The Key to Major Gifts Success Is Meeting with Donors

One of my mantras to clients is the "one a day" plan. Visit one donor, face to face, every day -- 20 a month. If you do that consistently you will raise money. It echoes Woody Allen's great quote: "80% of success in life is simply showing up." I translate that to 80% of major gift success is simply seeing donors.

It's fun to touch base with past clients to see how they're doing. One, Steve Ritchie, Executive Director of the Benedictine Foundation of Mount Angel, Oregon just sent me a note about how they did last year.

"We nearly hit a million dollars. Our best year ever when not in a capital campaign. The key for us has been personal contact with donors. Between us, a group of Sisters and myself, we made 75 donor visits in the month of December. The thank you calls and visits, along with constant cultivation has made all the difference for us. Thanks for getting us going on that Tom. We owe you one."


Tom Wilson, Winning Gifts

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Classic Planned Giving Story

It was fun to be heading off to a meeting at Portland Shriners Hospital on January 24, 2008 to see an article in the local newspaper, The Oregonian, about a lady, Mary Kleinschmidt, who had given $425,000 through her will to the Hospital. Just as described in The Millionnaire Next Door, she had made a maximum of $25,000 a year working at The Oregonian (Portland's local newspaper) in the print shop. Her attorney had only met with her twice 30 years ago and billed her $50 to draw up her will leaving everything to Portland Shriners Hospital. According to estate records, her car sold for $500.

Terry DeSylvia was her attorney back then. The medical examiner found a connection to him through a receipt in her effects. DeSylvia almost missed a key aspect of the gift -- her safety deposit box. The bank sent a bill to renew the box so the attorney had it opened to find $105,000 in cash. Nobody knows why she decided upon Shriners Hospital, but the staff is glad she did.

Thanks Mary. You're going to help a lot of kids get access to care.

Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Classic Planned Giving Story

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Tom's Training Topics

Weblog author Tom Wilson is a featured speaker at numerous conferences. Tom can do training for your nonprofit board or your major gift officers. Send Tom a note at Tom.Wilson@CampbellCompany.com for more information.

Presentations

Listening to Donors
AFP national webconference, February 19
AHP International Idea Exchange, Philadelphia October 2007
AHP Rockes & SW Regional Roundtables, Monterey June 2007

The Win Win Ask
Campbell & Company national webinar March 11
MidValley Development Professionals (Oregon), April 24
AFP International Spring 2006 (Atlanta)

Winning Gifts
AFP Oregon & SW Washington in Portland, Oregon, February 19
AFP Academy Workshop in San Diego, March 30
PSI International Conference in Tucson, June 2008
AHP Southeast Regional Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, July 2008
Meet the Author, Foundation Center San Francisco, May 2008

Major Gifts Fundraising
National webinar Progressive Business Systems Fall 2006

Capital Campaign Principles
PSI International (Jacksonville) Summer 2006

Bold Plans, Sound Strategies
AFP Conference Session in San Diego, April 1 (with Trish Roth)
Campbell & Company Webinar, October 2007 (with Trish Roth)

Endowment & Planned Giving Fundraising Strategies
AFP Conference Session April 2 (San Diego)
National webcast Progressive Business Systems Winter 2007
National webinar July 2007, with Bruce Mathews
YWCA Metro I meeting Summer 2006 (Seattle)

Maximizing Board Effectiveness in Fundraising
CRD Regional Conference Summer 2006 (Seattle)
WMFRA Meeting Winter 2006 (Missoula)

Staffing for Fundraising Success
CRD Regional Conference Summer 2006 (Seattle)
WVDO Meeting (Portland)

Case Histories
The Clark Fork Valley Hospital Campaign Story (Montana)
AHP Regional Conference in San Antonio May 15, with Barry Fowler
The Southwest Washington Medical Center Campaign Story (Washington)
AHP Regional Conference in Santa Fe April 2007, with Jean Rahn
AHP Regional Conference in Portland June 22, with Jean Rahn
The Adventist Medical Center Chaplains Campaign (Oregon)
PSI International Conference Tucson June 16 , with John Korb

Facilitator
Opening Plenary Session Moderator — AHP Regional Conference in Portland June 22 (with 3 hospital CEOS on the role of philanthropy in their institutions)

Guest Lecturer
Walla Walla University Fundraising Strategies Course

Permanent Link: Tom's Training Topics

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Weblog & Winning Gifts Author Tom Wilson

Thomas D. Wilson is the vice president and western regional manager for Campbell & Company, a national consulting firm offering nonprofit organizations counsel in strategic planning, major gifts fundraising, and capital campaigns. Tom's career in fundraising spans more than a quarter century and includes building sucessful campaigns from inception, reinvigorating stall initiatives, and board / staff fundraising training.

Permanent Link: Weblog & Winning Gifts Author Tom Wilson

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Senate Pressing Leading Colleges on Endowments

The Senate Finance Committee continues its push to convince colleges with huge endowment funds to guarantee a payout of 5%. This parallels the exiting rule for philanthorpic foundations (however this 5% includes their expenses including offices, salaries, and usually stipends for trustees). See this New York Times article for more information.

Northwestern University's president was quoted in the article. I disagree with his stance. I agree with the Senate that these endowments should distribute 5%. This is such a low impact it should be done. I would also recommend the Senate tackle the 5% issue of allowing philanthropic foundations to count expenses to their 5% rule. These foundations should be giving 5% to charitable causes directly with expenses on top of that. This might cause them to tighten their administrative costs while having a greater impact on society.

Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Senate Pressing Leading Colleges on Endowments

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/senate-pressing-leading-colleges-on.html

Listening Tips

Listen, chapter 3 of my new book is turning out to be a very popular subject. I've done two conference roundtables, a university major gift officer training session, and soon a national webinar for AFP. Here are some tips.

• 55% of communication is nonverbal. That's why face to face meetings with major gift donors is so important.


• A person talks at a rate of 150 words per minute but can listen at a rate of 500 words per minute. That's why it's so easy to get distracted when you're listening. Take notes, prepare to restate to clarify what you've heard, focus on body language and visual cues. Listen.

Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Listening Tips

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/listening-tips.html

Huge Endowments at Universities Make an Impact

What do the huge endowments at some of our most prestigious universities do to benefit students? Yale and Harvard are coming up with some answers.

In The New York Times, January 15, 2008, Yale reported a new financial aid support package for undergraduate students that will boost University total support to more than $80 million. The goal is to help families with annual incomes up to $200,000 to afford the $46,000 cost of tuition, room and board. Yale's endowment is $22.5 billion, up 35% in the last year (the largest increase in the country).

Harvard University recently announced a related plan that will provide free tuition to students whose families make $60,000 or less a year. Harvard's endowment fund is $35 billion.

It's encouraging for major gift fundraisers and capital campaigns for endowment to have these educational leaders making a strong statement about the impact of their large endowment funds.

Photo courtesy of www.companysj.com

Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Huge Endowments at Universities Make an Impact

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Measuring Nonprofits' Effectiveness

Determining the impact of major gift investments can be difficult for many nonprofit organizations. How many students were served by university? Did the students learn anything? How people were fed by a food bank? Was this just a temporary fix or did the food allow the families' young children to learn more effectively in school?

In a recent article by The Chronicle of Philanthropy October 4. 2007, a new book by Leslie R. Crutchfield and Healther McLeod Grant reported on their research of 12 nonprofits that were identified as excellent. In Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits (Wiley & Sons), Crutchfield & McLeod note that what distinguishes these organizations is their achievements:

• ". . . outside their own walls -- shaping government policy, spurring changes at corporations, inspiring individuals to become advocates for their cause, sharing ideas and money with other charities to kick-start entire movements."

The authors surveyed 2,800 charity leaders, conducted interviews with 60 experts, and finally studied the 12 nominated nonprofits in depth with a team of MBA students using $750,000 of grant funding from several foundations.

• ". . . foundations and philanthropists must work harder than ever to uncover charities that deserve support. The work charities do apart from their own programs can be expensive, and it often doesn't show up as a concrete 'outcome' that can be neatly measured against the charity's budget."

I love books like this that go into deep research to come up with real evidence. It's definitely on my "to get" list. Let me know if you've read it and have reactions to their findings.

This issue came up with one of my clients, California Dental Association Foundation as we were preparing a report to the CDA Foundation board. In addition to the great fundraising year with individual gifts and foundation grants, we began thinking about the indirect dollars CDA Foundation had helped funnel to dental access to care issues. We began discussing this article and found it useful in describing the full philanthropic impact of both the direct and indirect programs of the Foundation. While CDA Foundation doesn't spend some $30 million for fluoridation, it helped to get this funding in place.

To see the entire article Chronicle subscribers click http://www.philanthropy.com/premium/articles/v19/i24/24003501.htm


Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Measuring Nonprofits' Effectiveness

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/measuring-nonprofits-effectiveness.html

Two Role Model Donors

There was so much buzz in the philanthropic community around Warren Buffet’s gift announcement — the most I have heard in years. And yet . . . he is 75 years old and not famous for being generous until now.

One of the most fun capital campaigns I have worked on recently was a hospital campaign out west with a goal of $15 million.

In the first six months two $15 million major gifts were secured (yes, we were very lucky). I do a lot of video work for my clients and had the pleasure of interviewing both donors — one age 92 and a conservative banker with long-term ties to the community and the other age 52, a hedge fund manager in the community for only five years. Hearing their motivations for giving was fantastic.

We need to get stories like this out in our communities and to our nonprofit boards. Major gift fundraising can be rewarding with role model donors like these two. It’s wonderful to hear motivations for giving from age donors, men and women, different parts of the country, business backgrounds, self made or inherited wealth, and many other variations to build a collage of donor voices.



Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Two Role Model Donors

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/two-role-model-donors.html

Major Gifts Donor Relationships

A client gave me a copy of Top Relationships: Fostering and Sustaining Commitment from Principal Donors a 2006 study by The Advisory Board Company.

The survey received 96 responses from hospital foundations on reporting on their 3 top gifts in the past year. The study documented 150 major gifts ranging from $100,000 to $70M — 20% of their donors contributed 82% of their giving ($100,000 38%, $1M+ 44%). 62% of donors received care for a life threatening condition, 12% for a serious condition.

The Advisory Board used information published by Indiana University Center of Philanthropy to identify individuals and families who had given a seven and eight-figure hospital gift between 2003 and 2005. Addresses and phone numbers were obtained from public sources, an introductory letter mailed, and donors phoned to schedule an interview, 20 interviews were conducted over an hour. Of those interviewed 15% had given $10M or more, 25% $5M to $9M, 30% $2M to $4 M, 30% $1M.

Many top donors voiced strong disappointment that hospitals (and nonprofits generally) show little interest in helping them achieve their personal philanthropic goals. $3M donor — “One misconception some development officers have is that they think donors . . . should give to what the hospital has decided is its priority rather than what the donor feels is his or her priority.”



Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts

Permanent Link: Major Gifts Donor Relationships

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/major-gift-donor-relationships.html

Donors Shadowing Doctors

There is a great article in the November 29, 2007 issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy by Caroline Preston: “Up Close and Personal: Full-day visit to hospital opens doors to potential donors.”

Akron Children’s Hospital started the “Children’s Up Close” program 6-years ago based on an idea promoted by the American Medical Association in the mid-1990s. Key elements of the program include:

• Annual program


• 15-participants


• A dinner the evening prior to the event for participants to meet their doctors


• A full day of shadowing from rounds, home visits, meeting with patients and families


• Wrap up meeting at the end of the day for participants to share their experiences
  Fundraising staff organizes the events and are present but never asks participants for a gift during the program
  

Bill Cushwa, owner of the Braveheart Group, commented on his experiences a year later:

“Everyone who knows me knows the tremendous impact Up-Close day had on me. I had an intensively powerful, all-access experience and there has not been one day since that I don’t think about it.”

There are many variations of this idea that you can use to fit your own hospital’s situation or adapt to another type of nonprofit situation.


Tom Wilson

Permanent Link: Donors Shadowing Doctors

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/01/donors-shadowing-doctors.html

Is Cause Related Marketing a Problem?

In a recent New York Times article, author Stephanie Strom, reflects on the ever more visible issue of cause related marketing — a portion of each purchase of an item going to a charitable cause.

While an old idea and a fine one when used as a win win arrangement — the charity raises money and visibility through the tie in, consumers feel they are helping an organization through their purchase, and the company sells more products.

But, some firms are getting far more aggressive. Some are not telling charities they are tying their product sales to a donation. This is unbelievable given the common courtesy of asking for permission from a charity to involve them in a sales proposition.

The NY Times article: "Charity's Share From Shopping Raises Concern," provides some examples including The World Wildlife Fund being included in a Barneys’ Have a Green Holiday catalog. John Donoghue, senior vice president expressed his concern:

“Unfortunately, just like Barneys shoppers, we’re in the dark as to how or if Barneys and the manufacturers will fulfill their commitment to donate a portion of the proceeds from these products to WWF.”

Tom Wilson

Picture source St. Francis

Permanent Link: Is Cause Related Marketing a Problem?

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