Major Donors--Handle With Care
Major Donors: Handle With Care
Nov. 22, 2005
By Abny Santicola, FundRaising Success
Maintaining relationships with existing major donors is important, in part, because they are your No. 1 resource for finding other major donors, says Kim Klein, author, consultant and publisher of the "Grassroots Fundraising Journal." The level of communication and interaction you have with donors is similar to the varied relationships you have with friends. The people you hear from once a year or at holidays or birthdays comprise one layer of friends, while those you talk to every day are a different layer, Klein adds. Nonprofits should take what they know about how to make and keep friends and apply it to donors.
The first step, Klein says, is to identify the people who are giving what are, for them, very large gifts.
"That might mean that someone who gives you $250, that's their biggest gift, and that would be a very important person to keep in touch with," she adds. "It's not just about size of gifts; it's really about the size of gift relative to the person giving it."
And while all donors should receive personal thank-you notes, Klein says, major donors are the friends you keep in touch with more regularly, sending them more personalized or informative thank-yous. Major donors also should get multiple pieces of correspondence from the organization that have nothing to do with money -- e.g., letters or e-mails that pass on articles of interest related to what the organization is doing.
A key to maintaining this level of communication with major donors is getting your board involved, Klein says. Give each board member or group of board members a portfolio of 20 or so donors with the responsibility of making contact with them three or four times a year, whether it be by phone, mail or in person, to update them on the activities or events of the organization.
"It can be a logistical nightmare to try to maintain all these relationships with one person," Klein explains. "I would say the best practice is not about maintaining relationships with these donors but about creating a team of people who maintain those relationships so that it's not 'my relationship with 200 donors' but 'my relationship with 10 or 12 volunteer board members who then have a relationship with the 200 donors.'"
But while communicating with donors is important, Klein notes that some major-gifts donors want to send a big gift to an organization but don't want to be bothered.
"They want to just say, 'Here's the money, do your work, (and) leave me alone,'" Klein says. She advises nonprofits to take their cue from the donor when it comes to communicating with them.
"Bigger donors … especially people that have a lot of money and give away a lot of money, they're fairly sophisticated about giving, and they often are very good about saying, 'This is how often I want to hear from you or this is what I most like.' Some need a lot of attention; some prefer no attention," Klein adds.
Still, Klein says she sees a lot of organizations lose opportunities for donations because they don't take the time to be gracious to their donors, who in turn give to organizations that make them feel appreciated. The common expectation of a donor who gives a $2,000 gift might be that a nonprofit could up the ask to $4,000 the following year. But if the ask is your only point of contact, that's a fast way to lose donors, Klein says.
"If they feel like you only come to see [them] when you want more money, and you always want more money, that's a formula for disaster. It's a relationship, sort of like a friend. You see a friend a few times, (and) then maybe one time you ask if you can borrow their car. But if every single time you saw your friend all you wanted to ask was when can you borrow their car, pretty soon that person would begin to think, 'I don't see a friendship here,'" she adds.
The bottom line with all donors, especially major-gifts donors, whether they're giving $250 or $10,000, Klein says, is to be up front with them about what it is you're doing with their money and how much more you could do if you had more money, but don't treat them like they're ATMs.
"These are whole people, and they need to be treated that way. And the bigger the gift the person gives, again, relative to their capacity to give, the more attention I think they deserve and also the more you're going to get from them if you give them the slightest bit of attention," she adds.
Kim Klein can be reached by visiting www.grassrootsfundraising.org.
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