12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising - Day 10: A Culture of Philanthropy

Day 10 of the 12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising is all about creating and maintaining a culture of philanthropy in your organization. 

You will discover how engaging everyone from leadership to volunteers in the fundraising process can transform donor relationships and elevate your organization’s mission. By treating donors as integral partners and not just sources of funding, you can cultivate a more successful philanthropic environment.  In this episode Nathan shares practical steps to identify and nurture this mindset, spotlighting the active role board members can play in donor cultivation and how staff can align their roles with donor engagement strategies.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Building a Culture of Philanthropy
• 11:11 Creating a Culture of Philanthropy

Transcript

Nathan Ruby: 0:00

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. 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, 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. See you there.

Nathan Ruby: 1:26

Welcome to the practice of nonprofit leadership. I'm Nathan Ruby and welcome to day 10 of the 12 days of major gift fundraising. I hope you've been enjoying this and I hope you've gotten some good value out of the time that we spent together so far. We are rounding the final curve and heading towards Tome. I don't even know what that is Heading towards the finish here on day 10, but we still got a lot of good stuff to go. So we are going to hop right into today, which is the culture of philanthropy, and just in case you may not have heard that phrase before and don't understand what it is, let's define that so we all are on the same page. So a culture of philanthropy is an organizational mindset where everyone from leadership to staff, to volunteers, to donors everybody actively participates in and values the fundraising process.

Nathan Ruby: 2:29

Now, the value of this or why you would want to do this is it creates an environment where fundraising is seen not as a necessary evil, but as a meaningful way to advance the organization's mission through authentic relationships with donors. And in the end, when you have a strong culture of philanthropy, it will transform fundraising from an isolated department function into a shared responsibility that's woven into the fabric of the entire organization. So basically, what we're talking about here is having your organization be one where it values your donors and values their participation as a member of the family. They are not some isolated. Yeah, we only want to talk about donors. When we're not meeting budget and we need money, then we'll talk about them, but other than that. They're just going to be placed over in the corner. We're not going to worry about them. So many organizations do that and you're never going to maximize your major gift program if that is how you treat philanthropy and your donors in your organization. You treat philanthropy and your donors and your organization.

Nathan Ruby: 3:48

So I got a couple of things today that hopefully will help you. First thing we're going to talk about here is what does a culture of philanthropy look like? So you got to be able to identify it when you see it. And so number one and what does a culture of philanthropy look like is everyone in the organization can articulate your vision and mission. Now, that seems kind of basic, but I'll give you a little exercise. You can start with your board members on this and go to them and just say hey, do you, could you give me our vision and mission? Some of them might be able to, and if they can, that's awesome. Probably most of you are going to see that they can't, and then you could replicate that. Go to some of your staff people and say, hey, do you know what our vision and mission is? It will give you a chance to talk about vision of the organization and your mission, but it's also a good sense of where you are and do you have just a little bit of work. You know, maybe they got the gist of it, but they just didn't have it exactly right. That's awesome. That means that they're you know you're a lot further down the path, as opposed to having them not have any clue. So In a culture of philanthropy, everybody is going to be able to articulate the vision and mission.

Nathan Ruby: 5:07

Number two board members actively participate in donor cultivation and fundraising. Okay, I know that's a tough one, and every just about every fundraising conference you ever go to, that comes up again and again and again. Is how do I get my board members to help me? How do I get them to engage in fundraising? Well, we're not going to talk about that today because I guess I'll just let you know now. That is actually tomorrow's topic on day 11 is how do I get my board members to help me? So we're going to put that over here on the shelf for a minute. We're going to talk about that tomorrow.

Nathan Ruby: 5:46

But when your board members start actively helping you cultivating and fundraising, especially in major gifts, you know that you're getting closer to a culture of philanthropy. All right. Number three staff members across all departments understand how their work connects to donors. Okay, that's number four. And then number five donors are seen as partners in your mission, not just sources of funding. So they're part of the family, not a ATM machine where you could just drive up at three o'clock in the afternoon and pull some money out and guess what? I just closed the budget. We're good to go for another couple of months Now. Donors have to be seen as full-on partners in the mission of your organization.

Nathan Ruby: 6:35

Okay, well, so if those are some of the ways that when you see it, you'll know that, okay, yep, I've got. My culture of philanthropy is getting better. Well, I don't want you to feel bad. Probably 97% of you that are listening to this. That does not describe your organization. If it does, that is awesome. And if you have a strong culture of philanthropy at your place, that is great. You are way further down the path of getting your major gifts program going and sustainable, and that is awesome, good for you. If that's not, you don't feel bad, because most organizations are not that. So if we know that we probably have some work to do in culture philanthropy, how do we get started doing that Well, I've got three things for you today started doing that.

Nathan Ruby: 7:28

Well, I've got three things for you today. Number one is you probably want to start with your board and getting your board excited about fundraising. That is a very good place to start in building your culture of philanthropy. And a couple of things that you could do here is fundraising should be an integral part of each of your board meetings. Should be an integral part of each of your board meetings. I would, I have always done this, and I highly recommend that you should have fundraising or philanthropy you can call it philanthropy either one as a set agenda item on your board. Mine has always been that way. Out of a hour and a half hour and 40 minute board meeting, try to never go over two hours unless it's like something that's major that's happening. So, on an hour and 45 minutes, probably spending 20 to 25 minutes talking about fundraising. So it has to be uh on front and center, uh as part of your board meeting. So put it on the agenda. That's a way to build fundraising and philanthropy into a culture of philanthropy.

Nathan Ruby: 8:32

And then on the agenda, as you're talking about fundraising, you could talk about major gifts that you're cultivating, major gifts that you've closed. You can celebrate longtime donors, no matter what the size. If you have a donor that's been given to the organization for five, seven, nine, 10 years or more, that's something to celebrate and I also include that time, things that when I'm talking to donors and things that they say about the organization, about the people we serve, those are all things that need to come back to the board, because sometimes your board they get buried in budgets and deadlines and is this going to happen or is that going to happen? And it's easy for a board member to lose sight of the excitement of the organization and achieving the vision and the mission. And it is helpful to them if they can have these stories that donors are saying about the organization and the work that you do. It just gets them more excited. So sharing those donor stories.

Nathan Ruby: 9:39

So start with your board, get fundraising. If you don't already have it on the agenda, get it on there every board meeting, because I'm telling you, if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. You've got to make it front and center. Giving it board agenda time will help you to do that. So that's number one. Number two share donor stories and feedback across the organization. So these donor stories that I just told you to share with board members, don't just keep it there, get that across the organization. So these donor stories that I just told you to share with board members, don't just keep it there, get that across the organization.

Nathan Ruby: 10:12

And one of the ways that you could kind of frame that is to say and I would do it and I've done it in the past and I continue to do this is in staff meetings or if you're doing, if they're volunteers, you're doing a volunteer meeting. It's just say, hey, I just wanted to share a story, uh, about you know, if the, if the donor has given you permission to use their name, their name, that's awesome. Uh, you just say you know the McIntyres, remember the McIntyres? Uh, you know, I just I was with the McIntyres a couple of weeks ago and they had some wonderful things to say about what we were doing here and I just wanted to share with you a few things that they had to say and you share whatever your conversation is with them. And then I wrap it up saying this donor believes in what we're doing as a team so much that they're writing checks out of their own accounts to help us so that we could keep doing these amazing things. How cool is that.

Nathan Ruby: 11:11

And so for your staff or your volunteers, it's another way for them to feel oh my gosh, somebody believes in me, somebody believes in what I'm doing, I'm part of this team that is making a difference in this town, in this community, in this state, in this country, in the world, and it's something important. And somebody is helping us do it, and so it's a way to build this shared connection, and it's a great way to do that. So you don't have to do that every meeting, but I would say fairly regularly, spend a little bit of time sharing with your staff or with volunteers, these great things that are happening to help you, as an organization, continue to move towards your vision and mission. All right, so that's number two. Number one is your board. Number two is staff and volunteers. Number three I want everyone connected.

Nathan Ruby: 12:08

So if you have a, let's say, you have a building, a building that you operate in, that you function out of, I want everybody in that building to understand basic donor communications. So what does that mean? I want to educate staff, volunteers, what the donor process is. So what is identification, what is qualification? What is cultivation. What is asking? What is stewardship? Now, they don't need to be as expert in it as you are, but they need to understand. This is how we get gifts that are going to help us achieve the vision and mission that we have. So that they understand and you may think that your frontline staff won't care about this they do, they will. They will find it interesting to learn about something that is outside of their own area of expertise or the thing that they do every day. I've been doing this a long time and every time I've done this with staff in multiple different organizations. I've always had them come up afterwards somebody and say that was really interesting. I never understood why they would have donors come to see the building. I never understood that until now. So educate them on the donor process so they understand what you're doing and why you're doing it, and then, at the same time, educate those staff on the role that they play.

Nathan Ruby: 13:41

So let's do a scenario here. Let's say that you are, mr and Mrs McIntyre are considering a major gift. They've been to the building multiple times, but they haven't really looked through the building much. They were there for an event, but they haven't really seen it, and so you're going to give them a full tour of the whole building. And they walk in and they're greeted by whoever's at the front desk. They let you know that they're there. So you come right away and greet them and you visit a little bit, catch up on what their kids or grandkids are doing, whatever the case may be, and you say, well, let's get started with the tour.

Nathan Ruby: 14:22

And so you're walking down the hallway and you are, you know, talking back and forth and you get to you know, I don't know, uh, pick out a name, uh, any staff person who is there, you know, walking down the hallway and you say, oh, mr, mrs McIntyre, I want to introduce you to. You know, our staff person here, whatever name you want to use, um, you know, this staff person has been with us for years. They do such a great job. Uh, you know, we're so happy to have them. And staff person this is Mr and Mrs McIntyre, their donors, and uh, and so you're introducing them and your staff person says, oh, my gosh, yo, thank you for coming today. It's so great to see you, thank you for supporting what we do. We can't do this without you.

Nathan Ruby: 15:09

What do you think the impression is on that donor. When they are greeted that way, they are told thank you and they're told that their giving makes such a tremendous difference. That is extremely powerful. Now, I don't want you to give your staff a script and say, okay, memorize these words and read it. That's not what we're looking for, and there may be some staff that you could do that with. There may be some staff you can't, so you may have to pick and choose, but I want all of my staff, at the very least, when they get introduced to a donor, they are able to say thank you and tell the donor that it means such a difference, makes such an impact, for them to be giving owner communications.

Nathan Ruby: 16:08

A strong culture of philanthropy will transform how your organization approaches fundraising and ultimately lead to more sustainable support for your mission. So that is what we've got today for culture of philanthropy. I think I'll leave you with this last thing. And culture of philanthropy is not a one and done thing. This is not something that you do, and you know you train your staff on it, you train your volunteers on it, you train your board on it and okay, we've got it and we're fine. This is an ongoing effort. Um, and you know, you start at a starting point. We all have to start somewhere, and then we keep going and we keep getting better and better and better and better at it. So this is over the long haul. This never ends. You just keep training and you keep educating and you keep getting better until someday you turn around and it's like, oh my gosh. This entire organization understands its role in fundraising and is eager to participate because it helps all of us have the resources we need to do a better job serving the people that we serve. So that is it for Culture Philanthropy.

Nathan Ruby: 17:16

Tomorrow is going to be day 11, and we will be talking about how you could get your board to help you in this major gift effort. I don't want to. I don't want to. I want to set the right stage. You are still responsible to lead this, to lead the major gift efforts. You have to lead, but you could get help from some key people, from your board members, who will take you further down the path quicker than if you don't include them. All right, that's a wrap. So it's time for me to say that's all for today, until next time.