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Training Program for Development Professionals

Learning Module

Abstract

Fundraising for major gifts is both an art and a science. There are many steps to follow and variables at play since it's a relationship business. Non-profit organizations are constantly seeking private support from their constituency and this module will help fundraisers from all backgrounds gain the knowledge, skills and abilities to become stronger representatives of their respective institution.

Keywords

Fundraising, Donor Cycle, Cultivation, Solicitation, Strategy, Non-Profit, Major Gifts

Course Summary

This learning module is designed for early career frontline and major gift fundraisers to acquire a well-rounded understanding of all the aspects of the donor cycle. This learning module will also benefit more seasoned professionals in the field as it will allow them to brush up on some knowledge, skills and abilities as well as learn from others in this class.

Course Objective

The learning objectives of the course are:

  1. Understand how to be an ethical fundraiser and methods to build a strong case for support.
  2. Demonstrate practices to implement successful donor calls that may lead to fruitful visits.
  3. Develop skills to build strong relationships that may increase the probability of successful solicitations.
  4. Create and use powerful questions which may lead to understanding the passions of prospective donors.
  5. Learn best practices for making major gift solicitations that may lead to a higher positive response rate.
  6. Prepare follow-up strategies that may help solidify responses from prospective donors.
  7. Articulate how to handle objections in an eloquent manner in attempt to uncover the true underlying reason for a particular response.
  8. Discover skills to steward donors in a meaningful way in hopes of creating donors who may consider renewing their support in the future.
  9. Understand methods to proactively fund raise during times of crisis.

 

Lesson 1: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving Overview

For Students

Read the the paper by Ashley Whillans and make a comment of 50 words or more regarding your thoughts on ways you can better work with peers and researchers in philanthropy to drive successful fundraising outcomes.

Whillems White Paper
Media embedded July 19, 2016

 

Update: After watching the video make an update regarding ways you can show impact and build a case for support while showing urgency within the institutional unit you represent.

 

Comment: Comment on at least three peer updates and tell them what you like about their post and what you may use as well as provide constructive feedback or other ideas that could be considered.

For Instructor

Instructor Overview

The ideal instructor for this course is someone who has been in a fundraising role (particularly major gift fundraising) for at least 10 years. This eight segment course is designed to allow the learners to gather information regarding fundraising and critically think about ways they can improve in their given role. Each eight week session will take an hour to an hour and a half based on the institution. Much of the learning will come from the readings and videos the students will watch after the live session. In addition, students will learn a great deal from their own inquiry and by doing research on the subject during the given week.

Lesson Overview

During this first session have the students introduce themselves and tell about how they got into development/advancement and the current role they have. Each introduction should take no more than three minutes. Should the class consist of more than ten students then split the introductions over two sessions.

After introductions, explain the fundraising fundamentals (below) found on the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) website, the major fundraising professional organization.

CASE Fundraising Fundamentals

Instructor Tips

Keep instroductions concise to save time to get to class content.

Stress importance of having good character in development.

Underline importance of having fun in this course and finding ways to compliment student's current role.

Lesson 2: Donor Calls

For Students

Steven Shattuck

As frontline frontline fundraisers we have the privelege and opportunity to engage with a wide variety of people in attempt to tie their passion to changing the world we live in. In order to start the conversation we have to be comfortable with conversing with strangers. Much of this work begins with calls to current and prospective donors. Read the infromation and watch the video below in order to expand your knowledge and ways to 

Purpose of donor call

Media embedded July 30, 2016

Read this following article as it's complimentary to the video above.

AFP: The Art of the Discovery Call

Here are some more ideas for how to set the initial visit.

As we converse with current and prospective donors in attempt to get visits with them we will often need to overcome objections.

Update: Type out an introductory email that you will send to a donor before making the discovery call. Also, provide a question that you can ask the prospective donor on the phone that could get them talking about their interest in engaging with your organizations in a meaningful way and whether or not they may be interested in getting together. Lastly, include one of the objections listed in this worksheet below and provide a response you would use to try and overcome it. Note: Use a different response than what is discussed in the overcome objections article.

Common-Visit-Attempt-Objections.docx

Comment: Make a comment on three peer updates. Explain what you like about their script and provide an idea for how it could possibly be improved.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

If there are students who haven't introduced themselves, then start off the class with more introductions.

Talk about your view regarding the importance of the donor call. Explain your theory on how to effectively and appropriately handle objections on the phone. Also, explain how to be forthcoming in your purpose for the call and visit.

Have students volunteer and talk about key elements they include or will include when cold calling current and prospective donors.

If there is still time during class, then have the students review this CASE pdf.

CASE: Make the Most of the First Donor Call

Instructor Tips

Give succinct examples of approaching and going through the initial phone call.

Highlight key components of the call such as introduction, purpose, dates of visit and closing.

Provide thoughts on continuing to improve in the workplace by engaging in professional organizations.

Lesson 3: Donor Cultivation

For Students

Amy Einstein

Donor cultivation tends to be the most time consuming portion of the donor cycle. However, there are practices that can be implemented to shorten the cycle in order to understand the prospective donor's passions, capacity and desire to make an impact.

Understanding donor personality types can be an efficient way to engage with donors as personality types often reveal the tastes and preferences of how people would like to engage with an organization. Visit this website and watch the video as well as review the donor cultivation worksheet below.

Movie Mondays Donor Worksheet

Update: Think about a person or donor you work with or have worked with. Find and fill out a donor strategy worksheet or filll out the one above. Keeping the person anonymous, write about their archetypes and ways you think they resemble that type. What other information could be useful to move the donor relationships forward towards an impactful gift? Update other information you would add/eliminate to the worksheet and give five questions that would be useful to ask to get that information.

Comment on three peers updates. Provide at least one other question the peer could use to get the information they’re trying to garner.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Explain how donor cultivation is a crucial step to ultimately realize impactful gifts from donors. Talk about expereinces you've had in cultivating relationships with donors. Share stories of what has worked and what hasn't. Share reasons why personality types play a major role in the donor experience.

Have students share ideas they have used for engaging donors with the institution. If they have experience working with donros, then have them share some stories of what has worked for them.

Instructor Tips

Provide concise examples of what you've done to cultivate donors.

Explain why some practices have worked better with certain people versus others.

Demonstrate cues you pick up on to identify certain personality types.

Lesson 4: Power Questions

For Students

Using open-ended questions to engage with current and prospective donors allows us to realize a plethora of information. For instance, if you ask someone, "Did you like your xyz experience", will yield a response resulting in yes/no. However, if a frontline fudraiser asks, "What did you like most about your xyz experience?" will yield more useful responses. At times, you will be surprised how much information some people will devulge. Contrarily, others need some additional probing. Thus, asking powerful questions will allow you to garner much needed information.

Paterson Education Fund

Watch this video with Professor David Clutterbuck

Media embedded July 30, 2016

Read these questions that were distributed at a training session for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Update: Find some media or an article about the importance of asking powerful questions. Explain what your thoughts are regarding the information you found and how you believe it can help advance your work as a frontline fundraiser.

Comment: Make a comment on three peer updates and explain how you think their post could help you advance your work.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Discuss questions you prefer to use and why. Explain how they are noninvasive ways of uncovering necessary information.

Have students discuss questions they like to use to engage with donors.

Instructor Tips

Provide concrete examples of your favorite questions and responses you've received.

Display how the same question may produce different results with different people. (Note: this has something to do with personality so help recall information from the previous sesson)

Deliver verbal feedback about what the students discuss. Keep constructive criticism light-hearted as to not offend, but rather provide quality feedback.

 

Lesson 5: Major Gift Solicitation

For Students

Harley Schwadron

The whole goal of frontline fundraising is to solicit gifts that align with the donor's passions and the initiatives that require private funding within the institutions we represent. As we learned in this session, these solicitations are far beyond the solicitation letters your institutions may send to them. It's important to understand that we will get far more 'no' responses than we will 'yes' responses. Furthermore, it's impertaive that we don't take the answer personally, but rather, undersand why the person has selected one response versus the other.

Media embedded July 19, 2016

Comment: What do you think of the video? Also, comment on at least three peer updates.

Update: Post an update regarding different solicitations strategies as they pertain to fundraising from the research you found.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Take 10-15 minutes and explain how solicitation isn’t a one-size fits all and that strategy and planning helps frontline fundraisers understand the passions of the donor and can help drive solicitation activity. Have a few students discuss experiences they’ve had with solicitations. It’s okay to talk about solicitations that went awry and what they learned from them.

Also, watch this video during class and have the students discuss their thoughts on what they like or don't like regarding the video. 

Instructor Tips

Talk about how understainding the donor's passions makes the ask less daunting.

Tell a story of a successful solicitation and what led it to be successful.

Discuss a story of a solicitation that didn't result in a yes and what led to it being a no.

Relay what you learned from each example given and how it has driven your future activity.

Lesson 6: Follow-Up Strategies

For Students

Read the following webpage by Amy Einstein and watch the video

Media embedded July 30, 2016

Make a comment to this update regarding the best way to respond when a prospective donor tells you they need to think about the proposal you presented.

Update: Make an update regarding information you found regarding follow-up strategies and explain how you think the information may or may not be helpful to following up after a solicitation.

Comment: Comment on three peer updates.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Explain to the class ways you have followed up with donors after presenting a proposal. Try and explain a variety of examples. Inform them of the importance of timely follow-up and how it can help with receiving a more clear response while still maintaining control.

Instructor Tips

Give concrete examples of how to follow-up with donors.

Discuss how laying that foundation of follow-up during the solicitation is important.

Provide examples of why timely follow-up is imperative.

Lesson 7: Handling Objections

For Students

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140702171306-178103905-techniques-for-handling-customer-objections

Read about come commonly heard objections by Sumac Research and Buzz Harris.

Jonathan Farrington

Make a comment to this update about what other objections may be heard and how you can possibly overcome them.

Update: Make an update after finding some research regarding ways to handle objections. Also, discuss ways you have handled objections in professional settings. Lastly, fill out the worksheet below and post your responses in your update.

Common-Visit-Attempt-Objections.docx

Comment Comment on three peer updates and provide some feedback regarding the responses your peers have regarding handling objections.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Discuss ways you have personally handled objections. Explain ways you have been successful and ways you have not done so well. Talk about what you have learned from each experience and how that has driven methods for handling objections nowadays.

Have the students talk about ways they have experienced objections and what they have done to try and overcome them.

Instructor Tips

Give concrete examples of types of objections you've encountered and how you've handled them.

Discuss some common objections and why it's important to be prepared for them.

Explain how preparation is the key to success in many interactions.

Section 8: Stewardship and Crisis Work

For Students

Saint Raymond

Read the article by CASE

Fundraising During a Crisis

Read the article by Amy Einstein

Make a comment about either fundraising during a crisis or about stewardship practices.

Make an update regarding reserach you find about fundraising during a crisis or about stewardship practices. Explain why you think you'd still be able to fundraise during a crisis or explain why good stewardship could lead to repeat gifts.

Make a comment on three peer updates.

For Instructor

Lesson Overview

Explain how good stewardship practices can lead to future gifts. Also, discuss the type of stewardshp activities that can be effective and how it's important to know personality types and how some people like different ways of being recognized.

Also, explain how to try and keep momentum when crisis occurs at an institution.

Have the students discuss their experiences stewarding donors and working through crisis, respectively.

Instructor Tips

Give varied examples of effective stewardship practices, e.g. events, high level thank you notes/calls, etc.

Describe why it's imperative to understand a donor's tastes/preferences for being recognized.

Talk about your experiences of crisis that you've encountered within institutions for which you've raised private funds.

Tell about various crisis you've had to work with and how you've been able to keep donor interactions positive or how you've had to put people in a holding pattern.

Final Project and Rubric

Project Scope

Due one week after all the sessions are complete. Students need to develop a case study using either a real (anonymous) or fictional prospective donor. The case study needs to give an in-depth overview of the characteristics of the person/household involved, including, but not limited to personality type, family, decision makers, and employment status.

The case should also outline the current situation at the institution for which funds are being raised. All the key players involved should be identified as well as their role in the relationship. Lastly, the case should cover every step of the donor cycle from identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.

The project is due one week after the class sessions commence. Students are free to start the project at any point in the class. It’s suggested to use a variety of graphics, videos and other media to make the project more exciting. After you submit your project you need to review at least two peer projects and provide feedback using the rubric below. Finally, everyone will receive their peer feedback and have another week to submit their final revised case.

Peer Review Rubric

Quality of case: The case study should be thorough. Peers rate how thorough the case study is. How much background is given?

Likelihood of case: The case should be realistic. Peers rate how realistic the case is. How plausible are the various components?

Overall congruency: The case should follow the donor cycle from start to finish. How well does the case move from qualification, cultivation, solicitation, handling objections and stewardship?

Overall articulation: The case should be articulate. How well does the case explain each area of the donor cycle? Does the case identify a personality type and how to address it appropriately?

  1 2 3 4
Rubric Scoring
Quality of case Student does a poor job of explaining the case and provides no background for understanding of the situation. Student does an okay job of explaining the case. However, the background infromation isn't thoroughly explained. Student does an good job of explaining the case and does an okay job of giving a good background of the situation. Student does an excellent job explaining the case and does an excellent job providng adequate background information to give a full picture of the situation.
Likelihood of case The case has no probability of taking place. The case has a low probability of taking place. The case has a good probability of taking place. The case has a high probability of taking place.
Overall congruency The case misses at least three of the stages of the donor cycle. The case misses two of the stages of the donor cycle. The case misses one of the stages of the donor cycle. The case integrates all stages of the donor cycle.
Overall articulation The case doesn't go into detail about what takes place in each stage of the donor cycle as it pertains to the donor. The case does an okay job explaining something about each stage of the donor cycle as it pertains to the donor. The case does a good job explaining something about each stage of the donor cycle as it pertains to the donor. The case does an excellent job explaining something about each stage of the donor cycle as it pertains to the donor.

Students: Use the rubric to provide a grade for each section of the case study. Provide constructive criticism and/or feedback for each section so that the peer may have some ideas to consider as they make revisions to their work.