

Adding value so that you can then build trust. Trust is a prerequisite before donors connect to your mission. Trust is developed when people know you have their best interests at heart.

This “you before me” mindset is so important—if you rush—you compromise the very thing you are after.

There is one other mindset we must address. If we are ONLY putting donors first we risk becoming professional friends. You are also a steward of your mission.

Our donor development strategies need to be goal oriented.

You are not developing a ‘you before me’ mindset with anyone. You are pursuing a you before me relationship with people you believe can journey with you. And fund the mission you are representing.

Sometimes after engaging a donor it becomes clear they won't be giving for any variety of reasons. In this case, you owe it to your organization to stop meeting with them. Your job then becomes to go and find someone else whose passions align with yours.

So how do we put this into a process?

What is a good donor development strategy?

You want the mindset philosophy to end. You want the formula. I get it, I am that way to!

We need to translate our two mindsets into a process that we can control, replicate and measure.

1. Control: At the end of the day even the best donor development strategy is not a surefire way to increase giving. There is nothing you can ever do to convince someone else to give money if they don’t want to. So if you cant convince them, you need to control your process.

2. Replicate: This is not one and done. You will need dozens if not hundreds of donors. You need a process that is easily replicated.

3. Measured: As the leader you need to know if your team is managing what they can control and replicate. You need to see it. And the only way you can see it is by measuring.

If you think this sounds a sales process. Your right.

I see too many professionals struggling to create language that does not borrow from the business world. You need to use what works best—and I’ve seen basic, simple sales language work the best.

Here are the 6 steps:

1. Leads

A lead and a prospect are the same thing. It is a person (or entity) that is interested in your organizations mission. They may have expressed this by: giving small gifts, attending an event, signing up for your e-mail newsletter, being referred by a current donor, or having been a passed donor who does not currently give. Everyone on your team needs 30-50 leads at any points in time.

2. Qualify the lead

This is where questions come in. It is the hardest part of the donor development strategy. Why? Because we want everyone to care about our mission. Hard reality: not everyone will. That is OK. When qualifying a lead you are trying to see if they are a fit for your organization. You only want to spend your time where you believe it will see results. How do you know if someone qualifies? Here are a few qualities:

A. They have the capacity and the ability to give at the level you are seeking

B. They have a mission and focus fit

C. They have a sense of urgency to help

D. They are accessible and open to continuing the conversation

How do you figure this out? Refer to some of the sample questions above. I recommend each member of the team having 10 qualifying conversations per month.

3. Journey

After you qualify a lead it does not mean they will write a check tomorrow. Or even this month. You need to journey with them. Some examples of this are:

A. Showing them your work and meeting with program leadership

B. Inviting them to be in the same spaces with other givers

C. Engaging content that shows your organization is a subject matter expert

D. Social engagements with C-suite and board leadership

These engage donors in your work, they develop community and they deepen passion.

When the donor is ready you need to ask them this directly:

“It seems like you are resonating deeply with this. Does it seem good and right to you that we set up a time to talk about financially supporting this work?”

Then—pause and wait. Don’t fill in the space. What they say next is going to tell you volumes. I recommend 5 journey conversations per team member per month.

4. Pitch

This is the ask. Sometimes you develop a menu of options. Sometimes you and the potential donor have honed down on the one thing they want to give to. I recommend trying to lead donors to give at the general operating level. This gives organizations more flexibility. You need to be prepared with a 1-2-page summary, stories, and a plan for how this conversation will go. You need to be the leader—you cannot show up unprepared.

5. Close

If the giver does not give you an immediate answer ask them when it would make sense to follow up. Answer any questions or overcome any objections that they have.

6. Steward

Because someone has given a gift (or maybe not) does not mean the process is finished. We need to continually Add Value, Build Trust and connection to mission. For next year, and the year after and the year after.

If you engage and develop your donors well, they will stick around for a long time. You have become the solution to the problems they want to see fixed in this world.

Leaders should track goals around each step of this process.

After all, developing your donors is the life blood of your organization.

Donor Development Strategies for different types of donors

The process we have outlined is most appropriate for for major donors (lets say 10K in annual giving) and institutional donors. These are your donors who you have the ability to have high touch relationships with.

The same mindset and philosophy works for small and mid sized donors as well with small tweaks.

Small Size-1K and under

You can't possibly have 1:1 relationships with hundreds or thousands of people. So how do you have a you before me mentality? Survey them. Ask:

• What do you care most about?
• What content do you want to see more of?
• If we changed one thing that would make you leave, what would it be?

Then cater content, and asks around what you learn. A more robust process for developing donor strategies for small donors would be a digital donor journey.

Mid 1-10K

With this group you can treat them the same as your small donors. With one exception. You can afford to have more 1:1 conversations with this group. You can customize asks for specific people inside this segment.

Case Study

We recently worked with a mid-sized not for profit in Michigan. They serve families who live in garbage dump communities in eight different countries.

Giving had plateaued. And they had a strong ambition to grow from $5M to $10M multiples over 3 years to serve more families.

But something was not working. They met a potential donor—they asked for a donation. Rinse and repeat. This caused a subpar donor retention rate.

We worked together to restructure their team and build a robust donor development strategy.

They grew 58% in one year!

Develop your Donors

So now comes the hard part. Get out there and do it.

Pick 25 donors. Develop engagement strategies following this process for each of them. Work the process.

It won't be fast, it may take 6-12 months to see results.

But you will grow faster than ‘churning and burning’ like you may be doing now.

Make space to be agile. In every interaction you will learn something new. You will need to adapt with what you learn. Sometimes these new learning's will accelerate your plan, other times they will derail it.

It's all part of developing a robust donor engagement strategy for your organization.

Do you need help creating your donor development strategies? Or growing your fundraising dollars over all? We would love to help you take your mission to the next level of impact.