12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising - Day 6: Cultivation

On Day 6 of the 12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising, Nathan is focused on the concept of Cultivation, taking the steps needed to prepare the prospect for "the ask".

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Chapters

• 0:08 Cultivation in Nonprofit Leadership
• 7:55 Building Deep Relationships With Donors
• 19:25 Cultivating Donors for Major Gifts

Transcript

Nathan Ruby: 0:08

Welcome to the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership. I'm Nathan Ruby. We're on day six of the 12 days of major gifts, and a special welcome to all the puzzle lovers and mystery solvers, because today we're going to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Now this one. This might be a little longer than some of the other ones. You may have noticed in the time of this episode. It's a little longer, and that's because you are going to spend more time in cultivation than any of the other steps of this process. It's going to take longer. So, because it's going to take longer, it's where you're going to spend most of your time, so it's going to take me a little bit longer to explain it to you and to give you some examples. So sit back, get comfortable, refill whatever beverage you're drinking and let's get right into it. So we're going to start by defining cultivation, and cultivation is the process by which we take a donor and walk them down the path through a series of intentional steps, to go from low-level transactional giving to deeper relationship, which drives larger and larger gifts. So this is a process. Now, our output for this is a little different than the last two steps. In the last two steps, in identification and qualification. Our output was a list. You actually have a piece of paper in your hand or it's on your laptop or on your iPad or wherever you have your list, but it's an actual list, something you could touch.

Nathan Ruby: 1:56

Our output in cultivation is different. It is getting the prospect ready to ask for a gift. It is getting the prospect ready to ask for a gift. So the output we're looking for is actually to answer a set of questions. What questions you ask? Well, let's talk about it. So, question number one there's four questions that we want to have the answer to, and once we have the answer to those four questions, then we're going to be ready to make the ask, and cultivation is then getting these answers so that the donor, the prospect, is prepared for a successful ask. So question number one is what is the donor's hot button? And by that we mean what is it that they're most excited about? Every donor, if they're a donor to your organization, there is something about your organization that gets them excited. We need to find out what that is. That's their hot button.

Nathan Ruby: 2:59

Number two is what is the right dollar amount to ask for? Yes, we are gonna ask for a specific amount, but let's not worry about that today. We're going to talk more about that tomorrow. We'll worry about that tomorrow. But number two is we need to know what dollar amount to ask for. Number three is who is the right person, or the right people? Sometimes it's more than one person. It might be two, might be three, three people's pretty rare. Usually it's either one person or two people. It's never four, never. I've never done an ask in my entire career of four people. I've done a uh uh with three people a couple of times, but that's rare. So usually it's just one person or two. So who is that? Is it you? Is it you and someone else? So we need to know that. And then the fourth one is when? When should I ask? So what is the donor's hot button? What is the right dollar amount to ask for? Who is the right person to make the ask and when should I make the ask? Who is the right person to make the ask and when should I make the ask? When you know the answer to those four questions, you are ready to ask the donor for a gift.

Nathan Ruby: 4:11

Cultivation is how we get those answers. Now how do we go about finding out those answers? Well, the easiest, quickest, most direct way and actually the only way in my career of doing this. The only way I've ever found to do this is you need to have a series of conversations with your prospects and you ask them those questions to get those answers. Simple as that you talk to your prospects. Simple as that you talk to your prospects. We are now at the point in the process where you need to start having one-on-one, face-to-face conversations with your prospects. This is the fun part. This is when we actually get to engage face-to-face and build relationships. And I'm telling you, if it's something that is doesn't sound appealing to you, don't worry about it. We're going to, we're going to take you, we're going to help you, we're going to get you there. But this is the part where you need to start talking to your prospects.

Nathan Ruby: 5:14

So let's go back to our donors Mr and Mrs McIntyre. Remember them? We talked a lot about them lately, but we know that the McIntyres have a capacity to make a major gift Now. We did that in the qualification process. So we're pretty confident, pretty sure, that they have the capacity to give a gift at the level that's going to put them into our major gift program, and we've had some conversations with a board member or two that know the McIntyres and we feel confident that they are part of the organization They've given past years. We know that they could give at a certain level and we're feeling pretty confident that they are a good, solid, major gift prospect.

Nathan Ruby: 6:00

So the next step and this will be the first step in cultivation is to call them on the phone. Don't send them an email, don't send them a text. You call them on the phone and invite them to coffee. Now I'm making an assumption here that you're local, that you're local with your donor, and for this purpose we're going to assume that your donor is local. If the donor is not local, if it's out of your area, you can do this with Zoom calls, but it's not the preferred way. The preferred way is face-to-face. So for the rest of this session we're going to assume that your donor is local. So we're going to call them on the phone and we're going to invite them to coffee. We want it to be this first visit. We want it to be somewhere neutral, not their home, not your office, but just somewhere in the community that you could go and have a 30-minute, 45-minute conversation.

Nathan Ruby: 6:52

And in that conversation we're going to ask them three questions. These are the three questions that I ask my prospects when I've got a major gift prospect and I'm meeting them for the first time. These are the three questions that I asked. Number one how did you first get connected with the organization? Question number two what is it about our organization that you get excited about? And number three what is your overall goal for your giving? What gets you really excited when you give? Those are the three questions that I ask. Now, what am I looking for in each of those questions? What are we doing with question one? First of all, this gets the donor talking right off the bat. You want the donor in this meeting, specifically in this visit. You want your donor doing the vast majority of the talking. If you are talking, you are doing this wrong in this meeting for sure. So you want to get them talking.

Nathan Ruby: 7:55

And everyone loves to talk about themselves. Everybody will tell you that story of how they first got connected and there's a story out there that says they did an experiment and they took a plane across the United States New York, I think it was New York to LA, I think is what the flight was and they sat up in first class and the science person the person doing the test sat next to their person and on one flight the scientists spent the entire time talking about themselves. It was all about them, all about the scientists. Then on the second flight, they sat in the same seat with another person who sat next to them and on that flight all they did was ask the other person questions and let the other person talk, and most of those questions were about that individual. And then when they got off the flight, they interviewed both of the passengers and the one passenger where the scientist talked about himself. They that passenger had a negative review of their, of the person they sat by, didn't, did not think very highly of them. The other person, where the scientist just asked questions that didn't say anything. That passenger was like oh, they were the greatest people, they were so wonderful, they were so nice, they were so wonderful, and the scientist didn't really say anything about themselves. All they did was let the other person talk.

Nathan Ruby: 9:29

So everyone loves to talk about themselves and so you want to get your donor, your prospect, talking and talking about the story of how they first got connected. The other thing that I'm looking for with that question is, I'm looking for natural connections. So if your donor, if the McIntyre, say, oh, the the Anderson's invited us to the gala five years ago and you know we're such great friends with the Anderson's and you know we went to the gala and then we did this, we did so. Now all of a sudden I know that okay, maybe the Anderson's are somebody that could help me with this ask, you know, with this process, or the other way around, maybe the McIntyres, after they make a major gift, maybe they can help me with the Andersons. So it just I'm looking for getting them talking, getting them sharing, getting them talking about how they first got connected. But then I'm also looking for natural connections. So that is question one. Question two all about the hot button.

Nathan Ruby: 10:29

I want the donor to tell me what it is that excites them about this organization and it's very clear in the answer what is it about our organization that you get excited about and here, for this example, let's use a symphony excited about and here for this example, let's use a symphony. And in a symphony you have all kinds of different sections. You have the trumpet section, the trombone section, the violins, the cellos. You know all kinds of different sections in a full symphony and each of those sections are a part of the whole. And I grew up, I grew up playing the trumpet. It's, it's one of the instruments that I well. It's the only instrument. It's the only instrument I know how to play, but I love playing the trumpet and we we talked about this earlier in the in the process as well, and so I want, I, I would want to know about the trumpets, right? So if we ask the McIntyres in this case, and they say that, oh, their favorite section of the symphony is the trumpets, okay, now I know what their hot button is. Now I want everything that I talk about from here on is going to relate back to trumpets.

Nathan Ruby: 11:44

So let's use another example. Let's say that we're in a uh, you're in a uh animal shelter, and you're a full animal shelter. You've got dogs, you've got cats, you've got you know, there's some birds in there that were rescued You've got all of these different things. What is it about our shelter that gets you the most excited? Oh, oh, my gosh. I just I love the dogs, I love to go see them. And or the cats. That wouldn't be me, because I'm not a cat person, so that would not be my hot button. Don't come talk to me about cats, sorry. All you cat lovers out there, that's awesome, you'll love your cats. I just am more a dog person. So if you're going to come talk to me and cultivate me to make a gift to your animal shelter, talk to me about dogs, don't talk to me about cats, all right. So that's question two is what is their hot button?

Nathan Ruby: 12:32

And then the third question is I'm looking third question, as a reminder is what is your overall goal for your giving? What gets you the most excited? So in this I'm looking for connection to the vision and mission of our organization. I'm looking for confirmation that they are really excited about what we are doing. So if I asked a question now, you did a little bit of this in the qualification, but this goes deeper than in the qualification process. I want to know at a deeper level what is it that, when they write a check, what is it that they are excited about? Do they want to change the world? Do they want to improve the lives of children in their community? What is it specifically that gets them excited? Because then, if I can take my programming, my vision, my mission, my values, my pillars and connect those back to the donor in a deep and meaningful way. That is going to get me closer and closer to a major gift. So those are the three questions that I start with.

Nathan Ruby: 13:49

So now you have the, you have the visit, you ask those questions. You had a great visit probably going to be. I've never had one of these go less than a half hour. Mostly it's going to be an hour hour, and 50 minutes is pretty common. So now that we've done that and we've said thank you, and they kind of went their way and you went back to the office or wherever. Now you sit down quietly, with no distractions. Hopefully Sometimes they even do this in the car, because I know when I get back to the office I got 14 emails and seven voicemails waiting for me. So sometimes I just drive around the corner park and I do this right in the car, right on the spot.

Nathan Ruby: 14:31

But you got to debrief what did I learn? What do I need more information on? And this is where the detective part or the puzzle component comes. So let's say, let's go back to our symphony example. So let's say that the MacIntyres we know that they're trumpet players. They're actually trumpet players, they love the trumpet section so much because they played the trumpet in high school.

Nathan Ruby: 14:58

Okay, what's your next step? Well, what I would do and remembering, we want to bring them closer and closer, deeper and deeper in relationship with the organization and with me both. I want to bring them in closer. So what I would do is I would make a phone call to our first chair trumpet player and for those of you that band is not part of your history, the first chair means that they're like the best trumpet player of all the trumpet players, so they're like the section leader for that section. So I would call up the first chair trumpet player and say, hey, whatever their name is, I need you to come with me to go see a new donor prospect. And I would set up the next visit, whether it's in a week or a couple of weeks or a month, whenever it is. I would set up the next visit to have the McIntyres come meet the first chair trumpet player with me, with the four of us. That would be my next step. Then, during that visit, I would have my musician, my first chairperson. I would have them coached so that somewhere in the conversation that they would invite the MacIntyres to come in and sit in on a section practice where they could meet the rest of the trumpet players.

Nathan Ruby: 16:24

Now, this is obviously a unique example that I'm using and you may not be able to do something like that. That's so well structured. But you could come up with other ideas to draw them, to draw the McIntyres in deeper and deeper into connection with the organization that they're most interested and with you All. Right Now, the key here and I'm I said this like three times, so I'm going to say it the fourth time because it's that important is you need to start building a deeper and deeper relationship between you and the prospect and the organization and the prospect, and so if you have a symphony, then you could use the idea and you could introduce them to whatever section leader that they're most interested. But if you don't have that, there's other things that you could do as well. So some of the things that I've done in the past to build deeper, deeper relationships with my donor prospects is I've met in my office. They could come meet with you in your office. Now there's so many of us that are working remotely now, working from home, that may or may not be an option for you, but you can meet in their home, in the donor's home. And just a little input here I have never received a major gift from a donor that I did not visit them in their home. I did not visit them in their home, not a single one. Because when you meet in their home, that implies a deeper relationship. So just put that in the back of your head, that meeting in a donor's home or a prospect's home is a big step towards getting a major gift. All right, so I've had dinner.

Nathan Ruby: 18:25

I have asked the prospect for help in, but only in their area of expertise. So what does that look like? So let's say that I am going to. I have a oh, I've got to redo all of the job descriptions for you know, key positions or volunteer positions, whatever. Well, if my donor has a human resources, an HR business, or they are the CFO or the chief operating officer of some large corporate organization, they probably have expertise in creating meaningful job descriptions. So if you have an issue that needs to be solved or you need to help in a certain area and your prospect has expertise in that area, that is a huge step in building relationship when you're asking for help or advice or guidance from your prospect in an area that they're knowledgeable about, big step.

Nathan Ruby: 19:25

What else have I done? I've picked them up for events, especially my events. Oh, they may not be able to drive anymore. They may not feel comfortable going somewhere they don't know. I've picked them up, I have visited them in the hospital, tour of the office or the program site, meeting other staff members, other board members, other volunteers. There's lots of things that you could do that are unique to you and your organization, that you can build a deeper relationship with people.

Nathan Ruby: 20:00

But one word of caution here this is a balancing act. So on one side, you are developing deep and meaningful relationships with some very wonderful people. That is a big part of cultivation is developing that relationship, and they're real relationships. At the same time, you are constantly moving your donor closer and closer to a major gift. So what does that look like? So let's say that I want the prospect to meet a staff person. That's my next move is getting them. I want them to whatever program they're most interested in. I'm going to introduce them and have them spend time with one of my staff people or one of the volunteers that work directly frontline in that program area. So I'm going to pick up a staff person or volunteer who's in that program and I'm going to have that staff volunteer come to coffee or come to dinner or wherever we're meeting at. They're going to come. But what I will also do is I'm going to probably meet the donor a little earlier. Let's say that the visit is two o'clock, so I'm going to the donor and I are going to meet at 1.30 and we're going to catch up. You know how's the family? How was your trip to Iceland? Is you know, mrs McIntyre, are you nervous about your upcoming surgery? I know she has upcoming surgery because it came up in our previous conversations and I know that surgery is two weeks out. So it's getting closer and closer and closer.

Nathan Ruby: 21:46

All of these relationship deepening conversations can be done inside that relationship. Then you have your staff person come in a half hour later they come walking up to the table. You stand up your prospects, stand up and say, oh, mr and Mrs McIntyre, I want to introduce you to our wonderful, awesome staff person volunteer who works directly in this program and we're going to visit the next half hour about the program. And then you sit down and generally what I do is I then back off a little bit, and I let the McIntyres and my program person drive that conversation. So that's how you, that's how you would do that. So you are both deepening the relationship but also making sure that you really understand their excitement for the program and that they have a deeper understanding of the program. Okay, okay, one of the things that I want you to do, want you to think and this goes back also back to mystery solving or puzzle putting our puzzles together is sometimes it's helpful to start at the end and work backwards to figure out what your next step is, what your next step is.

Nathan Ruby: 23:13

So our ultimate output here is getting the prospect ready for an ask for a major gift, and we know that we're ready for that is when we have an answer to the four questions and not just surface level answers, not just well, you know, I think I know how much to ask for and, yeah, I'm pretty sure that they're sure that what they want to achieve, what they're giving, I'm pretty sure that we align with that. No, that's not good enough. You have to be rock solid. You have to know that you know the answers to those questions. So that means for each individual, after you meet them for the first time you need to create a plan or outline of how you think you're going to get them to get. Those questions are answered. Every major gift prospect is different. They're not the same. They all have different paths and so you need to sit down and map that out. Now I'm not saying you have to do a big map thing on the wall and all of that, but typically to get a major donor from identification qualification, our first cultivation visit to get them ready for the ask, three, four, five steps is pretty common. Sometimes you could do it in two, but that's rare. Sometimes it takes seven or eight. Two, but that's rare. Sometimes it takes seven or eight, but again that's rare. So typically three to five steps will get you there. So what is it that they need? So let's go back to our questions and we can kind of tie this all in. So I know from my cultivation steps I know exactly what to ask for.

Nathan Ruby: 24:56

The McIntyres have a deep passion for the symphony. I know they have a passion for the arts because in one of the conversations I had with them I realized that they also gave to the local theater company and I know that they gave at a pretty high level because it was in the theater company's annual report. So I, you know, at that, at that visit, I said, hey, I, I see that you guys are donors to the theater company. You know how great is that, oh gosh. Yes, we, we've been donors there for years. We've been seasoned ticket holders. We love, we love the arts. We love it's something that's important to us. Uh, you know, we've been seasoned ticket holders. We love, we love the arts. We love it's something that's important to us. Uh, you know, we've been supporting the arts and you know, here in local town for years. Okay, I just got, I just got another. If I'm the symphony guy, I just got another another clue that, yep, they're going to buy into our vision and mission. They are excited about what we're doing. So we know that they have a passion for the symphony. They've met the first chair. They know them by name. They're even looking forward to bringing their friends to the after party at the next performance. So, all right, so we've got them connected. We know that they're deeply connected now with the organization and with us connected. We know that they're deeply connected now with the organization and with us. From our qualification work, we already know that they have the capacity to write a $5,000 check. So we know that we've got that.

Nathan Ruby: 26:22

I built a strong relationship with the McIntyres over the last several months. We've met three or four times and we know each other fairly well. I know about their family, they know about mine and I feel strongly that I'm probably the best person to make this ask. I think I can make this ask and do it successfully, because we have a strong enough relationship. Now the last thing that we need to know is when do we make the ask? Well, I know that the McIntyres typically give at year end, so I'm going to make the ask in September. Now, how do I know that? Did I just magically put down September? No, nope, I didn't magically put down September, because at one of the visits we had, I said I'm planning on bringing you a funding proposal for your consideration later this year.

Nathan Ruby: 27:21

When do you typically make your charitable decisions? And their answer was September. So I have. I've been with them. I've visited with them two or three times. They know that, as the executive director, they know that your job is to raise money. They know that you're building a relationship so that they're. They know this is coming. You don't have to to to hide it or beat around the bush. They know that it's coming, and so a simple statement like you know, mr and Mrs McIntyre, I'm planning on bringing you a funding consideration, a funding proposal for you to consider later this year. When do you typically make your charitable decisions? Now, I didn't ask when do they make their gift, because their gift would be December probably, but I asked when do they make their charitable decisions? That was September. If I'm bringing a proposal to them in December, I've missed it, because they already made their decisions in September. They've already allocated their funding for the year and if you wait until December, you will get. Oh, I'm sorry, we've already allocated for the year, we've already made those decisions. But gosh, we'd love to talk to us next year and we'd be happy to consider you. So you've missed a year. So the question is when do you make your charitable decisions? So I know that it's September. That's cultivation Taking your donor down a pathway from I'm pretty sure that this donor will give to us to.

Nathan Ruby: 29:05

I know exactly what it's going to look like and how I'm going to ask them for a gift, exactly what it's going to look like and how I'm going to ask them for a gift. Okay, we have spent um a while talking about this and I know this stuff, especially if this is your early in your major gifts uh, uh experience or your major working in major gifts, maybe. Maybe for you, this is the first time that you've ever really considered adding this to your nonprofit, and earlier in this episode I said that you would need to call your prospect and ask them to coffee. It will be the first face-to-face, or this will be on the phone. Typically, this is not face-to-face. Asking for a visit is typically on the phone. You don't text, you don't email. It has to be a phone call and I have coached and consulted with executive directors from all over the country and I'm telling you for a lot of them maybe a majority of them that initial phone call to schedule that first visit can be terrifying. It is a block and for many of that I've worked with, it actually had kept them from starting a major gift program earlier. That would have catapulted their organization forward. If that's you, don't worry, I got you covered.

Nathan Ruby: 30:34

I have done a video. This is a video format that details out that first phone call. What is the script that you should use? What does it look like? What do you say? Just as importantly, what do you not say? We'll go through some common objections what to do if they say you know, if you say this and your donor says this, how do you respond? We'll go through some of that. This is a free video, doesn't cost you anything. All I need because this is a video it's got I got to have your email address to send you the link to the video. So, uh, just go and email me at info at practice and P leadercom. Info at practice and P leadercom. That email is also in the show notes. Uh, you can see it there. You can just click on it there and it'll take you right to the email notes. You can see it there. You can just click on it there and it'll take you right to the email. So, just email that to me and I will send you a link to the video and that will maybe help take some of that fear and anxiety away from you so that you can make that first call and get this thing going All right.

Nathan Ruby: 31:47

Now this takes us to our next step in the process, which is the ask, and that is going to be tomorrow's episode. We're going to be talking about the ask and I have to warn you, tomorrow's episode might be a little, I don't know, let's say anti-climatic, because if you've done all the work correctly up until now, the ask is simple. It's actually the least important part of the entire process. Now it's only yucky. Making the ask is only yucky. Yucky is a professional fundraising term. It's only yucky if you haven't done the other steps, the preceding steps, correctly. But thankfully for you, you will have done all these steps correctly. You've done them, you'll have done them excellent, and so when you get ready to make the ask, it is gonna be a breeze. So tomorrow we'll be talking about making the ask and it will be day seven. Wow, I cannot believe we are coming down the home stretch already.

Nathan Ruby: 32:58

Remember, if you have questions, if you're confused, if it doesn't make sense, just send me an email. Use that same info at practiceNPleadercom. Send me a question, I will answer it. I'll respond to you. If you want the video on how to get ready and prepared to have a successful first phone call with your prospect, just use that same email. Tell me that you want the video on making the first phone call and I'll get it sent out to you. All right, I'll see you tomorrow. That's all for today. Until next time.