The Forgotten Foundations of Fundraising

Chapter 6Getting to Know You: Meetings, Donor Clubs, and Planned Giving

We have a saying at American Philanthropic: Nothing works like a meeting. (Apologies to John Deere.) The single best use of a nonprofit leader's time is to meet with her donors.

Aside from your family, how have you forged the most enduring and rewarding relationships of your life? By spending time with people, sharing a meal, a drink, a ballgame, a concert, a prayer group—any face‐to‐face experience. That's what builds bonds. And that is exactly what you are trying to do—or ought to be trying to do—with your supporters.

Personal meetings are the essential cultivation tool, with the emphasis on personal. So how do you prepare? What do you need to know before you head off to meet with that $1,000 donor whom you would like to ultimately become a $10,000 donor?

First, you'll want to do your research. Know the person's giving patterns and giving capacity so that your ask will be reasonable: not too high and not too low, in Three Little Bears fashion. (Though it is always better to ask for too much than too little, unless the “too much” is outrageously high.) Go into the meeting with a high and low ask in mind, but trust your perceptions. Be sensitive to hints. If you're talking to Debbie Downer and she's whining about a stock market freefall or how she had to cut out the Christmas trip to Aspen this year, adjust the high and low asks accordingly.

Prepare but don't be preprogrammed; your aim is to make a personal ...