By Bob Demont, CFRE, President
The Great Recession has spawned the greatest philanthropic challenges of my 32-year fundraising consulting career. But, a review of Demont’s 72 campaign clients over the last five years, who in combination have raised more than $200M, reveals strategies to cope with the current economic downturn. From our mix of youth, cultural, education, faith-based, environmental, health, and human services campaigns conducted primarily in the New England region, we’ve identified the following 12 Tips for Continuing to Raise Money in Tough Times.
- Sharpen your case for giving by zeroing in on the values closest to the homes and hearts of your strongest supporters and stakeholders. NOTE: How do you know what they value if you do not listen to them?
- Design a comprehensive campaign that makes sustainable and/or increased annual giving the top priority followed by programmatic growth and/or expansion. NOTE: Capital campaigns can still be successful, but endowment has dropped considerably among donors’ priorities.
- Lengthen the quiet phase of your campaign to allow more time for optimum preparation.
- Hold-off on announcing your goal publically until you have commitments totaling 65-75% of your goal. The old rule was 40-50%.
- Continue conducting planning study interviews throughout your campaign; the shelf life of a planning study is now just 6-9 months, when it used to be 12 months.
- Plan for 95% pledge collection rate. The old rule was 97%.
- Insist upon higher levels of comprehensive performance and closer monitoring of quarterly goals/targets and asking yields by staff/counsel/Board. Demont’s Diminishing Returns Concept in Campaigns provides useful benchmarks for analysis.
- Improve your professional training by utilizing a positive approach to helping volunteers make effective asks. Asking Matters can help your volunteers identify their personal Asking Style.
- Expand the repertoire of the kinds of asks made of your unique and more sophisticated prospects and ensure these prospects a asked by your most adept solicitors. Demont’s SMARTASKS can help you tailor your ask.
- Build strong relationships with Board leaders so that they own both challenges and solutions. Click here FMI about Board Chair Training and Counsel services provided by Teri Bordenave.
- Know your major donors better than ever by practicing active listening in more frequent and meaningful contacts. Click here for good resources on active listening.
- Conduct Demont’s Culture of Philanthropy Evaluation (COPE) for a productive pathway to sustainable and increased philanthropy whether in a campaign or not. Click here for more information on Demont’s new COPE services.