New Year Reflections From 12 Days Of Major Gift Fundraising

In the first episode of 2025, Tim and Nathan dive into the crucial lessons learned from the "12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising," emphasizing the importance of consistency, connection, and passion in nonprofit leadership. They discuss how strategic planning and interpersonal relationships can significantly enhance fundraising efforts and ultimately drive organizational success.  Some of the key points discussed were:

• Reflect on the previous year and insights gained
• Importance of maintaining relationships in fundraising
• Challenges of consistency in nonprofit work
• The role of action stacks in improving efficiency
• Rekindling passion for major gifts and organizational goals
• Emphasis on manageable strategies for cultivating major donors
• Encouragement to plan and prioritize fundraising endeavors for 2025

If you are interested in signing up for Nathan's Video Newsletter, go to www.nonprofitleader.online and sign up for the email list or leave your info in the contact form.

Chapters

• 0:08 Reflecting on Major Gift Fundraising Lessons
• 11:26 Embracing Major Gift Fundraising Passion
• 19:31 Empowering Nonprofit Leaders Through Engagement

Transcript

Tim Barnes: 0:08

Welcome to the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership. I'm Tim Barnes and I'm Nathan Ruby.

Nathan Ruby: 0:27

Well, happy New Year, nathan. I don't know about you, tim. I think this year has gone faster than any time I can remember. It's just like whoop it's over. I don't know. I don't even know how to explain that I don't know.

Tim Barnes: 0:45

I don't even know how to explain that. Well, we were talking a little bit before we came on, but I'm not too sad to see 2024 go. There's been some challenges, but I don't want to wish my life away either. So let's make 2025 better and see what we can do with that. But yeah, I mean it's great. You know, every year, every month, every day, it's a new opportunity and so what we do with it. So every day we get a chance to kind of restart, and so you know we're starting big 2025. Let's jump into it.

Nathan Ruby: 1:21

Oh yeah, and also just a bit advice, uh, before we get going on our topic today. Tim, if you are uh for all of my fund fellow fundraisers out there, uh and executive directors, I would not. I'm, I'm recommending to you not do this, uh. Do not uh, go to your uh fundraising database today and look at your numbers for the day.

Tim Barnes: 1:45

Big fat goose egg zero. Nothing raised this year.

Nathan Ruby: 1:50

Come on, that's right, although I will tell you this I'm going to maybe contradict what I just said. I just popped into my head If you have a great data, if you have a database that you can run a live button list last year but not, but unfortunately not this year New Year's Day is a good day to run that list because it's a simple way to find, without a lot of having to do a lot of queries, who didn't give last year. That gave in 23, but they didn't give in 24. So New Year's Day it's a great day to run that. So you could do that and then see that would give you a whole list of donors to be working on in the first quarter of 25.

Tim Barnes: 2:32

And that's for free. We didn't even charge for that.

Nathan Ruby: 2:34

That's really good, there you go. That's free advice right there. Do with it what you want.

Tim Barnes: 2:38

Well, as we jump into 2025, we thought we'd just take a couple minutes today and we wanted to reflect back on the project we did at the end of the year, end of 2024, which was the 12 Days of Major Gift Fundraising, and I'm grateful for Nathan leaning into that and making that available. We're going to do some other things with that in the new year. You've probably heard some of that already, but we want to just reflect a little bit. Nathan man, what a great opportunity. I'm grateful that you jumped into that. A lot of fun, a lot of challenge. But I'm just interested what did you hear? Or, sorry, what did you learn from that experience? That may even actually benefit all of us who are doing projects and doing work as we go forward.

Nathan Ruby: 3:29

Yeah, yeah, I got a couple of things. First of all, I think one of the things that it really came to the forefront as I was doing those episodes and I didn't get to do them with my friend Tim Barnes, and it was, I mean, I loved doing it, it was great, I loved it. But part of the joy of this podcast for me is the time I get to spend with my friend. And you know, obviously there's the time that we're recording, but you know, before we record a show, you show we've got 15, 20 minutes of where we're catching up and we're talking about the show and then afterwards we always do a little debrief. So for a 20-minute show, we're probably on this call together for over an hour.

Nathan Ruby: 4:19

And for those of you that have really good friends, you know how hard it is sometimes to be connected to your friends, and so I just I uh, it just reminded to me of of how much I like my friend Tim and how much I enjoy spending time with them and, um, so I guess the lesson learned there is is just make sure that you're connecting with people. Uh, you know the, the major gift, uh, the 12 days of major gifts. We talked a lot about connection. We talked a lot about connection. We talked a lot about relationship Um, make sure you're having those relationships outside of work with the people that matter most. So that was, that was number one. Uh, number two uh, consistency is hard, uh, at least it is for me, uh, my personality. Maybe it's a little harder than most, um, but the payoff was worth it. Uh, the, the finished product, uh, I'm really proud of it and, and it was really worth it.

Nathan Ruby: 5:11

But the, the day to day grind, uh, doing 12 shows in a row, 12 days in a row, it was, it was not easy. It was. It was not easy. Um, and so you know the, the, um, um, just just getting in there every day making sure I had the, the, the, the words, the, the. What I was going to say was what I wanted to say, uh, and then just making sure that, uh, that I sat down and I did it. That was, that was difficult. Uh, I'll have to say that.

Tim Barnes: 5:48

I think it's an important point, nathan, because you didn't sit down and just take one day and just go back to back to back to back on it. It was something because you have a, you have a real job, you're you're, you have family, you have everything going on, and so it was something that you said I'm going to do this every day.

Nathan Ruby: 6:00

And it actually was a literal every, pretty much every day, um, so yeah, it was good to know and it was uh, and I did record it during december. Uh, you know it wasn't the, it wasn't the the last 12 days, but but it was recorded during december and, as everybody knows, december is a busy time of year and there were times where I would have on my uh, on my own calendar. You know, I'm going to record at you know, six o'clock in the evening or or whatever. And then you know that afternoon at four o'clock, my wife says, oh, don't forget, we're going to, you know, so-and-so's house.

Nathan Ruby: 6:36

You know, or this Christmas party, or we're going to my cousin's house, or it was like, oh, crud, no, you know, maybe that's not me, I need to do a better job of managing my calendar, but you know it was just getting it all in and just, you know consistency and that you know that goes back to your major gifts program, it comes back to running your organization. It just you know it hits in all of our lives is, if you want to be successful in something you've got to, you've got to be consistency. And and uh, you know, I think there's I don't know, tim, you probably know this there's, there's a book or where, where consistency is actually more important than motivation, consistency will will. Will get you further than pure motivation, because pure motivation runs out but consistency doesn't.

Tim Barnes: 7:27

Well, and I've heard recently someone talk about the idea that the success is boring, in the sense that you know, you see someone who's successful in business or in running their nonprofit or in any kind of endeavor. You see them really successful and you have this idea of, oh, you know, this motivation and this excitement, and actually it's doing the same thing every day, just getting up and doing it, and it's kind of boring. But that's where you make progress is when you're doing that, and so we need to remember that motivation isn't always there, but we can't take the action. If we, if we have a maybe, it's if our why is big enough, is if we are really motivated by that, by our why well, in a, in a major gifts situation.

Nathan Ruby: 8:22

You know some of this, the cultivation process process that we talked about. Depending on the size of the gift, that could be months or even years, plural, I mean, if you're talking a seven figure gift, good Lord, the last seven figure gift I did, yeah, it was multiple. It was probably 36 months of cultivation to get there. Um, so it's, and, and even if it's a, even if it's a thousand dollar gift or a $1,500 gift for your organization, you, it, it might take you six or seven months of consistently doing things, going down, making those touches, making those phone calls, seeing them, you know, at your gala and having a conversation, and you know all the things that we talked about in the cultivation, in the cultivation session. It takes time and so you've got to consistently be working on that. And then if you're doing one major donor prospect in this process, okay, that's work. But then what if you have 10 or 15 or 20 that you're working on? That's a lot of balls in the air that you're trying to keep those balls juggling. And then, oh, guess what, tim, you've got your day job, you've got your other work, you've got your executive director responsibilities and oh, you've got kids, you've got a basketball game or a soccer game or band concert, whatever you've got all of those things and and consistency is something that you really gotta be, gotta be focused on.

Nathan Ruby: 9:56

So so that was that was one. Um, another one. Uh, I've got written down on my paper here action stacks, uh, and that is uh. That goes directly back to Hatch and his episode. What was that? Tim?

Tim Barnes: 10:12

Episode 20-something 24 and 25, I believe yeah.

Nathan Ruby: 10:17

Rob was our guest in those and I think we called that putting leadership success in your way, and Rob wrote a book and he talked about these action stacks and it was basically, when you do something that you're going to do, you know repeatedly, even if you do it all the time. Write down the steps so that, like an airplane pilot or airplane pilot, you know they have a series of steps that they go through so that they make sure that they don't forget anything. Um, in my ADD self, you know that's hard for me to write those things down and then check them off. That's my, my wife Missy, she loves that, she loves checking the box, not so much for me, but uh, I just it was just reinforced how important it is, cause you know, I come downstairs, I record down in the basement and, uh, I record with a headset on and it's like, oh, crud, my headset, it's a um, it's a wireless one, and so it's gotta be charged. Oh, no, my headset's not charged, so now I have to wait for that to charge. Um, or uh, oh, my gosh, my, I record.

Nathan Ruby: 11:26

I recorded this in December in the Midwest and so you know it's cold up here, it's not warm, and the room that I record in is right next to our furnace and I don't think when the furnace runs, I don't think it actually comes through the microphone, but it irritates me. And so, for these shows that I've been doing, I go upstairs and part of my action stack is I go upstairs and I turn the thermostat off so that the furnace won't come on. Unfortunately for my wife, at least twice I did not have on my list to turn it back on because, honestly, I didn't have a list to turn it back on. Um, because, honestly, I didn't have a list. And there was one day I got up in the morning and it's like, why am I cold? My wife gets up and she's like why is it so cold in the house? So it's like, well, I don't know, I don't know, I guess, I guess it's just a little drafty today. Well, and so we, you know, she goes to work and I'm working and I go by the hallway and I, as a reminder on the thermostat, I'd leave the little door thing that you flip open to where the on off button was. Well, I'm walking by the uh, by the, by the uh thing, and I look at it, the door's open. It's like why is the door open? I'm not record. I haven't recorded today, so I look at it. I didn't turn the furnace back on.

Nathan Ruby: 12:53

It was 61 degrees in our house, tim. It was cool, it was brisk that day, and so it's just even on things that you automatically do, or you do all the time having these action stacks pretty important Board meetings. It's one of the best ways things I can example is you have a certain way of making sure that all of your things are done for your board meetings so that it goes as smoothly as possible. Action stacks are there, so go back, re-listen to episode 24, 25, listen to Rob talk about action stacks. Tim, you're really good at that. Uh, way better than I am anyway, Uh, and so that was. That was one of the things that I think would have made this process better for me if I would have actually done them.

Tim Barnes: 13:41

Yeah, Good point. Good point In every area of our life. We need, we need those action stacks for sure.

Nathan Ruby: 13:48

Yeah, and, and I think the third thing or fourth thing that uh has come to me, it's just the passion that I have for major gifts. Uh, that was early on in my career. That's where I started at. Uh, that's what I was trained to do at a, a, two, uh great, um, great mentors and uh coaches who taught me how to do this, and I probably wouldn't I wouldn't well I know, I wouldn't be able to do what I do today without them, uh, and the time and effort that they gave me, um, so that's how I, that's, I think that's how I started in the nonprofit world.

Nathan Ruby: 14:26

Uh, but I do firmly believe that's why I was created, that's why I was placed here, and so the connection here is when you get outside of your natural gifts and as executive directors, as nonprofit leaders, we have to work outside of our natural giftedness, of our natural giftedness sometimes a majority of the time.

Nathan Ruby: 14:54

Tim and I were just talking about this before we started recording that so much of what we do is outside of that where our passion is, and you have to find ways to get back into that passion, back into that lane, to get back into that passion, back into that lane at least some percentage of the time, no-transcript.

Nathan Ruby: 15:19

And it's because we're outside of our. We're outside of our giftedness, um, and that's where stress comes in, that's where burnout comes from, is when we're working outside of the things that we love and and and are passionate about. And so if you, if you have an area that that you're not gifted in and you have you find yourself in over and over and over again, then I really suggest you try to in 2025, find maybe it's a volunteer that can come in and take some of that, maybe it's a part-time staff person, maybe it's a contractor that you can hire to come in and take some of that. Maybe they can't take all of it away from you because you have to spend some of your time there, but just take some of that off your plate so that you can get back to the things that you love and to bring that joy and happiness back to your workday.

Tim Barnes: 16:14

Well, as we wrap up our conversation today, I guess one of the questions I have for you, nathan, is so you've put all this work into the 12 days of major gift fundraising and we did have a lot of fun talking about it, planning it, doing it, but what's your hope? What would you hope would be the response of people who spent time listening to it and thinking about it?

Nathan Ruby: 16:43

Well, before I get to that, I'm just going to say thanks to Tim. Uh, you know, I this, this whole 12 days, was my concept, my idea, uh, and. But Tim got roped into it because, because he had to do all the editing, uh, and there is some work behind that uh, for every, for every minute of showtime, there's probably oh, two to three minutes Easy, sometimes four or five, when I record uh of editing behind it. So Tim has put in a ton of time uh to to make this whole thing work, uh, and so that we could present it. So thank you, tim, uh, so that we could present it. So thank you, tim, for your extra work on that.

Nathan Ruby: 17:24

I think what I want you to do, what I hope you do, is your major gifts program, even if it hasn't started yet, a thriving major major gifts program in your organization will catapult you forward. It will drive revenue to your organization and it will attract people. It will attract new board members, it will attract volunteers, it will attract people and it will generate revenue for you. That will, like I said, that will catapult your organization forward. It is major gifts is of all the different types of fundraising direct mail, grants, events, online, all of these different things for the dollar cost to do it. It will drive more revenue, more return on investment is in major gifts than any other form of of uh, of fundraising. It is the most cost-effective thing to do.

Nathan Ruby: 18:30

So what I want you to do whether it's today, whether you're ready to go today, and if you haven't got to, if you haven't listened to episode 12, we've got an offer there in for you. That's a pretty good offer. Um, if you're ready to go, go, get this thing started so that sometime in 2025, hopefully you will start nailing down and start getting some of these gifts that are going to come in. If you're not ready, it's okay. You don't have to start it right now, uh, but maybe look out in the year and look at. Okay, maybe I can't do it in January or February, uh, but I I feel like maybe I can put this as a priority and no March or April or May, whatever. It is set a date out there to where you could really look at this and start um and getting started in this. So my hope for you as you listen to this is start. You could do this. You can do it. It will pay big dividends. You just got to get started and believe in yourself.

Tim Barnes: 19:30

Well, thanks, nathan.

Tim Barnes: 19:31

Thank you for sharing your expertise and your passion with us all, and even just sitting here watching you talk about this, that passion just kind of oozes out. I know that you not only believe in it, but you're good at it, so thanks for sharing that and looking forward to much more in 2025. Well, thank you for listening today and, as we start this new year, we have a quick favor to ask of you. If you've ever gotten any value out of this show and you haven't done so already, would you go and leave a five-star rating for us and, if you're feeling really generous, leave a review on the platform that you use to listen to us. It just takes a couple seconds, but it really helps us to grow the show and reach even more executive directors who could benefit from what we share. It also helps highlight the importance of good nonprofit leadership and how we all make the world a better place. If you'd like to get in touch with us, our contact information can be found in the show notes. That's all for today, until next time, you.