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Tom Dauber: The Art of the Presolicitation Part 2
53 Plays4 months ago
In this episode, Tom continues his discussion on how to have a presolicitation conversation with a potential donor and shares some thoughts the state of the podcast for the new year.
Do you have a question you'd like Tom to address on the podcast or have a suggestion for a show topic? Let us know by emailing Tom at thomasdauber@abundantvision.net
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Transcript
Introduction to Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a first-time fundraiser, we have the advice you need to take your next step toward major gift mastery. I'm your host, Tom Dauber, president of Abundant Vision Philanthropic Consulting. Last week's conversation was a blast. I'm so excited to have you with me for this next segment. Let's get back to the show.
The Art of Understanding Donors: Asking Questions
00:00:32
Speaker
What you don't want to do, again, is to make assumptions that this is an individual that can only be solicited for a very specific project in a very specific way. Ask the question. Find out what they think. Don't leave anything to chance. Don't make assumptions. Be clear. And donors are going to feel honored when you ask them those questions. You know, even questions about, you know, if they do want to give it in a restricted way. Well, what means the most to you?
00:01:02
Speaker
You know, like if you're in higher ed, you know, is it student support? Is it faculty support? Is it research? Is it, is it facilities? Most donors are going to have some type of opinion. I mean, if they are people that want to do restricted, uh, giving and, and.
00:01:18
Speaker
And here's why that's helpful, is generally speaking, I've found that that people are going to give more to something that they feel passionate about. And so if if you're not dead set on a restricted gift and in and they have an opinion, you know you're just going to get a bigger gift for a thing that they care about versus a thing that they don't care about.
Understanding Donor Passion and Flexible Giving
00:01:43
Speaker
Now, there's ways too. like You know, if you're only set up to ah unrestricted giving just to your general fund, what you do is you find out about the things they're passionate about, and that's the thing you talk about. And you can be clear that your gift will help support this type of work, but without making the promise that, well, it's only going to go for that sort of work. And you just need to be clear and honest and transparent with your donor about those sorts of things. But again,
00:02:14
Speaker
this pre-solicitation conversation should A, help you understand if they wanna have a giving conversation, B, it should begin to help you understand you know what type of gift they'd like to make and even what the range would be.
Using Big Vision to Frame Donations
00:02:30
Speaker
I might say to someone, well, I don't know what type of range of gift you're looking to make. Obviously, you could make a gift as large as you wanted to. I could tell you what a ah five million gift is going to do. I could tell you what a million dollar gift could accomplish. I can tell you what a hundred hundred thousand dollar gift is going to accomplish. I can tell you what a ten thousand dollar gift is going to accomplish. I tend to talk about ranges of giving because this gives you some flexibility to work.
00:02:58
Speaker
You know, I will ask donors, would you be interested in hearing what a six-figure gift could do for the organization? would you be interested in hearing what a five figure or, a you know, a lot of donors, I'll say, you know, would you like to see something in the five to six figures? Would you like to see something in the four to five figures? And the reason I do that is it gives you a lot of leeway. Obviously, what $100,000 can do for an organization, it's very different than what 1 million could do, or $999,000 could do for an organization. And so I will lead with
00:03:35
Speaker
you know, the biggest thing I can within that range, but then have some step backs available. if if if that's required. So if they tell me six figures, I'm gonna be clear as to what a $900,000 gift, a $950,000 gift could possibly do with the understanding that they're likely going to want something smaller. And I will be prepared to talk about that. But I always lead large in the same way that Costco does. If you ever walk into a Costco, you know, they've got their $3,000, $4,000 TVs right up front.
00:04:09
Speaker
And it's fairly well known that the reason they do that is they establish that baseline right off the bat as to what expensive is. So after seeing that that $5,000 television, you know that that $200, you know, massive a pack of steaks or whatever it is you're going to buy there. It doesn't seem like so much, right? It's a psychological game they're playing there. And we do the same thing in fundraising when we talk about really large numbers. Like, I'm trying to raise, you know, 600 million, right? Well, 600 million makes a million dollars really just seem like not that much.
00:04:44
Speaker
or whatever your number is. But that's why
Pre-Solicitation Conversations: Building Donor Comfort
00:04:46
Speaker
big vision, clear vision really helps you in soliciting. Because I mean, I heard from ah somebody not too long ago, they had a donor come to them and offer them 3 million. um And then immediately said, Well, and what's your what? What is your your annual budget? And then the individual said, Well, my annual budget is 3 million. And then they said, Oh, well, we'll give you a million then.
00:05:10
Speaker
Right. Right. So you want you want to be able to talk about the big aspirational numbers, even beyond your budget. You know, the right answer to that question, you know, would have been, you know, well, our annual our annual budget is three. But, you know, if we if we had more, here's the plans that we have to grow our work if we just had the right investment.
00:05:34
Speaker
Right, so that's that's, and those are all conversations that may come up in the context of a pre-solicitation conversation, right? so So all these things, help you keep your donors comfortable. Now, many people in their minds, they think to themselves, I don't i don't want to have that conversation about money because that that makes me feel icky. I'm afraid of rejection. you know You've got these psychological hangups to how, why, you know, to to different things that could could go wrong. But it's it's so important to understand as a fundraiser, especially if you're a new fundraiser, being crystal clear with your intentions and even calling out elephants in the room on the front end is so helpful. Like maybe you have a donor and you find out they just started a 501c3 of their own.
00:06:30
Speaker
And you may assume as a fundraiser that, well, they're probably only going to want to give to their own nonprofit, right? Well, that's an assumption that you shouldn't make. Very few people in this world only give to one organization. But what you could do and what I would recommend is to say, you know, you've started this nonprofit and that that's really awesome.
00:06:56
Speaker
You know, a lot of folks out there might only give to their own nonprofit in this type of situation. Is that where you are? And just let them respond. Likelihood is, is they'll say no, but you don't know.
Direct Questions to Uncover Donor Intentions
00:07:09
Speaker
Tom Dobber here for Abundant Vision Philanthropic Consulting. Fundraising can be hard work, and it can be hard to mentally get into the place you need to be in order to see new opportunities. Everyone struggles with it. We are like the fish in the fishbowl who just can't see the water they're swimming in. That's when having outside expertise comes in handy.
00:07:32
Speaker
For 25 years, I've been helping nonprofits analyze the challenges, discover new ways forward, and develop clear plans that lead to greater fundraising
00:08:00
Speaker
So again, pre-solicitation is so helpful because it clari clarifies all these questions that you have. It helps get rid of assumptions. It lets you call out those questions that you have and it makes the donor comfortable because once they know where you're coming from and what your intentions are, it it just takes the tension out of the room and asking again those elephant in the room sorts of questions
00:08:32
Speaker
It's fine because they're thinking about those things too. They want to know, are you going to ask them for something that's going to make them uncomfortable? You know, their defenses may be up, but once you have those conversations, you're going to help drop those those defenses, and you're going to move from being someone really who might have been perceived as someone who's trying to get something out of them to someone who cares about them and is trying to help them do something that they're going to be proud of, something they're going to be excited about, something that's going to bring them joy.
Partnering with Donors Beyond Money
00:09:09
Speaker
That's the transition you want to make as a fundraiser is to go from
00:09:14
Speaker
the person that's there to ask, to the person that's there to support and help, provide guidance for sure, to bring forward opportunities to give, yes, to ask, and to ask for large gifts and for specific numbers. I'm not gonna take that away, right? But you don't want that to be the emphasis. You want the emphasis to be on being a partner with your donor, helping them accomplish things that they're gonna be proud of, and feeling like you're in it together to make the world a better place. That's fundraising at its best. And the other great thing, I said it before about pre-soliciting, is that you're going to find that not only are your gifts going to get larger,
00:10:00
Speaker
your close rate is going to go up because you're never going to solicit the people that don't want to have those conversations. You're going to talk about giving. You're going to find out their attitudes towards it. And if it's negative, you're going to bless and release. You're going to hand them off to your alumni director or encourage them to be involved in whatever way they want to be, which may be not at all. Right. And and you're just going to avoid any unpleasant interaction altogether.
00:10:30
Speaker
and it's gonna make life way more fun as a fundraiser. Because ultimately, you're only gonna be soliciting people for the most part that want to be solicited. Guys, do the pre-solicitation. I know it's gonna take more time. It isn't just going out, meeting people, asking for money right off the bat. Now, I should add this caveat. There are gonna be people that are ready to talk with you about a gift right now.
00:10:58
Speaker
And when you begin to pre-solicit, you may discover that this person is expecting you to ask them and wants to be asked right now. Maybe they've got a long history of giving to your organization. Maybe they love your organization. Maybe they were planning to give this year anyway. Maybe they're ready.
00:11:20
Speaker
Well, even though in a relational approach to giving, we don't tend to solicit on that first meeting. If someone is giving you all green lights and you're having these conversations and they're wanting to really make a gift and to talk about it, and some people are going to feel that way, just go right ahead. Don't feel like there's this rule that you can never solicit a gift the first time you meet someone.
00:11:48
Speaker
You can. You absolutely can if they're ready for it. And many donors, especially if you're doing major gift work, they know who you are. They're called on by other major gift donors or major gift officers, and they're expecting an ask. They're hoping for an ask in some cases.
00:12:11
Speaker
And so if they've agreed to meet with you in their mind, you know, it's very possible that in their own mind, they've agreed basically to some level of giving. Now, don't assume that, you know, like always, we don't want to assume, but but please, by all means, you know, test those waters.
Celebrating Milestones and Global Reach
00:12:29
Speaker
And if they're ready to move forward, move forward with them together. Yeah, anyway, well, boy, this has been a great first year. I don't i don't know if you've noticed, but but we've actually last month, ah just completed a full year of podcasts. And boy, I've learned so much. I've made some new friends. It's just an honor to be in a place of being able to engage with all of you all around the world. And that's been the most surprising thing. This show presently has listeners on every continent. And I'm pretty excited about that.
00:13:08
Speaker
My hope is that many of you will have had some success trying out the fight talk about in major gifts. If you have, don't hesitate to email me, ah reach out, let me know how it's going. I'd love to hear from you. Heck, if you've got some things that you've done and tried and had success with, or even had some struggles with, I'd love to have you on the show.
00:13:31
Speaker
Anyway, thank you. ah Thank you for joining me on this journey to Major Gift Mastery. Thank you for being a part of my life oh for the past year. I've loved it. We are going to slow down just a little bit. I'm moving to posting new shows every other week rather than than weekly.
00:13:54
Speaker
But boy, I'm sure enjoying this journey. And if you have questions again, also let me know about those. And happy to take suggestions on show topics moving forward.
Sneak Peek into Future Episodes: Planned Giving
00:14:09
Speaker
But we do have an exciting year planned. I've got a fellow and a colleague lined up an interview that you're going to just love coming up on plain giving. This individual is an expert in it. You're going to get so much wisdom, so much great advice, the sorts of things that as a consultant, it would probably cost you thousands of dollars to get these tips and advice from this fella. But you're going to love it. It's going to be a multi-part series to be sure.
00:14:41
Speaker
but it's gonna put you in a position where you can really begin to start building a plan giving program at your organization and learn how to talk about those topics that again can sometimes be uncomfortable.
00:14:54
Speaker
And we've got a number of other great guests lined up as well. Anyway, look forward to a new year with all of you coming up here
00:15:17
Speaker
Now, if you've enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on your podcast provider. I'm your host, Tom Daubert. Thank you for joining me as we journey together towards Major Gift Mastery on the Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast.