Hey Fundraiser!
Hey Fundraiser!
How to Close Major Gifts Faster—Without Rushing the Donor
Ready to pour rocket fuel on your major gift efforts? Major Gift Momentum is the solution. Check it out here!
Do you really need to spend 18 months cultivating a donor before making an ask? 😅 (Spoiler alert: Absolutely not.)
In this firecracker episode, Mary calls BS on the outdated “18-month cultivation” rule and walks you through how to build authentic, strategic donor relationships that lead to major gifts faster — without feeling rushed, pushy, or awkward.
What You'll Learn:
- Why loooong cultivation timelines are sabotaging your impact.
- The three things donors must be clear on to say “YES.”
- Five powerful ways to accelerate donor momentum without pressure.
- What to say instead of “can you support our work?” 🙃
- Why smaller portfolios = deeper relationships and bigger gifts.
Resources & Links
🎯 Ready to crush your major gift goals faster? Grab Major Donor Meeting Mastery – it’s your fast track to YES for just $47!
If you loved this episode, please leave a review and share it with a teammate who’s stuck in “not yet” land.
Until next time, keep fundraising with clarity, purpose, and a little sass.
Hi friends, welcome to the Hey Fundraiser podcast. I'm your host, Mary Peterson, and whether you're a frontline fundraiser, an executive director, a board member, or someone just wanting to make an impact in your community, this podcast is for you. We cover all facets of fundraising and our main objective is to give you ideas and inspiration to help you raise more money. Join us as we grow, learn, and make an impact together. Hey, fundraiser, come on in. I am super excited about today's podcast because we're going to talk about a topic I'm very passionate about, and that is a shortened cultivation period. Now, you've probably heard that to close a major gift, it can take up to 18 months. No, I'm sorry. It makes me laugh. It does not take 18 months. That is an old, outdated thought that I used to hear all the time. Like, oh, you know, if you're going to close a six or seven figure gift, it could take two years. Two years? Like what I think most about is like what's happening to the people you're serving, the animals you're serving. the environment you're serving while you're just like hanging out with donors for two years? Absolutely not. So here we are in a post-COVID world where attention spans are very much shorter and People get bored. We're way past the idea of cultivating for years and years before asking for a multimillion dollar commitment. Absolutely not. So as you can tell, I'm very passionate about this because I just think it wastes a lot of time. Donors, especially if they care about your organization, they're going to opt in. They're going to respond to your emails. They're Donors travel and they have busy lives and all the things. If they care, they're going to make time for you and the organization you work for. So I believe that nobody should cultivate for more than 10 to 12 months that's it. Like, because if you're cultivating longer, like it's just, it's just weird to me. Like there's a couple of things wrong. If you, if it takes you 18 months to cultivate first and foremost, that means that your portfolio is too big and you are only being able to do a moose management strategy with a small percentage of your portfolio. So maybe you're in touch with that prospect every other month. That's not good. how it works. If you want to close someone in the next 10 to 12 months, you need to be in touch with that donor at least monthly. And we can talk about all the things that you can do to reach out when you have news, when you don't have news, but it's every single month. I'm a huge fan of a smaller portfolio and then go deep with that portfolio. It doesn't matter to me. Your portfolio could be 20. If you close 20 major gifts this year That is huge. I mean, most successful major gift officers are closing between 12 and 15 major gifts a year, like one a month or one and a half per month. So if you have a top 20 and you close all 20 of them, you're still like kicking butt. Okay, sorry, I'm stepping off my pedestal. What I really want to talk to you about today is this question that I hear all the time. OK, you talk about a shortened cultivation period, but how do I actually shorten the time it takes to make a gift without like rushing the relationship? And the thing here is we're really not rushing the relationship. We're moving at an appropriate pace for the people that you or the clients that you serve. Here's an example. I just heard this a couple of weeks ago. One of my Momentum members said, I've had five calls with this person, three coffee dates, I've done two campus tours, and still I have not asked. I don't know if it's the right time to ask. And of course, I don't have a gift. And it's been 14 months. That needs to be fixed. So today I am walking you through my method for how to create momentum without being pushy so that you can actually build deep relationships and get that person to a yes. Okay, so before we get into the solution, I just want to spend a minute talking about why does cultivation often drag on forever? Believe me, it's more pervasive than I can even tell you about. But here's some common reasons why cultivation gets stuck. The fundraiser doesn't have a clear path or timeline to work within. And as fundraisers, we don't always have a timeline. We have to build the timeline. I mean, unless you're in a capital campaign and you have four years to raise$35 million, you have a clear timeline. But if you're raising money for general operating, if you're not in capital campaign and it's not a specific project with milestones and a time We as fundraisers need to create that timeline and work it. So oftentimes fundraisers struggle to do that. This is why cultivation drags on. There's also a fear of asking too soon. I totally get that. And you don't want to ask too soon. Like that is a no-no in fundraising. But If you're going to do the things that I'm going to tell you to do in this episode, then you're not going to ask too soon. You're going to ask at the exact right time because you're going to have permission to ask. You're going to have laid the seeds that now are growing into an oak. A lot of fundraisers also, they're waiting for their perfect moment. That perfect moment fundraiser is never going to come. So you're just going to be sitting there and cultivating and cultivating and cultivating, waiting for that perfect moment. And that perfect moment isn't going to come. So this is something that also trips up a lot of fundraisers. Lastly, what I often see is that There's just too many general check-ins. Like the moves management, it's not purpose-driven touches. It's, oh, hey, let's go have coffee. And the fundraiser might not move the relationship from one place to the next. And you're constantly moving toward the solicitation. So cultivation doesn't have to be long. My point today here is that it just needs to be intentional and purposeful and planful and strategic. We're going to talk about all those things. So the key to closing faster gifts and shortening that cultivation time is clarity. Donors move fast when they are clear on three things. One is the vision. When a donor understands what you're trying to accomplish and why you're trying to accomplish it now, they they lock in, they invest. They also move faster when they understand how they fit into that vision. So They know what you need from them is specific and it's compelling and it feeds into the vision and they have a role. The third reason that donors move faster is because a fundraiser has talked about urgency. And I'm not talking about artificial pressure here, but like a sense that their gift will meet a real time sensitive need. This is all about vision, role and urgency if you can nail those three things you are going to first of all cultivate like a rock star and close gifts faster than you have ever closed gifts before so a couple tips when it comes to like closing faster gifts one you can't really drop vague like oh let's you know can you support our work and expect a donor to see that as urgent they will not you also need specific You need timelines. You need to understand where your funding gaps are. You need to know opportunities that won't wait, need to be funded now. So those three things are going to help you cultivate in a very strategic way. Major Gift Momentum is hands down one of the best continuing education programs in fundraising. No tote bags, no vague inspiration, just five, six, and seven figure results. Inside Major Gift Momentum, you get access to my entire Major Gift curriculum and weekly coaching calls where we dig into your specific fundraising strategies. We're going to hone your prospect list, tighten up your ask, and build a plan that gets you results faster. You can also Need a pep talk before a big solicitation? I am available and in your corner. Major Gift Momentum is for fundraisers who want to crush goals, build confidence, and close transformational gifts fast. This is real-world fundraising support that actually moves the needle. If you're ready for the big league, head to heyfundraiser.com. You're not alone anymore, fundraiser, and the money's out there waiting for you. Okay, so now that we've kind of talked through how to make a donor clear on those things and move them quicker, I want to give you five ways to accelerate your cultivation, getting to that ask without putting a ton of pressure on the donor because nobody wants that. So these are gentle but powerful ways to build momentum in your donor relationship. One, ask more purposeful questions. I mean, things like, what does impact look like to you? You might ask, what do you need to feel excited about a long-term investment? Like you need to ask really clear, thoughtful questions. And the reason that works and helps you close gifts faster is because you're going to uncover any roadblocks that the prospect or donor has and you're going to gently invite buy-in. Now, when you know the impact that they want to make, you know the roadblocks that they foresee, you can rebut those in a very strategic way. I just want to give you a few more examples. And this is about the donor, but it's also helping you understand where you are in like the philanthropic pecking order. It is okay to ask a Are we in your top three charities? And if not, how can we get there? What do we need to do to be one of your top three this year? It's a great question. I have asked that question dozens and dozens of times. Every time I have gotten a really specific, amazing answer that then I internalized, took back to my organization, and then we worked through, okay, what do we need to do to get a$3 million gift from this person? Now, Philanthropy should never drive your programming. Your programming should always drive philanthropy. So I just want to put out there, if you are a homeless shelter and the donor says to you, you know what would make you in my top three favorite charities is if you got into animal rescue. You're not going to do that. And you should not do that. Do not go build programming based on what a donor wants to see. Your programming Program experts know what's best. Your philanthropy should never drive programming. Programming drives philanthropy. Okay, so we're going to ask more purposeful questions. Oh, sorry, I wanted to give you a few more examples. Another really solid question is, what kind of legacy do you want to leave? Now, that's a deep question, and it's a lot to answer. So you might phrase it in a meeting with, you know, let's say you're meeting with a woman and she's often talked about her grandkids and how much she loves the grandkids. Instead of saying, you know, Doris, what do you want your legacy to be? You might say, how do you want your grandchildren to remember you? Like that is a deeper, purposeful question that's tailored specifically for Doris. So asking more purposeful questions is going to help you shorten the cultivation period and frankly, have a deeper, more connected relationship with your donors. Okay, second way to accelerate getting to the gift without putting a ton of pressure on is to use what I like to call micro asks that kind of build toward your big solicitation. So here's an example. Would you be open to a deeper conversation about where you could make the biggest impact? I mean, essentially you're pre-soliciting and asking permission to solicit. This is very important. One of the things I wholeheartedly believe in is permission-based fundraising and the fact that you should never ask for a gift unless you've gotten permission to ask for a gift. Now, when you ask for permission to ask for a gift, you use a micro-ask. Tim, next time we come together, I have a really cool idea. project that I'd like to talk to you about. And that involves talking to you about a financial investment in our organization. Would that be okay? You're going to get one of three answers. One, he's going to say, yes, we'll talk about it next time we meet. Great. Second is, you know what, now is really not a great time. You know, my twins just started their freshman year of college and I am, I am just, the next four years are really hard for me because I'm I'm strapped. That's okay, too. You would rather hear that before the ask than to go make the ask and get a no. The third thing, and this happens more often than you think, is that Tim will say, gosh, I don't want to wait till the next meeting. Like, what did you have in mind? So you really need to be prepared for what you're going to ask for. But the trick here is to use little micro asks to get you toward your bigger ask. Another way to phrase this is you could say, you know, could I show you what a transformational gift might look like for our organization? Again, you're going to get one of three answers. Yes, no, and what are you thinking? What this does is it keeps the conversation moving forward without any hard pivots. What happens, and this has happened to me many times, it's that things happen in donors' lives and things pivot. And it's not just like a little pivot over here. It's a hard pivot. I mean, you might work for the local symphony and you are with a donor and this donor loves the symphony, but their grandchild gets diagnosed with leukemia. That changes their philanthropy. They might wanna say, you know what? I gotta put the symphony on hold. I'm going to give to leukemia research for the next five years. So when you're having these deeper conversations, when you're having these micro asks, you're keeping things moving forward and avoiding those hard pivots as much as possible. Okay, third thing to do to kind of really accelerate is to reference external timelines. So you might say something like, we as an organization, we are aiming to fully fund this program by June. I would love to explore how you could be a part of that. So what you've done is in a very soft way said, I'm gonna ask you for a gift before June. Now, if it's June and you have three weeks left in the month, that's a different story. But if you're meeting with somebody in January and you say, we're aiming to have this fully funded by June, Over the next few months, I'd love to explore how you might be a part of that. Would that be okay? It's great. But what you're doing is you're putting a timeline. You're putting that urgency in. Another way to really reference an external timeline is, hey, we're preparing our year-end reports for our top funders and would really love to include you. Very soft, very natural. It adds this urgency without a bunch of pressure. So again, it's really about the timelines. And if you as a fundraiser aren't comfortable building your own timelines and working donors through that, reference external ones because they can really help you. Okay, fourth is reframe the ask as a milestone. Okay. I want to give you two examples. So the first example, you could say something like, you know, your gift could be the launching pad for the next phase of our work. Like, that's a very... soft yet powerful statement. Because one, you've referenced a gift, you have referenced that they're an early investor, and you've referenced that you're going to ask a lot more people, but they're kind of in there first. So it's more of like a milestone than like a hard ask. The other way to say it, and I recently heard one of my Momentum members say this, and I really liked it, was, you know, your support could be the catalyst for our community expansion. So really, really putting in an element of leverage, and it really shifts. It shifts the mindset from, I want a gift from you, which is pretty stark and staunch, to you're a key part of what we're trying to accomplish here. So you really want to go toward the latter, right? You don't want to seem like you see your prospects and donors as an ATM. You really want them to be a partnership. Okay, lastly... use your gut and pay attention to the signals. Now, this just takes time. It takes experience and you will get their fundraiser. Like if you're new to fundraising, rest assured, being able to follow your gut is going to come very easily, probably sooner than you think. If you're an established fundraiser who has been around the block like I have, your gut, you need to trust it and the signals that you're getting. So if you have a dome or a prospect, and they're asking you detailed questions. They are leaning in. They are giving unsolicited gifts. Don't overthink this. Go ahead and ask. There is nothing wrong with asking. I mean, you don't want to do it with pressure, but with partnership. Rushing feels like pressure. Momentum feels like clarity. So when you're talking about cultivation, you don't want to rush. You want to be very purposeful, but have clarity, and move that prospect toward a gift. Sometimes you're just going to get this gut feeling that says, okay, now is the right time to ask, or now is the right time to ask permission to ask at our next meeting. Okay, fundraiser, we've covered a lot today. My biggest hope for you is that you now know that you do not need to wait forever to ask. You do not need to cultivate for 18 months. You need to lead with clarity, purpose, and partnership, and the right donors are going to move with you at your pace. So just remember the three big things. Donors move faster when they know the vision, they know their role and how they fit into the vision, and there's a sense of urgency to move now. So I hope this was helpful for you. If it is, follow the show, leave a review, and send this episode to a teammate who might be stuck in like not yet land. Okay, fundraiser, until next time. Hey Fundraiser, thanks so much for being here today. Did you know that we create a special page for each episode that contains helpful links, episode highlights, standout quotes, and freebies? Check it out in today's podcast description. If you loved what you heard today, would you kindly give us a rating and review? It really helps other fundraising professionals find our Hey Fundraiser community. I'm Mary Peterson, and thank you for listening.