Are the Rich Motivated to Give Differently?

Probably not as much as you might think.

Yet people tell me all the time how much they’re afraid to ask wealthy people for major gifts. If you share those fears, it’s time for a little "Charity Clairity."

Otherwise, you’re going to continue short-changing your would-be major donors by not offering them opportunities to be big shot philanthropists.

The Rich Are Just Like You And Me (They Just Have More Money)
F. Scott Fitzgerald is famously supposed to have told Ernest Hemingway that “the rich are different than you and I.” “Yes, Scott,” Hemingway supposedly retorted. “They have more money.” It’s good to remember that major donors are, first and foremost, just people. And like all human beings, they are on a continual quest for meaning. It’s the existential search to be all that one can be. To feel self-actualized.

And you can help them!

In fact, this is your job. This is part and parcel of your organization’s mission.

You (as executive management, development staff or board member) are a facilitator of philanthropy. Your organization exists, in part, to facilitate your donor’s quest for meaning.

The Truth Will Set You and Your Donors Free
TRUTH No. 1: Donors can only achieve their yearned-for potential through you. Donors, major or otherwise, want to see themselves as good people who care about more than just themselves. Donors want to see wrongs righted, find cures for diseases, keep people from starving—but they don’t have a clue how to do it on their own.

TRUTH No. 2: Your nonprofit cannot survive unless you satisfy donors’ needs. Donors make your mission possible. Without them, your organization has no raison d’etre. If your cause is meaningless to people, then you have no real purpose. Donors don’t give because you have needs. They give because you meet needs that align with their values. Your mission resonates with theirs.

TRUTH No. 3: The donor/nonprofit relationship is symbiotic. It’s as much a part of your mission to help your donors as it is for you to help your clients. Because you can’t do one without the other. At least not effectively.

Philanthropists Can Make Magic Happen—With Your Encouragement!
Show donors how money, combined with awareness, becomes creative magic. We’d all love to create a little magic if we could, right?

Please, don’t discount the importance of your role. Most people like to have their hands held. If you won’t do it, someone at some other organization will.

Today I’m focusing on how to inspire major donors. I don’t believe you must be rich to be a philanthropist. The very word philanthropy means “love of humanity.” Anyone can do it. But, the rich are different. Not fundamentally, of course. We’ve already established that they just have more money. But that’s enough to warrant a different approach—because major-donor giving will make more of a difference to your cause and to instilling energy into life-affirming organizations and projects.

How to Ask Major Donors for Transformative Gifts
Simply learn to ask in a manner that entices philanthropists to seize this moment to transform the world. For when it comes to their money, as Dolly Levi told Horace Vandergelder:

“Money is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless you spread it around.”

Your job as a philanthropy facilitator is to show your major donor prospects the best ways to spread their money so that good things spring forth from the fruits of their labor. And when I say “good things,” I’m not just talking about getting your organization a nice fat check. Nor am I just talking about the impact that check will have on your mission. I’m talking about how the act of philanthropy will make your donor feel!

Show Affluent Donors How to Fulfill Their Potential
You may be familiar with Maslow’s “Theory of Human Motivation” where he breaks down the needs for human development and contentment into steps that form a pyramid. Maslow suggests the basic human needs such as food, shelter and sleep are required before you can pursue higher needs such as security, love and belonging, esteem and the need for self-actualization to achieve your greatest individual human potential.

Since basic needs are met for those who are affluent, it’s a bit easier to talk to them about how philanthropy can help them meet their higher level needs.

Paul Schervish, a sociologist and former Jesuit priest, endeavored to figure out how the wealthy feel about money and giving by interviewing more than 250 affluent Americans and attending exclusive gatherings where they discussed their feelings about philanthropy. For a Marxist-influenced scholar, he takes an unusually charitable attitude toward the upper crust.

Rather than bemoan the excesses of the wealth boom of recent decades, he foresees a silver and gold lining—more wealthy people finding purpose and happiness through a “philanthropic vocation.” (See Watching the Rich Give).