Professional fundraisers within non-profit organizations spend a great deal of time and energy ensuring that their organization’s mission and vision are communicated widely and accurately. While that approach is effective to build trust within your larger donor community, a more intentional and personalized approach must be taken when building individual donor relationship.

Instead of communicating to donors and prospects, we must intently listen and communicate with donors to be effective fundraisers and to ultimately reach our goal of bringing donors closer to our organization. Using the research discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s book Talking To Strangers, Christian Madsbjreg’s book Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World and Kate Murphy’s book You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters, this session will highlight effective communication skills and discuss how to apply that information to during every stage of the major donor pipeline.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify common misconceptions about effective communication skills, both in general and in relation to donors

2. Develop strategic questions to pose to donors that will result in stronger relationships

3. Discover how to read emotions and reactions and how to handle rejection

4. Discuss the use of effective storytelling to communicate the organization’s mission and vision

5. Discuss appropriate strategies for prospect pool management for gift officers, board members and organizational leadership.

Outcomes

At the completion of this session, participants will have a better understanding of their own communication style as well as effective communication skills specific to the nonprofit professional fundraiser. Participants will understand how to use their style and skills to better interact with their donors and to move their donor along the prospect pipeline. Participants will also be aware of common roadblocks to effective communication and how to best use technology to enhance donor connection.

Format

This keynote session is presented in lecture style with two or three interactive activities as well as two personal reflection moments to better connect the attendees to the content.

The goal of this session is to equip participants with the skills and strategies necessary to craft effective questions when engaging with potential donors. By understanding the importance of asking the right questions, participants will be better positioned to build meaningful relationships, gather pertinent information, and ultimately secure support for their cause or organization.

This interactive session includes a “cultivation improv” session where attendees will be active participants and build their own personal “rapport roll call.”

Learning Objectives:

1. Form an Understanding of the Donor Perspective to discover motivations and expectations of potential donors.

2. Recognize the importance of empathy and active listening in donor interactions.

3. Determining the specific information required to assess donor alignment with the organization's mission, values, and goals.

4. Exploring techniques for formulating open-ended questions that encourage meaningful dialogue and elicit detailed responses.

5. Strategies for fostering authentic connections and building rapport with potential donors.

Outcomes:

By the end of this session, participants will have gained the knowledge and confidence to develop thoughtful and effective questions when engaging with potential donors. Armed with a deeper understanding of donor perspectives and communication strategies, participants will be better equipped to cultivate meaningful relationships, gather essential information, and ultimately secure support for their organization's mission and objectives.

Format:

This interactive and high-energy session allows participants to engage in small group improv session to practice asking questions in a no-pressure donor interaction setting. The feedback and insights received from peers will enhance questioning skills.

This 75-minute session is an impactful follow-up to the “Look, Talk, Listen: Building Authentic Donor Relationships with an Inauthentic World” keynote address.

This is meant to be a very basic “here’s everything you need to know” presentation. It includes reviewing the checklist I’ve attached (the Governance Responsibility one), I share a few horror stories to drive home the point and members of the board are exposed to and then are asked to write a personal plan. I also address that while there is “best practice” it’s hard to go from a place of non-compliance to a place of best practice overnight. We talk about developing a roadmap. This presentation also includes a pre-event survey (anonymous) that helps guide the conversation.

I am a firm believer in using data and the science behind it to drive your fundraising results. I encourage my clients to use giving data to uncover their best annual (sustainer) prospects, enhance donor growth using data-backed targeted gift asks, and to use effective tactics to acquire new donors. Instead of taking a buckshot approach, non-profit organizations must strategically focus their energy and efforts. Prospect research and wealth screening allows organizations to get a feeling for their best possible prospects.

It’s important to run a batch screening annually to identify who is in your database, but it’s not as simple as “these are my richest donors.” Identifying major donor prospects requires you to look at their affinity to your cause, their propensity to give, and how much they’ve given to organizations like yours and not like yours. Start by looking at newly identified prospects who look like, on paper, major gift donors who have already given to you.

But for as many times as I talk about “science” in fundraising, “art” is just as important – especially when raising major gifts. When it comes to actually asking donors in person for a major gift to your organization, the “artful ask” is just as important as the science behind it. Wealth screening will allow you to identify who SHOULD give. Building an authentic long-term relationship with a donor allows you to identify who WILL give.

For participants to understand the importance of creating, maintaining and executing an annual fundraising plan which is based on historic performance and industry standards and focused on SMART outcomes.

— Why is an annual fundraising plan important?
— What is an annual fundraising plan?
— What do you base your plan on?
— Revenue expectations
— Expense realities
— Historic performance
— Industry standards and metrics
— What is a fair expected increase in performance?
— Discuss Key Performance Indicators
— Review Slides and discuss
— Building your annual plan activity

Smart non-profit organizations make decisions based on data and imbue this information into their strategies. What are the most important metrics and data that an organization should utilize in its fundraising? How do you create a data-driven culture at your organization? What steps can you take to make your fundraising metrics “actionable”?

Using an interactive approach, participants discover real-world examples that will empower them to lead more effective organizations that ultimately result in more money for their organizations.

— AFP-Eastern PA Chapter, Center Valley, PA

Raising charitable dollars for any non-profit organization is both an art and a science. Board members and newly hired professional staff need to understand the mechanics that make fundraising work. During this session, participants discuss and discover effective ways to raise dollars including personal solicitation techniques, direct mail strategies, effective digital marketing and basic special event guidelines to ensure success. Participants also learn the importance of data management and using fundraising program metrics to drive success.

— Emerging Nonprofit Leadership Accelerator, SUNY Albany, Albany, NY, 2019

This presentation is focused solely on training Board members to be good fundraisers, in whatever way they are comfortable with. I shared the “Least You Can Do” continuum during the session last week. We discuss the many options that Board members have when it comes to getting involved and ask that they commit to that role. Each Board member will develop their own mini “case for support” that allows them to be able to personally and impactfully speak to anyone about the organization.

As non-profit organizations begin to research their prospective donors, the amount of information that is received can seem overwhelming. It is important for non-profit leaders to be prepared to effectively use and manage this data to ultimately make decisions to increase fundraising results. This presentation highlights strategies for data management, provides guidance specific to various sized non-profits and discusses multiple pathways to effective data utilization. Regardless of whether your organization has performed a wealth screening or not, every attendee will discover strategies to ensure success.

— iWave Client Presentation, December 2018

This workshop is designed to educate participants on the importance of donor retention, how to improve donor retention and the positive impact a high donor retention percentage will have on your organization. This day-long workshop also educates participants on additional program metrics including growth in giving rate, average gift, new donor acquisition costs and ten additional metrics. Using an interactive learning approach, participants discover the importance of monitoring these metrics and the positive impact they will have on your organization.

— Mohawk-Hudson Association for Fundraising Professionals, January 2019

Smart non-profit organizations have disciplined people with disciplined thought taking disciplined action. These effective organizations make decisions based on data and imbue this information into their strategies.

What are the most important metrics that an organization should utilize to create a culture of disciplined thought and action? How do you create a data-driven culture at your organization to ensure greatness? What small, smart, successive steps can you take to improve your overall results?

Using an interactive approach, participants discuss real-world examples to empower them to slowly turn the flywheel at their organizations. Participants will leave with a plan to operate a more effective organization which will result in more philanthropic dollars to support their missions.

— The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement, St. Louis, MO
— Lehigh Valley Philanthropy Institute, Bethlehem, PA
— Midsouth Nonprofit Conference, Memphis, TN

This presentation is a general overview of all the many ways you can raise dollars for your organization. It’s meant to be a Fundraising 101 course so Board members understand how it all works, what is happening behind the scenes, what their role is in the process, and share trends in the field to ensure they have a grasp of fundraising revenue projections in three to five years. This does require the staff to share their annual fundraising plan (if you don’t already) with the Board so that we can speak to what is happening on both a global and local level.

During the economic downturn of the last decade, non-profit organizations struggled to retain dollars and donors. This loss of revenue caused many non-profits to struggle to achieve their mission and some had to cease operations. Whether or not a recession is on the horizon is unknown, however non-profit organizations can take steps today to prepare for what may come tomorrow. This includes strategic stewardship efforts, data management, reacting to donor behavior, and enhancing monthly giving efforts.

Participants leave with a knowledge of the effects of the last recession on non-profits and plan on how to navigate any headwinds that are to come.