The Development Playbook

What the children in Burma trying to sell me trinkets taught me about sales and how to work with donors.

Part 1 – Three Keys to Donor Engagement.

·  It is all RELATIONAL - regardless of what people say.

A few years ago, I would take groups of graduate students to Burma each Spring as part of their masters’ program.  Some groups had the opportunity to visit some of the major tourist sites of the country.  On my first trip with these students, I learned some lessons. 

As we approached our first ancient Holy site we were surrounded by beautiful little children.  The religious site was part of a religious tradition unlike the religious tradition of the students, so the students had been prepared to pay proper respect for a Holy site of another religion.  They had been told not to be disrespectful in any way.  We all wanted to learn from and honor our local friends who were guiding us.  But before we could get to the site, the children swarmed us offering to sell us all manner of trinkets.  

What I found most interesting is that all the conversations followed a very clear pattern.  (As if they all had been to the same sales seminar!)

·  Introduction/Attention Getter“Hey handsome man…Hey pretty lady….Hey, you are a big man.”

·  First engagement step – “Where are you from?”

·  Next engagement step – “Why did you come here? (or this temple or some similar ask)

·  Strengthening the connection – this depended on the child’s ability to speak enough English.  Some would move on to the next step quickly and some would ask a few more questions and engage in random conversation.

·  THE ASK – would you like to buy (whatever trinket they were selling)?  

·  Follow up #1 – I have a special price for you.

·  Follow up #2 – How much will you give me for (whatever trinket they were selling)?

That was the basic script.  Some children would make the sale.  Some would not and walk away.  And a few would get quite aggressive.

The students (all of us really) always had trouble with the children.  Some people would buy a few things, but the children would continue to ask and we would all become overwhelmed.  Some of us didn’t ever buy anything but felt overwhelmed by the constant asks.  There were times the group would decide to avoid a site because they didn’t want to interact with more children.

The interesting reason everyone felt bad was that we said no to the children.  Of course, there would be comments about the bad people who were likely using the children.  But the emotion was often a feeling that we should say yes to the children.

The reason for the feelings were varied.  Maybe it was just the fact that they were cute kids?  Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with their method?

But as I replayed these events over in my mind, I remembered that there were a few children who just asked if I wanted to buy their trinket as the initial question (maybe they were lazy or maybe didn’t pay attention in the sales class), BUT it was much easier to say NO and not feel bad.  

The difference was the level of relationship that had been established.  Once there was any sort of relationship, the sales issue became more complex.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER – The goal of relationship is not to trick/shame/force (as if any of this was really possible) a donor into somehow supporting something they aren’t interested in supporting.  The goal is to really get to the point of engaging the donor with what is possible with their support to see if becoming a donor is something that would bring meaning/joy/happiness to them.

Key Number One – Make it relational if at all possible

·  The basis for the relationship is the donor’s involvement with the organization.

This can suck if you really like the donor and want to be friends!  It is important to be clear on the reason for the relationship.  One of the most difficult parts of donor relationships is when the lines blur on the type of relationship you have with a donor.

The basis for a donor relationship is their support and involvement in the organization.  Donors have various levels of time they are willing to offer to any organization.  It is important to make that time positive for the donor and the organization.  

This does not mean you only care about or like the donor based on their participation!

It means the basis of the relationship needs to be clear.  If your job is to find the funding for an organization, that is what you should be doing.  No matter how nice you are, most donors understand the basis for the relationship and respect that you have a job to do.  If the quality of the relationship means they even want to help you be successful, you have reached the ultimate donor/organization relationship.

Key Number Two – Make the ask

·  It is actually confusing for a donor when a donor professional is unwilling or afraid to clearly talk about support.

Unless you are meeting a donor who has never been asked for a donation, the donor has had the experience and survived!  Of course, the way a donor is asked (see below on specific approaches) is important.  There are some general rules of thumb for preparing for an ask.

1.  Have an ask amount ready.

a.  Do research if that is available.

b.  Know what type of donor you are approaching.  What Plan (see below on the various donor giving plans) are they using to manage their philanthropy.

2.  Be confident in the ask.  Most donors are anticipating this.  

3.  Also be aware that people have various levels of comfort, some donors may dodge the question if not asked.  Often it is not that they don’t want to give or are worried about saying no.  It may be they just aren’t sure what they want to do, so will avoid if allowed to avoid this.  Your job is to help them decide and feel comfortable.

4.  You may be doing them a favor by helping them clarify their wishes. 

Key Number Three – Connect the dots

·  How can this particular gift make a clear impact?  Show why the gift is worth giving.

Very few donors “GIVE MONEY AWAY.”  They use their financial resources to “join with others doing good.”  It is very important to understand this.  They want to be involved.

“Give Money Away” statements sound like this”

Why would they give us their money?

How can we get more of their money?

What things can we do to get more of their money?

The problem with this way of thinking, it doesn’t really invite the donor to be a partner in the organization.  In fact, it says you don’t really want them to be part, you just want their money.  This is very short sighted. It also has trouble with the question why someone would give money in the first place.  It shows a lack of understanding what a person is doing with their financial resources.  

So let’s take a look at donors and talk about what they might actually be doing.  This can inform how we go about showing impact to a donor.

Part 2 – Donors: why do they want to give?  Understanding potential motivation is Good.

THE DONOR CATEGORIES:

a.  The Giveaway Donor - someone who won the lotto.

b.  The Socialized Donor - someone who grew up in a pack, family, community, or cult that encouraged giving.

c.  The Socialized Donor/escaped – someone who grew up in a pack, family, community, or cult that encouraged giving but at some point escaped or left the pack, family, community, or cult.

d.  The Converted - someone who had something touch their heart and/or head.

 i.  A great commercial

 ii.  A wonderful story

 iii.  FACEBOOK post

 iv.  Instagram

 v.  Other

 vi.  and as they thought about what they could do, they didn’t have time to volunteer, or time to retrain themselves to do whatever good touched their heart BUT they could use some of their money to participate.

e.  The Alternative - someone who’s tax professional called them and said they could make a bigger donation to the government this year or find a charitable cause to support. 

Donors come from one of the categories above.  It is important to have some idea how donors in each category are motivated to give in order to design a way to invite them to give.

DONOR STRATEGIES FOR EACH CATEGORY:

1.  The Giveaway Donor – These are about as likely as say, winning the lotto.  Move on to another type of donor.

o  Donor Strategy – hang out at the local convenience store and watch people buy lotto tickets.  

2.  The Socialized Donor – This is a person who has grown up in a context where giving back is one of the fundamental norms of this context.  While this group may seem like a very good target audience there is one major caveat.  The pack, family, community, or cult that has so wonderfully taught the importance of giving, has also very likely provided the opportunities to give back to that pack, family, community, or cult.  So, The Socialized Donor is NOTusually a good opportunity (they likely are fully committed to their pack, family, community, or cult who provides many ways for them to give) unless they have become The Socialized Donor/escaped.

o  Donor Strategy – have your organization join/align/be absorbed by the pack, family, community, or cult.

3.  The Socialized Donor/escaped– This donor is actually a very good opportunity if they can be identified.  They have left/escaped the pack, family, community, or cult by either marriage, education, or catastrophic event (i.e. Jamestown).  So, they likely still feel the importance of giving back but have become disconnected from the focus of normal giving.

o  Donor Strategy – Understand how to make appeals that are similar to a pack, family, community, or cult message.  A non-religious organization cannot just adopt religious language but there may be similar ways of talking about needs or issues.

4.  The Converted Donor – This person is moved by an effective story, image, video that is able to find a way to this donor’s attention.  This is the donor most donor campaigns target and the space is crowded.  What is unclear/unknown is whether the response to the wonderful story, image, video will actually make it all the way to a financial response by the donor.  

o  Donor Strategy – Create effective messaging that touches a person’s heart or connects with their mind in some way.  Then make it extremely/very/almost like magic easy to give the first gift.  There needs to be a very low barrier to giving.  UNFORTUNATELY, that is just the first step.  If no-one sees the wonderful message/image/story…well, you know.  Nothing happens.  Step TWO is even more important.  That is getting the message in front of live eyeballs.  What are the many ways you are working to get the eyeballs to see your wonderful message?

5.  The Alternative Donor – happens when there is an unexpected financial windfall from business success, retirement planning coming in, or children deciding to actually support themselves.  There is a sudden awareness that the financial windfall is going to produce one of two things.  A nice large check to Uncle Sam for all the wonderful things the politicians have decided to fund or a surprise gift to some charity.  Or a new option that places the funds in a community foundation or “giving purgatory.”  

o  Donor Strategy – create widespread awareness of your organization.  This is why you need to use as many channels as possible to share your message.  The goal is to position your organization in as many different places as possible.  It may seem the payoff is low.  The conversions to give may be hard to pin down.  BUT when a person needs to give, it is great for them to be able to think of your organization quickly.  If they have seen it around, it becomes a real opportunity. 

Donor DAF (giving purgatory) – this is what happens to The Alternative Donorif a community foundation can subvert the charitable gift and delay it to some unknown time in the future.  (I don’t like these things!  Just to be transparent.)

o  Donor Strategy – this is tough because the whole process gets complicated.  Some people who donate to a DAF will use it to give each year.  BUT you need to remind them.  You can’t depend on them NEEDING to make the gift.  You also can’t depend on the foundation telling them to liberate funds from the DAF.  Depending on the community foundation they may remind people to make gifts out of their DAF but it usually is not a very strong push.  (A little understood secret is that many of these foundations have a few pet causes they may push but otherwise they have a vested interest in keeping the funds invested.)

Part 3 – Donors: once they have decided to give – How do they actually do it?  Mainly focused on Major Donors.

·  Ways Major Donors have developed to not be overwhelmed by development officers (or how they figure out what to do with the philanthropic funds).

Imagine you won the lottery.  I do it all the time!  I know if I won, I would do the basic stuff to make sure my family was properly cared for.  But then what?  I would buy some toys but I would also feel the need to at least use some of the money for charitable causes (my tax professional may also be telling me that is a good idea).  So now what?

MONEY MOUTH PLAN – announce you have a bunch of money that you are planning on giving away and share your personal phone number and email.

There are a few problems with that plan.  Your phone would probably blow up.  You would have no time to play with the toys you bought.  It all might be a little overwhelming.  NOT a GOOD PLAN!

*This is the “Give Money Away” donor – they aren’t real.

QUIET GIVER PLAN – not tell anyone anything about your money and figure out a few things you already know about and fund them quietly because you want to see them be successful.

Depending on the amount to be given away, this may be easiest.  It also means, you are more likely to want to give bigger chunks of money away because you don’t want to spend too much time wondering what to do. Small amounts are a pain because they require the same amount of time to decide on but cause you to use more time because you have more things to think about.  This awareness of larger chunks often comes with time and the yearly fatigue of managing these funds.

SMALL CIRCLE GIVER PLAN - think about the various things you are interested in and see who you know who is working in those areas.  Let a small circle of people know of your interests but don’t really make anything pubic.  

This often seems easy in the beginning.  But over time, more and more people become aware of the opportunity and more people approach you.  At some point you may tell people to leave you alone.  You may just say you are going to give to causes you already support.

FOUDATION FUNNEL PLAN – Set up a Foundation.

You think about the things you want to support and this becomes the mission statement for the foundation.

FOUNDATION GATEKEEPER PLAN – Foundation is more of a gatekeeper, fending off people you don’t know or projects outside a few areas of interest BUT you actually still talk to anyone who manages to find you.  By the way you like to consider helping those who find you.

The foundation simply serves as a block to weed out lots of random contacts.  But when someone does find you, you enjoy learning and may support them.  This just cuts down on the access a bit.

FOUNDATION WITH STAFF PLAN – Foundation takes care of your interests and keeps people away from you.  Keeps you from being bombarded by requests and helps you feel better about saying no.

You let someone else create a process and timeline for decisions and handle most requests.  Things become more rigid and requests are vetted and managed by others.

GENERATIONAL FOUNDATION PLAN– Your children or others now look out for your interests because you are no longer in the decision-making picture.

The other decision makers have to set up some system/plan/process to share the resources passed on to the foundation.  Staff play a key role and there is less flexibility.  It becomes a process.

ESTABLISHED FOUNDATION PLAN - These have moved beyond any individual and are now about a process and are generally professionally managed.

There is a plan/process set up and it starts with a LOI.  These sometimes happen at a certain time of the year or are rolling depending on the foundation.

Part 4 – Strategies for donors ALREADY ENGAGED, a plan for each group.

MONEY MOUTHS – they don’t exist.

QUIET GIVERS

·  Be one of the chosen outlets of support.  

·  Tend the relationship and offer care based on level of support.

·  Find out how much information is appreciated.

SMALL CIRCLE GIVERS

·  Find out where they are in their lifecycle.  How much time do they spend with prospective partners?

·  Key is developing the personal relationship and finding ways to stay at the top of their list.  It may seem that they are engaged and they don’t need much time.  However, these donors can get their attention taken by others.  It is important to keep communicating with them to ensure they feel the importance of their support on an ongoing basis.

FOUDATION FUNNEL PLAN

·  Keep focus on the relationship with the people who set up the foundation.  

·  Don’t get confused with the structure of the foundation, it must be followed, but it is secondary to the relationship with people behind the foundation.

·  Any opportunity to increase support likely comes from the people behind the foundation.

FOUDATION GATEKEEPER PLAN

·  Follow all foundation guidelines

·  Keep foundation staff happy

·  Can a personal relationship be developed with funders?

·  The deeper the relationship, the greater the opportunity to get a gift beyond the current scope.

·  These can seem most confusing because they operate as an organized foundation but the gifts are more likely the personal interests of founders and any significant changes will come from founders, not the foundation staff.

FOUNDATION WITH STAFF PLAN

·  Same as Foundation Gatekeeper Plan.

GENERATIONAL FOUNDATION PLAN

·  Work on relationship with those who will be taking over the foundation.  This is crucial because they may set up a system that makes it more difficult for your organization.  That is likely not the intention but the focus on system and process can remove the relational key.

·  Bring the next generation on early.

·  Offer to mentor or guide them as they go about the foundation set-up.

ESTABLISHED FOUNDATION PLAN

·  Follow all foundation guidelines.

·  Know the system and make the best pitch possible.

Part 5 – Strategies for donors who are NOT ALREADY engaged, a plan for each group.

MONEY MOUTHS

·  Hang out around convenience stores/gas stations/local grocers and hope you catch a lotto winner.  Not a good plan.

QUIET GIVERS

·  Grow your network of connectivity.  The more you can expand the circle of advocates the better.

SMALL CIRCLE GIVERS – (keep in mind It is RARE when a major donor only has one interest.)

·  Grow your network of connectivity.  The more you can expand the circle of advocates the better.

·  Be connected to other organizations to become aware of their funders.

FOUDATION FUNNEL PLAN

·  Try to find the people behind the foundation and make connection with them.

·  They may require a foundation process and this should be followed.

·  But understand that the real hope is in finding some way to connect personally with whoever set the foundation up.

FOUDATION GATEKEEPER PLAN

·  Network.

·  Search donors of other organizations.

·  Be in places where these donors circulate.

FOUNDATION WITH STAFF PLAN

·  Keep the relationships

·  Work on staff to understand how best to proceed.

·  Look for requests for LOIs

GENERATIONAL FOUNDATION PLAN

·  Submit LOIs.

ESTABLISHED FOUNDATION PLAN

·  Submit LOIs.

Final Thoughts:

DONOR GIVING is all relational. The work is always how to grow our relationship with key donors for their benefit and the ongoing support of the organization?

What ways can we provide greater meaning and value to them?