You Know You Have to Ask but for How Much?

Dear Marc,
How do you know what the right amount is to ask an individual, a foundation or a corporation? Is there some kind of formula based on past gifts received? And what if the donor is new?
— Struggling in South Africa

Dear Struggling,
Alas, I know of no “magic” formulas. If such formulas exist, use them only as a part of your analysis.

Wouldn’t it be great to have some objective way to mechanically ask new people for a gift? We could just “know” that we’re asking the right amount. This is part of the lulling stupor created by benchmarking. Benchmarking against other nonprofits can be nice. But if you do, you’ll be excited if you merely have 3 percent giving growth — the overall growth from last year. Couldn’t your mission use more than 3 percent growth?

Fortunately, establishing solicitation amounts is more of an art than a science. Why is that fortunate? Because it forces us to look at donors as people, not machines.

Here are some guidelines to consider when establishing an ask amount for a donor prospect.

Research the prospect
A natural place to start is by researching the prospect. Ask questions like:

• What does he seem to value?
• What does she appear to give to?
• How much does he seem to normally give?

1. Your database: The first place to look is in your own database. Does the donor have a history of giving to you? Does she favor certain aspects of your mission, or does she give to the general fund? Also look for relationship notes and recorded encounters with people at your organization. Don’t rely on your memory. It’s important to review this information, even for people you know well. Your donor may be telling you something by her behavior that she’s not telling you with her words. Look for trends, and determine how to respond.

2. Google: What if you don’t have any records about the person? Or if he’s a totally new prospect? Use Google. Googling the prospect’s name can show you general information about the prospect and possibly his interests. Adding “donor” or “annual fund” to the prospect’s name in the search parameters can bring up some giving information. Googling the prospect’s name and “board” or “board of directors” or “trustees” can show you what boards the individual might be on.

3. Other resources: Most of us, individuals and organizations, leave some sort of giving trail. For individuals, I like analytic tools like DonorSearch. They can analyze your database to look at past giving. But they also look at a person’s giving to other organizations and estimated wealth. Warning: Wealth isn’t a great indicator of generosity. Be careful of relying solely on wealth indicators. Business owners often have great assets, but they’re not “liquid.” They’re tied up in inventory and buildings and overhead. A better indicator is a person’s own giving. Many people settle into a habitual level of charitable giving. We don’t need to be locked to those levels, but we’d be foolish to not be aware of them.

Corporations and foundations also seem to get comfortable giving in certain ranges. You can find indications of those on their websites, in their annual reports and, for U.S. foundations, on their 990s. 990s are public documents, but you can find them conveniently listed on the GuideStar.org website.

(I always recommend approaching marketing in corporations before philanthropy. Marketing always has a bigger budget.)

4. Other people: Be sure to talk to your board or team members about your prospects. They may be able to give valuable insights. When we try to make these decisions in our office, we miss things — things that could lower or raise our ask amount.

But passion and values need to be considered. A person strongly invested in things like what you do may be open to a larger request. A person not interested may not give at all.

Research your own needs
Although this is listed second, it should probably come first. What is your ultimate fundraising goal? What would it cost to run your program to the fullest?

Take the big number, and run it through a gift-range calculator like the one at GiftRangeCalculator.com.

We’ve been studying successful fundraising strategies closely since World War II. There are some indicators, or gift levels, that are good to aim for if you want your fundraising to be successful. Gift-range calculators can give you ideas for the size of gifts to ask for and how many you’ll need at each level. You could even start plugging in prospect names based on your research. (You can compare these results with the gift range calculator at Blackaud.com.)

You might even find dollar amounts that make particular sense to your organization.

• Some nonprofits talk about sponsoring a child or a camper.
• Others have figured out what it costs to keep the doors open for a day and have created “day sponsors.”
• The year your nonprofit was founded can be a starting gift amount. If you were stared in 2011, you could ask for $2.11, $20.11, $201.10 or $2,011.

You can also look through your database and see what people seem to generally give. If people are giving lower than you’d like, you have a few options:

• Ask them to give more.
• Ask them to give monthly.
• Thank them and find new people who’ll give more.

Match donor’s generosity with your needs
Finally, you need to attempt a match between the prospect’s apparent interests and generosity, and your organization’s goals. This should result in a specific dollar amount next to the prospect’s name.

Don’t skip this step. It’s far more effective to ask for a specific dollar amount and miss some research than to do loads of research and make just a general “will you support us?” ask.

If you’re vacillating on a dollar amount, it’s often best to err on the slightly higher side. Donors always can choose to give less, but few seem to realize they can give more. It’s our job to help raise their sights.

Finally, if you’re asking and you’re not 100 percent comfortable with the ask amount, tell the donor. You can say something like, “Frank, I honestly have no idea how much to ask you to consider giving. But would [specific dollar amount] be in the ballpark?” Donors rarely get offended by too high an ask. They tend to get offended by an “entitled” manner of asking. Like they owe it to the nonprofit. Honestly saying you’re not sure helps them respond well.

The big point to remember is that you’re not begging. You’re trying to connect donor passion with an aspect of your mission. That means that with one-on-one solicitations, you can ask for the higher amount. It’s about the donor, not about your need.

— To your fundraising success, Marc

Marc Pitman is the author of “Ask Without Fear!” and founder of FundraisingCoach.com and the weekly e-mail service “Fundraising Kick.” He is also a member of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board. Reach him at marc@fundraisingcoach.com or follow him on Twitter at @marcapitman