What Two Fundraisers Did to Meet or Exceed Their Fundraising Goals

Whether you’re a full time fundraiser or nonprofit leader who is also responsible for fundraising, what's expected of you is usually more than you have time to accomplish. 

Stepping into the new year can be sobering, especially if you missed this year’s income gift goals and don’t know what to do for a better outcome. How can you achieve this years’ goals if you didn't achieve last years’? Clearly your system isn't working so how are you supposed to raise more money than you did last year?

In these moments, it’s important to tell ourselves what’s true: God has already given you more than you need. He is an abundant and limitless God who gives good gifts. 

Today, I want to remind you of three gifts God has given you that can help you reach your income goals for this upcoming year. These gifts are: clarity, competence, and capacity. I will also introduce you to two previous clients who applied these gifts in their work and how these gifts positively impacted their careers as well as their organization’s financial well being. 

Meet Emily and Neil 

Pastor Emily is the Campus Pastor for Lutheran Campus Ministry in Madison, WI. Emily’s official title is “Campus Minister and Director,” this means that she fills two roles. Her first and primary role is pastoral which takes up most of time. Director is her second role, which includes working with the board of directors and serving as the primary fundraiser.

Neil first worked in sales. After that he pastored a church for 12 years. He now serves organizations as a major gifts fundraiser. The most significant challenge Neil has faced lately is learning how to advance donor relationships and giving conversations while being himself.   

Both Emily and Neil have been a delight to work with. They eagerly learned and applied the tools we taught them even when they had to do things outside of their comfort zone. I'm excited for you to learn their perspective and what impacted them most during and after their coaching experience with us. 

Clarity

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Alice asked softly. 

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” the Cheshire Cat responded. 

Looking around Alice said, “I don't much care where.” 

“Then it doesn't much matter which way you go,” said the Cheshire Cat.  

Most of us have heard this children’s book excerpt more than once, but it makes me ponder everytime. If you don’t have anywhere specific you want to go, any plan may get you there. But if you want to go somewhere specifically, clarity matters. 

Three areas that clarity will help you the most in your fundraising efforts are having a clear plan, clear case for support, and clear focus. 

Clear Plan 

Could you imagine having to plan a sermon every week, minister to students daily, and be responsible for organizational fundraising all while your office is right next to the student center?

Welcome to Pastor Emily’s world. Before working with me Pastor Emily worked on fundraising twice a year; over the summer she would visit donors and in December she would write the end of the year giving letter. What Pastor Emily needed most was a clear year-round plan for fundraising that was realistic with her multifaceted role.  

Reflecting on her work with us Pastor Emily said, “The best part of working with Brenda was figuring out how I would make sense of fundraising in my context that was realistic with the time I have. I could see the results which helped me take risks and try new things.”

Clear action plans make it easier to take action. The easier taking action is, the more likely you are to do the work that needs to be done.  

Clear Case for Support

People don’t give to a parking lot. But eventually a thriving church, ministry, or nonprofit will need to expand and update their parking lot and that requires money. Instead of inviting donors to give to a parking lot, ask them to invest in an improved welcome experience. People give to people. A successful fundraising campaign depends on your ability to connect your need to the difference a donor wants to make.

Neil told a story of a memorable gift conversation he had where he made a clear case for support by asking bold questions. 

“Last year I had a conversation with a couple who had routinely given. I asked bold questions and when I left I believed the donors felt like their heart for the ministry had been heard. Later that week they gave a 10X gift — the largest gift they had ever given.”

He summarized the experience like this, “Being bold, asking good questions, and connecting the mission to why people give is really important.”

Clear Focus

Imagine two buckets; one small bucket and one large bucket. The small bucket is filled with regular income. This represents the amount of wealth an average American has in cash. Only 10% of an average American's wealth is in cash. Too many nonprofits spend too much time focusing their fundraising efforts on the modest capacity in this small bucket.

The large bucket is filled with your retirement funds, house or other real estate, life insurance, investments, etc. This bucket represents the 90% of an average American’s wealth that is accumulated in assets. Even though most of a person’s wealth exists in the large bucket, most nonprofits spend too little time focusing their fundraising efforts on the high capacity of the big bucket.

When you’re having gift conversations, are you inviting gifts from the little bucket or the big bucket? An important point of clarity for fundraisers is to focus on the 10-20% of donors who can and will give 80-90% of the year’s total gift income.  It pays to have a plan in place to work well with the small number of donors who can give larger and better gifts.

Competence 

The need for resources to fund ministry TODAY is real. Unfortunately, securing donations for immediate work can distract us from providing financial stability for the future of our ministries. This pressure also blinds us to what might be possible for our ministries if we had dependable income fueling our work. 

If we want the important work of nonprofits to continue we can’t be satisfied with raising enough money to keep our doors open, we need to prioritize inviting larger and better gifts that create future income. For this to be possible we need to grow in competence. Competence begins with being able to imagine what might be possible for our organization if we had abundant funds. Next, we need to become proficient at inviting these gifts. And, finally, we need to understand how to steward the gifts and resources we are given. 

Imagine What Could Be Possible

Looking ahead and imagining what could be possible is something fundraisers and nonprofit decision makers typically don’t do often enough. Emily said that one of the greatest benefits of receiving coaching from Brenda Moore and Associates was getting to see the big picture:

“When I stepped into the Campus Pastor and Director role I didn’t know the donors. But through reviewing the metrics, listening to Brenda, and visiting donors, I have a much better idea of what could be possible. Brenda also helped the board envision priorities and what might be possible.” 

You want to imagine what’s possible in three areas:

1. Larger and better gifts from a few. How many people in our organization could give a large gift? How would that change the way we do ministry? 
2. Legacy Giving — bequests and gifts of assets. Who in our organization could leave a legacy gift? How could gifts of assets allow us to serve better?
3. Repeat donors. What would it look like for us to have consistent and sustained support from our donors? How could that free up our time to minister?

As your fundraising team and decision makers are able to see what might be possible both in gift income and scope of service, you will be able to invite gifts with more specificity and confidence.

Invite Larger and Better Gifts

“Someone once told me, ‘It’s kind to give generous people the opportunity to be generous’,” said Neil. Read that one more time: It’s kind to give generous people the opportunity to be generous.

Inviting larger and better gifts isn’t awkwardly asking for money; it’s inviting generous people to invest in the things that matter to them. In my opinion, these conversations are the one of the most beautiful parts of working in philanthropy because you ask people about the forming of their faith and how that changes the way they live. Then you listen to their answers. 

One of the greatest points of satisfaction at Brenda Moore and Associates is helping people move beyond their fears and begin to have rich inspired faith-forming conversations with donors, that ultimately lead to larger and better gifts. Neil learned from working with us to, “be persistent. I find that it takes 3-4 contacts before I get someone’s attention and am able to schedule a meeting, but I also regularly get thanked for being persistent in pursuing the gift.” 

Giving generous people the opportunity to be generous includes persistence, building relationships of trust, and asking bold questions.

Steward Current and Future Resources Well

Do you remember the parable of the talents (Matthew 25)?

The Master asks three of his stewards to take care of different amounts of talents. When he asks the stewards for a status update on the talents he rewards the first two stewards who invested the talents. But the Master fires the last steward because he buried his talent in the ground. 

How we care for what we currently have matters to God. Fundraisers need to intentionally practice stewardship in two ways:

1. Create systems to steward current resources. 
2. Understand your legal and ethical responsibilities for gifts.

Too often, well meaning leaders break trust with donors by mismanaging funds and gifts. If you don’t understand or are not aware of your legal and ethical responsibilities regarding gifts, now is the time to learn. 

Capacity

As fundraisers we already know you have too many things to do in too little time, especially if fundraising is only a portion of your job description like Emily’s — your schedule is at capacity. So if you’re going to do more, your key to success is maximizing the time, skills, and resources you do have by investing your energy in the right things. Fundraisers can increase their capacity by prioritizing three areas: time management, accountability, and personal growth.

Time Management

Through time-blocking strategies, Michael helps users of the Full Focus planner get more of what matters done. The basic premise is to give specific time blocks to each of your priorities throughout the week. Instead of jamming everything into your schedule you intentionally attend to the current priority.

Emily found that applying this strategy of time blocking and task planning helped her stay consistent in her fundraising work even though the pastoral portion of her job is so demanding. Her biggest piece of advice for the fundraisers who joined December's webinar was, “Make time for this work regularly and have a written down plan because you can go back to it and know your next step of action.”

If you’ve ever caught yourself spending twice as much time on a project than necessary or never doing the things you need to do because you don’t know where to start, get your plan in writing and committed on your calendar and watch how your capacity expands! 

Accountability

Do you remember the wisdom from Ecclesiastes, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward…”? I like the way the Contemporary English Version puts it. It says “You are better off to have a friend than to be all alone, because then you will get more enjoyment out of what you earn. If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). 

Having a companion for this journey is in the best interest of you and your organization. Two people — or more — will better share the load, contribute a broader skill set, and bring a wider network of relationships. Find the people on your board, staff, or church council who believe in the work you are doing and would be willing to accompany you or be an accountability partner. Coaches can also provide invaluable input and support particularly if you are navigating new territory or reaching for a goal you have never reached.

Invest in Growth

An uncomfortable truth across all industries — fundraising and philanthropy included — is, “It takes money to make money.”

Whether you’re investing in conferences, books, online courses, or a coach investing time and money into your growth and goals will allow you to succeed exponentially faster. I love the way Neil encouraged webinar attendees to invest in themselves, “Get people around you who can be supportive — find an accountability person or a coach. We all need courage and confidence to walk out the call God has given us and community is usually where we find that courage and confidence.”

Are You A Good Fit For the Brenda Moore and Associates Coaching Experience?

Can you independently learn the skills Emily and Neil learned during their coaching experience? Probably. We don’t teach anything you can’t learn through a quality fundraising book or conference. 

However, working with my team will help you learn and see results faster, because our teaching includes step-by-step action plans and scripts. We also customize our coaching experience for each client, so like Emily, you’ll receive action steps that work best for your role and organizational needs. 

The leaders and organizations who benefit the most from working with us are deeply connected with the faith-impact their ministry creates and are eager to learn and try new things. Schedule a call here to see if we’re a good fit!

Co-authored by Brenda Moore, CFRE and Sisi Roose.