12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising - Day 1: Vision

Unlock the secrets to becoming a major gift fundraising powerhouse with The Practice of Nonprofit Leadership as we embark on a transformative 12-day series.

This episode sets the stage by laying down the essential groundwork for creating a successful major gifts program, ensuring that leadership and fundraising is a learned skill anyone can master.  Day 1 starts with vision, helping people know where you are heading and why they should consider investing in your nonprofit.

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Transcript

Nathan Ruby: 0:08

Welcome to day one of the 12 days of major gift fundraising. My name is Nathan Ruby and, along with my good friend, tim Barnes, we are the co-host of the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership and this series, this 12 days of major gift fundraising. We're so excited to do this, so excited to lay this out for you and to help you become better major gift fundraisers, and this is the first time that we have done podcasts every day for 12 days in a row, so we're excited about that and excited to help you make a bigger impact in your organization. So, if you're just joining for the first time with the practice of nonprofit leadership, this is a podcast that Tim Barnes and I have done now for gosh a couple of years, maybe going into our third year, and we are longtime friends. Tim is the executive vice president of operations of the International Association for Refugees. I'm the executive director of a nonprofit called Friends of the Children of Haiti. Tim's organization is global, working with refugees around the world. My organization operates a primary health care facility on the southern coast of Haiti and we got together and we've been friends for a long time and we just one day decided you know what we think there's a gap in the market, a gap on podcasting talking about leadership within nonprofits, certainly from a fundraising perspective, because that's always a big part, but also from the executive leadership perspective as well and so it took us a while, but we finally got it together and we just started dropping episodes, episodes and gosh. It's been a great ride and we both love doing it and looking forward to doing it into the future. So that was that's the podcast.

Nathan Ruby: 2:13

This series, the 12 days of major gift fundraising actually came from a conversation that I had with my 23 year old son Actually, I think he's 24 now, but you know's 24 now but all of our kids have worked since they were old enough to work in our state in high school, and so he's had enough different bosses. He's had some good bosses, some so-so, and he's had some really bad ones. And so we were in a conversation of is a? Is leadership born? Are you born with leadership ability? Is it natural or is it learned? And he came down on the it's, it's, it's born. You're either born a leader or you're not, and of course, I came down on the side of no. Some leaders are born, of course. Obviously, some are just more prone to it than others, but it's learned. You can learn how to do this.

Nathan Ruby: 3:11

After our conversation, I was thinking to myself that's major gifts and so many executive directors struggle with major gifts, and so that's where this series came from. Helping executive directors realize, understand came from helping executive directors realize, understand and learn that you can become a very proficient major gift fundraiser. Yes, some people are better at it than others. Yes, some people are going to have an easier way learning it than others, but you can do this. So that's where this series came from.

Nathan Ruby: 3:46

I'm excited to get going on it today. I know you probably didn't wake up this morning excited about getting out there and asking your donors for a major gift. I get it. It's hard work. It's hard work. I have something that's going to help you. Every two weeks, I put out a quick video packed with game-changing content for executive directors trying to learn major gifts. In these videos, you'll get expert tips and proven strategies, practical fundraising hacks. Strategies, practical fundraising hacks, innovative ideas to engage donors, real-world case studies and solutions and, for the first time ever, exclusive access to casual Zoom hangouts with fellow executive directors and me and Tim, who are sticking their toes into the major gift work just like you. Don't miss out on this opportunity to join a community of passionate fundraisers who are committed to excellence in major gift development. Go to nonprofitleaderonline and sign up today to receive your first video newsletter and start transforming your major gift program. I'll see you there.

Nathan Ruby: 5:11

So this series is basically broken into three pieces. The first piece is the first part. The first third is prerequisites easy for me to say prerequisites. Easy for me to say prerequisites that you need to have as a base to develop a thriving major gifts program. So that's the first. Third is prerequisites. The second third is our five-step framework for securing major gifts. This is a step-by-step do one, do two, three, four, five. And when you get done with this, you will have a very solid understanding of the process that you go through.

Nathan Ruby: 5:50

Sometimes, I think for a lot of executive directors, they get held up in major gifts because they don't know what to do and they don't know what to do next. So that's what these five steps will do, and then we're going to end with creating a culture of philanthropy and how that will impact your major gift efforts. So that's what we're going to do Prerequisites, five steps of securing a major gift, and then culture of philanthropy. We're going to get right into it Today's day one. And so here is your first prerequisite.

Nathan Ruby: 6:21

I still cannot say that First prerequisite is vision, and if you don't have vision, I'm going to stay right here on the top. If you don't have a strong, compelling vision for your organization, you will never, ever, maximize your major gift program. You will always leave money on the table. It is that important. And in the context of a nonprofit organization, vision refers to a clear, compelling and aspirational statement that outlines the long impact the organization seeks to achieve. It's a picture of a future reality and it has to be exciting, it has to be big, it has to be audacious, it has to be something that gets people excited, and it doesn't make any difference if your organization just handles Elm Street in your local town that's, the scope of the organization is just on your block or if your organization is global and you're doing work in 37 different countries.

Nathan Ruby: 7:29

The vision remains the most important thing of your organization. So what does that have to do with fundraising? Well, fundraising is built on trust trust in you as a leader and trust in your organization, and so a clear and compelling vision is kind of the building block for creating that trust. And here's a few ways where that comes into play. So, first of all, vision aligns priority, and so when you have a clear vision, it will help your board and you as a leader, and your staff make decisions that align with that vision. So organizations can evaluate new opportunities. So is there a potential partnership or a new funding source or expansion? Are we going to expand? And by sticking to your vision and having a clear vision, your decisions will then start to make sense because they're aligned.

Nathan Ruby: 8:34

Without vision, there's no baseline to assess those opportunities, and so you run the risk of having scattering your resources and diluting impact. So let's give a quick example of that. If your vision is to plant elm trees or trees, just say trees to plant trees in your town, okay, that's our vision. We want to make our town a beautiful place for everyone All right, and we'll get to mission here in a bit. But we're our. Our organization is about planting trees in your town. That's our vision. Well, now, all of a sudden, if somebody comes along and says I will give you a hundred thousand dollars to clean up the dump on the outside of town, okay, well, does that fit your vision or does it not, and I'm not telling you whether it does or it doesn't. But when you have a clear vision, you can then say clearly yes, that's something that we want to think about, or no, that's outside of our scope, it's outside of our vision. And the reason that's important is because donors want to know what their money is going to be used for, and the more clear that you are in how that money is going to be used, with a compelling vision, you will get yourself closer to a major gift. So visions align priorities.

Nathan Ruby: 10:09

Number two visions provide a framework for evaluating trade-offs. So let's face it we're nonprofits, some of us are very small nonprofits, and we have limited resources, so we constantly have trade-offs. Should we do this or should we do that? Should we create a new program? Should we strengthen an existing one? Should we get into advocacy work or should we stay at community-based services? A clear vision will help you make these tough decisions by providing a framework for what's most important. So your board is there to help you and to help you make those decisions. But if the board doesn't have this vision that they can make evaluations on and they can decide these trade-offs, should we do this or we do this? Again, just like vision aligns priorities, you run the risk of diluting your organization and that is not good for major gift owners. Third vision guide strategic planning and your major gift owners.

Nathan Ruby: 11:15

Third vision guide, strategic planning and your major gift program depends on strong vision and this will help you when you're doing other strategic type planning, with goals and timelines and what resources are available and what obstacles you're going to face resources are available and what obstacles you're going to face. Vision can act as a benchmark, ensuring that strategies align with the long-term goals of the organization. So it helps to shape what's possible, but also provides clear direction for setting measurable objectives. So without a vision, knowing where you're going, it's very hard to do any type of strategy if you don't know what your end goal is of where you're going. And then, lastly, vision inspires accountability Major donors they love an organization that can show them. One year ago, three years, five years ago, this is what we said we were going to do and now this is what we've done.

Nathan Ruby: 12:15

I had a donor one of my major donors in the past came up to me. It was a high five-figure, multiple year five-figure, so it's now in six figures. It's now in six figures. And they came to me and said we've been following you for the last couple of years. You have done what you said you were going to do and because of that we have this gift that we want to make. Let's sit down and talk about it.

Nathan Ruby: 12:45

And so staying true to your vision provides accountability, so that your donors know, year after year after year, you're going to be going in the same direction. So think of it this way Vision will set your organization's direction. So think of it as a train. Set your organization's direction. So think of it as a train. So the city of New Orleans, it's an Amtrak train that travels between Chicago and New Orleans. So if you're in Chicago and you want to go to New Orleans, you can take the city of New Orleans and it'll take you to New Orleans. But if you're in Chicago and you want to go to Fargo, north Dakota, well, don't get on the city of New Orleans, because it's not going to Fargo, it's not going west, it's not going north out of Chicago, it's going south, out of Chicago down to New Orleans.

Nathan Ruby: 13:39

Your vision is that same way. It shows a direction of where you're going, and I don't know about you, but in January, february, there's a lot of people in Chicago that could get excited about going to New Orleans, especially in Mardi Gras time. People get excited about that. Well, same way with you for your vision. People who are excited about the vision of where you're going, where the organization is going, will support it with their checkbooks and their stock gifts and their other major gifts. Those who aren't excited won't, and that's okay. It's better to have a few donors who are passionate and excited about where you're going rather than a whole bunch few donors who are passionate and excited about where you're going, rather than a whole bunch of donors who are lukewarm about where you're going and really don't know where you're going and they're not really excited about it because you can't really articulate it. Anyway, you want donors who are excited about where you're going and the way that you do that is through vision.

Nathan Ruby: 14:44

Now, this is really really important. All right, if your organization does not have a defined vision at this time, or it isn't really a compelling vision, nobody's really excited about it, and that happens your vision over the years, especially if you've been around for 10, 15, 20, 25 years, an organization's vision can get watered down and it's really not exciting about anymore. So if that is you, I want you to do two things. One, as soon as I'm done with this podcast episode, which is here in a little bit, I want you to get on the phone, call your board president and tell them that we need to get our vision onto the next board meeting agenda and start talking about this. Can you do some major gift work without a clear and compelling vision? Yes, yes, you can, but you will never maximize your major donor gifts without this. That is why this is the first episode. It is that important. So call your board president, get it on the agenda if you don't have a compelling vision.

Nathan Ruby: 15:58

Second, continue listening to this series. Don't quit. There are still things that you could do with major donors, even without a clear and compelling vision. Now, like I said, you're not going to get their best gift, but you could still be productive. So stay in the game, keep listening, but get vision on your next board meeting. Start talking about it as a board. Okay, that wraps up vision for today. Now, tomorrow, we are going to talk about mission and the importance that mission plays in your major gift program, and here's a. Here's a little sneak, a sneak peek. Vision and mission go together like a glove in a hand. Or peanut butter and jelly, or pineapple on pizza. You need them both, so come back tomorrow and we'll talk about mission. So that's all for today, until next time you.