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From Awkward Donor Moments to Transformational Gifts w/ David Chambliss
79 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, David Chambliss pulls back the curtain on the messy, very human side of major gifts: the things you wish you could take back, the political landmines in donor conversations, and the behind-the-scenes work it takes to turn a surprise inquiry into a transformational gift.
Whether you’re at a tiny nonprofit or a big institution, David’s stories translate directly to your world: how you brief your leaders, how you manage your own mouth in the living room, and how you rally a team around a donor’s vision so the gift actually happens.
David and Tom dig into practical lessons that apply in any shop, including:
- Do-overs & mulligans: Why “I wish I’d prepped them better” is a universal fundraiser regret, and how to properly brief your CEO, dean, or ED before donor meetings.
- Staying out of donor politics: How to be warm and real without oversharing, taking sides, or agreeing with things you shouldn’t as a representative of your organization.
- When the dream call actually comes: What really happens after a big unexpected inquiry, and why follow-through, coordination, and clarity of vision matter more than the initial phone pickup.
- Team-based fundraising: How faculty, program staff, and leadership each played a critical role in turning one family’s passion for dyslexia into a major academy and research center.
- Real cultivation that works anywhere: Why the most powerful cultivation move is still putting donors in front of the people whose lives are changed by your mission, not just your staff and experts.
If you’ve ever walked out of a donor meeting replaying what you said, or dreamed of that one call that could change everything for your organization, this conversation will feel uncomfortably familiar in the best way.
Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net
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Transcript
Introduction to the 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.
00:00:18
Speaker
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.
Leadership Mishaps and Effective Donor Relationship Management
00:00:31
Speaker
Thank you for your understanding on the poor audio quality this week and throughout the series with David Chambliss. Now, as you've gotten up in leadership, you know as you've experienced different things, I'm sure you look back and think, well, I wish I could have a mulligan on that one.
00:00:47
Speaker
Could you share with us one problem or one issue you've run up against the that that you view it like that? I mean, I need a thousand mulligans for all the times in my life where I got in a car after a meeting or you know a donor discussion or or anything and just thought like, was that the right? I mean, I would just kind of be tough on myself. um But obviously, the two things that I think about in terms of a do over is one area that you can always do better in is making sure that those that work are on your team and also those that you report up to.
00:01:25
Speaker
have all the information they need to be successful in their jobs so i can tell you that many times over my career i've traveled with either a dean or a president or a vice president or a leader and felt i should have better prepared them for that meeting.
00:01:42
Speaker
There was areas that they didn't talk about, but I didn't tell them to talk about. And I get in, I leave the meeting and be like, Oh, I wish they would have taken it to this or just prepared more for the meeting. So not necessarily given them, I give them all the information, but sort of said, listen, Tom, you know, this couple's really interested in these two areas. So if we can stay in those two lanes, I think that will really be a productive discussion. If I prepare people for those.
00:02:09
Speaker
then sometimes the conversation can go way off cue, or there's information that was vital to the making sure that the conversation was productive. and the ah just in my you know In my mind, I felt like, well, I know the information, so everybody is understanding information. That's one area that I think um that's that' a big do-over is there's been many times where I wish I provided more information. And the other one is,
00:02:36
Speaker
My personality is like I get comfortable with people quickly. I love meeting strangers and making new friends and just I like within five minutes of talking to somebody I feel like I've known you forever and I think that there's a lot of benefit to that especially in development because I can you know build those relationships but I also understand that that's a double-edged sword because sometimes you can get too comfortable around a donor or a prospect or in a meeting amongst colleagues and you know maybe share more information than you should have about a program or the ever popular politics of of the day, local, state, government, federal, whatever, geopolitical stuff, where you really should try your best to avoid that. But when you're sitting in somebody's living room and you are asking them about their life and what they're up to and how they feel about
00:03:25
Speaker
the organization for which you're raising money, if it's a college or a nonprofit or a hospital or whatever, you need to be prepared for them to tell you some of their their thoughts. And it's not always going to be, you guys are great. I love everything you're doing. How can I support it? They might have some issues with some of the things you're doing and you have to be okay with that, but also really learn how to manage your emotions and your responses to that.
Balancing Comfort and Professionalism with Donors
00:03:50
Speaker
Like I completely understand why you would be You know annoyed by that or I completely understand why that would impact you I'm, you know, sorry you feel that way and let me tell you what we're doing It's easy when you get comfortable with somebody be like man. I totally agree like yeah like that program and you then you think yourself I Shouldn't like I shouldn't go that far with people you want to be genuine and truthful and respectful but and you also don't want to be like crossing the line of
00:04:20
Speaker
or arguing with them, like, I disagree with your political stance on this. like You know, and that's definitely over time, like, there's definitely times you get close with somebody who's a donor that says, you know, I really think the football team should be doing this, you know, I'm using a soft here, but, and you're like, dude, you're crazy. Like, I disagree. And like, sometimes it's fun, but there's other things that are very important political, political things and and various things that are in the news that you're going,
00:04:50
Speaker
I don't want to go down this path. It's your thoughts or your thoughts, and I respect them, but I'm not in a position to like agree or disagree with how XYZ should happen. And so um I can take a few mulligans on those in my day, too, where I've decided, oh, yeah, I'm comfortable enough with this guy to tell him, like I think he's ah disagree. Or I agree with this you know controversial stance that he has. And then I'm like, ah.
00:05:17
Speaker
Like, i hope I hope it doesn't get back to the president that I said, yeah, I don't think that resident hall looks as nice as, you know, or something funny like that. But yeah, yeah you always got to be careful there. So those would be the two things.
00:05:29
Speaker
specifically that I would take some do-overs on. Yeah, that's that's that's really helpful. i think I think young fundraisers, people getting, they're just kind of getting into the business. You never struggle with these things because they they want to be too personal, too agreeable, or too transparent. When really ah fundraisers like you and I, we we need to be we need to be Switzerland. it's It's not our job to take positions on, now maybe you're with a political,
00:05:57
Speaker
I'll put on profit in that case yeah go for it but if you're representing a large university or some other you know down the line kind of middle of the road organization.
00:06:11
Speaker
you know, you don't want to alienate 50% of your constituents. okay Some people may disagree with that. and And I know there's folks even in higher ed that, you know, take issue with things. But I recall, I recall talking to a colleague once and they were concerned because they're like, well, I don't agree with this group of people. Yeah. yeah and And I'm like, well, that's fine, but that's 50% of our alumni base. I mean, do you do you want to exclude them? I mean, and we can't we can't do that. Whether we agree with them or not, if if we want to be engaged with our constituents the best we can,
00:06:51
Speaker
we we We can't start picking and choosing on the basis of things that are, you know, um generally accepted in our culture, right? Now, I know the folks on the extreme of the left and the right would but probably say, well, there's more issues with the other side, but um but just that's not not great practice as a fundraiser, I would say.
Major Gift Discovery Story: Vanderbilt's Roberts Academy and Dyslexia Center
00:07:13
Speaker
um Well, moving on here. um Tell me a little bit, David, about your your best discovery, qualification, or even disqualification story.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this one brings a smile to my face because it's it's almost, it is unfair and it's a development officer's dream, but in terms of discovery, I'll just share with you that two years ago, I received a phone call from a number I didn't know, a voicemail from a gentleman I'd never met that wasn't a Vanderbilt alum who said, can you give me a call back? I'd like to talk about, you know, making a gift to Vanderbilt. And of course I called him back like, sure, how can I help?
00:07:53
Speaker
and Turns out that he and his wife were very, very interested. um They had grandchildren grown grandchildren now who have dyslexia and that he and his wife had taken it on as a philanthropic mission of theirs to really give back to support dyslexia in a way of building schools. And so they had built a school in Florida and built a school in um Georgia and
00:08:24
Speaker
Vanderbilt and Peabody College have the number one college of education in the country and the number one department of special education in the country. wow that's great We have a world-renowned reading intervention program and many students come here.
00:08:39
Speaker
to go and work in the schools and work specifically with students with dyslexia. um And they wanted to connect to school to Peabody College because of our background. They have no background with Vanderbilt at all. Nobody in their family went there, none of their kids went there, nothing. um But they wanted to be a part of Vanderbilt and Long story short is from that phone call about seven months later, we signed the documents to build a new Academy and dyslexia center here at Vanderbilt. It was one of the largest gifts in Vanderbilt history. And so we currently have a small transitional school just off campus. It's like ah two classrooms of twenty one third and fourth graders.
00:09:21
Speaker
but we're gonna be building a much larger school over the next two years to open fall of 2026. It's called the Roberts Academy um and Dyslexia Center. And it's gonna be an academy for kids with dyslexia and also a research center that is happening ah simultaneously that where we will do research and bring in teachers to learn best practices and create research. And really it's just gonna be an unbelievable school and opportunity for families and it's going to be a, you know, the goal is to make it of accessible and affordable to families regardless of background. and 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.
00:10:21
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 revenues. Now I am available to help your
00:10:48
Speaker
Just the Roberts family are just the nicest people you've ever met. And the impact they're having on families who have children with dyslexia is, I mean, I can't imagine anything greater than this. um and i was And I received a phone call and said, how can we work on this? And so I obviously called my dean and said, are you sitting down? And she was like, yeah, is everything okay? And I'm like, this gentleman just called. and you know, they're interested in doing this. And then we brought in our chief development officer. And then we brought in like our vice president for business operations. And then we brought in the chair of the department of special education. And we did, a we flew down to Florida and they flew up here and there's all these meetings. And, but, um, yeah, that's, that's my greatest discovery. I think of all time was of, of getting that phone call and taking it from a dream to, react you know,
00:11:40
Speaker
It was a lot of work to just go from we want to do this to we wanted to make sure that we could follow through on their dreams appropriately and make and make this amazing. And so we had a lot of behind the scenes conversations about what can we do to make sure that we can fulfill their wishes and make the best dyslexia academy in the in the country and and involve as many people as
Collaborative Efforts in Philanthropy at Vanderbilt
00:12:02
Speaker
possible. and um It was so fun and and we still to this day like have weekly meetings to talk about upcoming events and we've got a you know the kickoff of the smaller school this October and then in 2026 we'll have the big ribbon cutting and that's when you see philanthropy come to life.
00:12:19
Speaker
Like that is a really awesome. This is important to us. We find that there's a gap in society, that there's not enough opportunities for kids with dyslexia in their families. We want to make a difference. Here's how we here's how we can do it with philanthropy. let's like Tell us what it takes. Let's do it. And boy, this has has it been a fun ride since that.
00:12:42
Speaker
I'm bad. you know there's there's There's a whole bunch of fundraisers listening to the show right now, yep just dreaming that that something like that would happen. But you you bring up an excellent point, because even though you know you picked up the phone, I mean, anybody can pick up the phone, right?
00:12:58
Speaker
But for every person that picks up the phone, there is a certain percentage of them that that either don't know how to or or don't take the time to to do all the follow-up work that it takes to earn the gift. um Because clearly, these are folks that have a passion. They have a generous heart.
00:13:19
Speaker
um But it isn't it isn't it isn't as easy as just picking up the phone. You've still got to coordinate. You still have to cast a vision. and And you have to do all the things to get them where they need to be to make the gift. So congratulations to you for for getting that done. Thank you. ah Yeah, like I completely agree with that piece of what all that it took. And you know i really that that one took a huge team effort. It wasn't just me picking up the phone. It was my dean. It was my chief development officer. She was really instrumental in what are the right steps we need to take to make sure that we're successful and can accomplish this. You can't just you know build a school overnight. A lot of people have to be engaging and involved. A lot of Peabody's faculty were extremely helpful. We had a lot of Peabody college faculty came to a lot of meetings and shared the research that they're doing with dyslexia and sort of um all that we've been already working on.
00:14:14
Speaker
and honest to God that I could have done none of it without every every single person played such a crucial role. Like when we looked back on the experience, it was like, if it wasn't for this woman, if it if the Dean didn't say this, if the Department of Special Education hadn't already been doing amazing work, you know would we be able to have help this family bring their dreams into
Cultivating Donor Relationships through Student Stories
00:14:36
Speaker
reality? and And I think the answer is no, like every single person played like this extremely critical piece of making sure that we can
00:14:45
Speaker
oh carry this through and and that that was was so important. And I think fun about my job, but it wasn't like a one-man show. No, that's great. Now tell me about your best cultivation story. Somewhere where you deepened engagement in a way that really impacted the donor's sense of connection to your mission. Yeah. So in higher ed development, I think the best, and and obviously each story is different, but I think the best cultivation is our students.
00:15:13
Speaker
is I can tell you about our students. I can tell you about our programs. I can show you our buildings. But like when you meet our students, I think that people go like, wow, that's they they're reminded of either their time here or their kids time here, or they just feel like what an impressive young lady, young man this is to be at this school. And so um one one of the best cultivation experiences I have is just, I used to go to New York City a few times a year and a group of students, when I was at Ohio State actually, I would go and bring a group of the students. And I mean, I wouldn't, but they would go with you know a couple of faculty members and we would put them in front of some of the alumni in New York City.
00:15:57
Speaker
and Just by doing that, we were able to engage some really successful and important alumni. and And I feel like I could have told them all day long how great these kids are, how driven they are, how much they want to make a difference. But I was able to bring the students to them. And that, I can't tell you how many of our alums have, or Ohio State's alums,
00:16:23
Speaker
you know wanted to get involved because they they met the type of students that Ohio State was recruiting at the business school at the time. And so again, it kind of goes back to, it wasn't just me doing doing anything. It was like, I might've been the person that opened the door and said, hey, Mr. So-and-so, Ms. So-and-so, I'd love for you to host a group of students at your office. But the students would just go and say, here's what I'm doing at the university. Here's what I'm hoping to do with my career. Here's the difference I hope to make. And so that that was one cultivation story.
00:16:53
Speaker
I thought about a a few alums that we were able to secure some nice scholarships from and a lot of it stemmed from them getting engaged with the students. Yeah, that's a great lesson because yeah I think a common mistake that fundraising organizations make is is they their focus, their storytelling on you know what the staff person or the faculty member or what they're doing. and And that matters and it should be told, but it should never be told apart from really featuring
00:17:26
Speaker
Here's the end product. you know it's It's great that you got a great faculty member and they taught 100,000 students this year or whatever it was. yeah What we want to see is that graduate, that graduate whose life has changed because the education they experienced at that school right and who's out doing great things. so good good Good for you and and making that connection. Yeah. and I think it was nice too because a lot of these students, people could see themselves like,
00:17:53
Speaker
It reminded them a lot of their time when they were in undergrad, and you would bring students that um were very, very you know smart, highly achieving, but they would also have a lot of you know stories of struggles growing up, or you know they might have come from families that didn't have And because of financial aid or because somebody helped them, they were able to be at Vanderbilt or Ohio State or any institution because of donor support. And and people think like, wow, meeting this young person and thinking about all the things that they can do in life and they're and they're able to be in college pursuing their dreams because of financial support, that's that's that's a story i I can tell, but I can't
00:18:40
Speaker
It's not as good as me just showing. you know like great Let me just introduce you to this young woman and I promise you, you're going to want to just like open your
Podcast Conclusion and Call to Action
00:18:48
Speaker
pocketbooks. It's amazing. That's great. That's all the time we have today, but be sure to tune in next week to hear the next part of this exciting conversation. 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 Dauber. Thank you for joining me as we journey together towards Major Gift Mastery on the Abundant Vision fundraising podcast.