What is a major gift fundraiser to do with all this free time?

For decades, we've known that face-to-face meetings were the best way to raise major gifts. Talking directly to people. Taking them on a tour of the project. Being in the same space as the donors.

Meeting face-to-face is so important, most major gift officers' job performance is measured by how many in-person meetings they have, in addition to how much money they raise.

But face-to-face visits aren't possible in a pandemic. So what is a fundraiser to do?

Some fundraisers are struggling

Some fundraisers seem to be really floundering. Not only have they lost the tool of face-to-face visits, now they have sorts of "free" time. The "free" time that used to be consumed with planning travel and confirming appointments and actually traveling to places. Now they're in their home office. Or office office. With lots of time to stress out about not being able to do their job of meeting with their donors.

Is it any wonder that some of these fundraisers have had four months of lurching between long times of inactivity and bursts of trying to get every donor in their portfolio onto a Zoom call?

It's ultimately about raising funds, not the meetings

As we've seen in during the pandemic, some major gift fundraisers are flourishing. These fundraisers have remembered that their work is ultimately about relationships and fundraising, not meetings.

Meetings are one tool for building relationships. But not the only one. And in a time where meeting together could mean risking infection, meetings are not the most reliable tool to use. These fundraisers are using many other tools to build relationships including:

calling,

writing,

emailing,

mailing,

video chatting,

texting.

Successful major gift officers are meeting their fundraising goals the way they always have, by connecting with donors and asking them to invest in a part of the nonprofit's mission the donors care about.

But we've already called everyone multiple times!

At the time of this writing, mid-August 2020, many of the successful major gift officers are saying they've talked with their assigned donors more in the last five months than in the previous couple years. The conversations have been amazingly meaningful and donors' generosity has been astounding.

But now major donor officers are asking, "What's next? I've already called all my donors three and four times. Do I call them again?"

I've been telling people to

Call other people - past donors, donors of different amounts, and even people you've been meaning to call.

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Call program people - now that we're not traveling, we can use some of that extra time to build relationships with the program people who are making the impact stories.

Set up study groups - we should be taking courses, reading books, and talking to people that help us grow, both as fundraisers, and as people.

Review your strategy - we're often so busy executing our strategy we don't take time to review it. Now could be a great time to take a look at our strategy.

I've been saying these four things so often, I wondered if I were missing some other obvious things. So, I turned to some experts and asked them how they'd answer the "What do I do with my time now?" question.

Here's what they said.

What do I do with my extra Major Gift Fundraising time?

Mel and Pearl Shaw are experienced fundraisers and the leaders of Saad & Shaw - Comprehensive Fund Development Services. Their answers were:

Pearl: "Look at how you can grow the pool of prospective major gift donors. Take time to review lists of donors who have given consistently over the years – especially those with an increase in giving or frequency. Give a call or send an email. Structure your call or email around a question. For example, 'I’m trying to figure out how to proceed with our annual gala. It won’t be 'in-person' but I want to find a way to recreate the community aspect of the event. What are your thoughts.' Or, 'We’re restructuring program x, and I would appreciate learning your thoughts on how we should proceed.' One thing I wouldn’t recommend – too many contacts with donors who are not responding. Remember: there’s a lot going on right now. Just because a donor respond to a call doesn’t mean you are not a priority. This may just not be the right time."

Mel: "Three points:

Have you given your major donors a status update to let them know where you are today? Not an ask, but an update.

Make sure the data you have on your major donors is up to date and correct.

Take time to talk with those who are accessible to learn their priorities."

Heather R. Hill is an experienced and successful major gift fundraiser. She's also the Chair of Rogaré, a fundraising think tank. Her thoughts were:

"The things that instantly came to mind were:

Write (as in compose handwritten pieces) personal, thoughtful thank you notes. It's such a basic thing, but one that often gets compromised when things are busy. We'll still hand sign the letter but use a printed letter...or, worse, a standard letter with just the name and giving details changed. Let the donors know their gifts are valued and how important they are to the mission. Consider including an insert that further underscores that sentiment--maybe a photo of the initiative or program they made possible or, if permitted, a beneficiary whose life they changed.

Call your program staff colleagues. Ask them about their work. Ask them what they get excited about, what gets them up in the morning. Ask them what keeps them up at night. Ask them to share stories. Ask questions about the stories to get better stories. Write the stories down. Establish a story bank, if you don't already have one. These questions are the questions donors have. They want to know how your mission comes to life through the work. They want to hear about those the mission directly touches. They want to know how their gift makes that happen. To use an analogy from Ghostbusters, you might be the Gatekeeper but your program colleagues are the Keymasters and you need them with you to truly unleash your donors' passion for your mission.

If you need a third, it's clean up your room! I mean, clean up your data.