Are You Talking to the Wrong Donors?

Last year, I wrote a blog that shared tips and strategies for tiering your donor caseload. As I noted, this practice is crucial because it allows fundraisers to create a strategic, meaningful plan for every donor and ensures that each donor provides net revenue for their organization. 

But I want to explain a little more about why a tiered caseload is so valuable and why you might be talking to the wrong donors. 

How to Know You’re Focused on the Wrong Donors

Something I see among fundraisers is that they spend a lot of time with qualified donors who they like or are the easiest to reach. Maybe you’ve developed a rapport with someone and have an established weekly call or monthly two-hour coffee chat. Maybe you share some personal connections and have developed a real friendship (of course, always making sure the organization is first and foremost). 

In general, creating these kinds of meaningful relationships is a good idea and an important practice. But when you look deeper, many donors are not providing the revenue that would be expected based on the time that you’re investing with them. 

This is understandable. As a fundraiser, it’s always more enticing to take the path of least resistance, to retreat to a comfort zone. Many Tier A donors giving at the $100,000 level, let’s say, might not be responsive, or the relationship is more complex than simply asking for a gift. 

But here is the hard truth: If you spend most of your time talking to C-level donors in your fundraising portfolio and are not developing relationships with those A- and B-level people, you’re misusing your organization’s resources. 

How Much Are You Willing to Spend? 

On a recent podcast I hosted with my director of client services, I heard a story about this precise issue. A major gift officer didn’t want to give up a Tier C donor who gave around $750 annually. She wanted to keep investing time and energy into getting this donor to increase their gift. 

But then she was asked: “How much of your organization’s money are you willing to invest in this donor?” 

The question was vital. Remember, you are an expense to your organization, and for every dollar it spends on you, there is an expectation of how much it will get back. That simple equation helped her realize that she was investing more than she was getting out of the relationship.

As a result, the MGO quickly gave herself a three-month timeline to raise this donor out of their current gift level. If she couldn’t, she would redirect that same energy into different, higher tier donors. 

Now, there’s plenty of pushback to this idea. Sometimes, fundraisers tell us that shifting their efforts to different donors feels unfair and hurtful. They’ll argue that caseload management reduces people to money, feels discriminatory, and treats people with lesser gifts as lesser people.  

But that’s not really the case. 

Become Better Stewards of Time

The reality is that you only have so much time in the day, and you need to be a good steward of that time. So, while we value all donors as people, the impact they have is not equal. Some will give much more than others, and those donors need a bigger investment of your time and energy.

Another way to think about this is that you have very little time to connect with your donors. Consider this calendar math: Subtract all the weekends and holidays. Take your “work hours” and reduce any standing meetings or out-of-office demands. You’ll be surprised how few hours you have at your disposal — roughly only 17 days out of an entire month. 

This is why the tiering process can be so crucial. It’s less about labeling people as numbers than determining which donors have the greatest capacity, inclination, and return on investment for the organization.

Suppose you can commit to the tiering process and channel your time and energy into the right people. In that case, you’ll know why you’re making certain efforts, be more confident in your work and outreach, and, most importantly, set your organization up for better and longer success. 

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.