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Summary:

In this episode of the 7-Figure Fundraising Podcast, host Trevor Bragdon speaks with Dr. Wolf von Laer. Wolf is the CEO of Students for Liberty, a nonprofit focused on supporting pro-liberty students on college campuses in the United States and around the world. 

Wolf manages a 65-person, international staff and has grown the organization to a five million dollar budget. He earned a PhD in political economy at King’s College in London and has lived and studied in the United States, Spain, Turkey, Germany, the UK, Sweden, and Argentina. Wolf has written a book on central banking and he has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Huffington Post, and C-SPAN.

How it started

Wolf says he naturally transitioned to fundraising. In 2011, he was working as a volunteer for Students for Liberty while studying in Spain. He organized events, networked with students, and even managed to fundraise €50,000 that was used to start the first Students for Liberty European student training program. 

After earning his PhD and working as a professor for a year, Wolf left academia to work for Students for Liberty. In just three months, he became CEO. Wolf says he anticipated a lot of  fundraising, but he underestimated the amount of pressure that comes with the position’s responsibilities.

Fundraising in Europe vs. United States

Wolf highlights that the United States has a strong history of philanthropy woven into its society. However, Wolf says that’s not the case in Germany, his native country, which can make fundraising more challenging. 

Wolf says when he approaches a donor for money he always uses a pitch, but he adjusts his terminology to suit the culture and audience. He always tells stories of students who have been impacted by Students for Liberty as a means to illustrate the impact of donors’ gifts. 

When fundraising outside of the United States, fundraisers often need to spend more time establishing trust with donors. In some countries, Wolf states they are not as accustomed to being asked for large donations.

Wolf says international prospective donors want to see:

• Written proposals about what you’re going to do with their gift

• Information about your nonprofit’s board and its members

• The age of the organization

• Performance indicators and track records

Most importantly, show prospective donors how your nonprofit is successful and continually making a difference. 

9:28 “The organization is called Students for Liberty and people might have the impression like oh there’s just a bunch of kids doing stuff on campus. They don’t understand that we are really incubating the talent that will change the world tomorrow...continuing to articulate that to them [donors] is really important.

Wolf says he often uses creative props, like a Bernie Sanders bobblehead, to make donor meetings memorable, fun, and interesting.

How to manage large amounts of annual donor meetings

In 2018, Wolf personally held 139 donor meetings. He says since he attended the 7-Figure Fundraising workshop, he has started moving away from mail-based donor acquisition and toward meeting face-to-face with existing donors. Now, he has a few employees who focus solely on getting him meetings with donors.

11:17 “I think that’s something good for every fundraiser to think about: ‘How many people are trying to schedule meetings for you?’” 

Wolf says it pays to think about how nonprofit CEOs can most productively use their time. For him, that means building relationships with donors, giving a pitch, and making the ask.

Wolf recommends having three different employee roles within your nonprofit’s development shop:

1. Connectors: Their sole role is to research prospective donors, find out if they’re a good fit, build a relationship with them, and then schedule meetings for them with the “closer”.

2. Closers: The people who make the pitch and the ask.

3. Cultivators: The people who maintain relationships  with existing donors.

20:12 “If you believe in division of labor, you should also look at your development shop and see if you really have a good one [development shop] — because if you just have folks that do all of these things, I think you become distracted very easily.”

Wolf says that in addition to being less expensive than direct mail, this new system took his nonprofit’s activities per year — such as phone calls, emails, meetings, etc. — from 2,000 to 12,000.

How to train recent college graduates to fundraise

Wolf says when training a young person to meet with a billionaire donor, it’s trial by fire to some extent, but make sure they’re prepared.

15:09 “You have to have proper oversight that helps them, motivates them, trains them to identify what they need. The second thing is have very firm key performance indicators.”

Wolf recommends making employee performance quantifiable and documenting their progress. Take your nonprofit’s pulse via anonymous staff surveys. 

Many of Wolf’s employees work remotely and internationally. He recommends nonprofits consider hiring international employees to save money for donors and themselves. For example, an IT worker in Macedonia would likely charge less than an IT worker in San Francisco and still be able to do the same work.

Wolf says he manages his international network of employees through a good structure. He frequently gives voice message updates to his team via WhatsApp; he has an experienced COO on board; and his nonprofit implements a multifaceted hiring process. He also hosts an all-staff retreat once a year to build a company culture of trust. 

How fundraisers can handle rejection and use “no’s” constructively

Sometimes a small rejection feels bigger than any success, but “no’s” can be an opportunity for future success. 

22:32 “Most often, if [prospective donors] say no to me, I find out because I ask them . . . and they will tell me — and it’s most often not about my product and not about Students for Liberty. It’s most often about their personal situation.”

It’s critical to ask donors why they’re not giving. Usually, Wolf finds out the “no” is not actually about the organization. The donor just has other responsibilities and commitments they are currently focusing on. Wolf says he usually asks close-ended questions because they don’t make the donor feel pressured to give an explanation. He usually asks these questions in a meeting right after a prospect says no.

Actionable advice and resources

For additional resources, Wolf recommends that nonprofit fundraisers read the 7-Figure Fundraising newsletter and Freedom Partners newsletter — he says Kevin Gentry, a Freedom Partners board member and an avid fundraiser for organizations promoting the free market, is particularly interesting. Wolf also challenges listeners to be “transparent and not meek” in their fundraising.

44:54 “That sounds abstract, but let’s make it more concrete. One thing that you could do right now, an actionable, ...is create a document about the standard questions that you always want to ask within a pitch meeting or a closing meeting.”

For example, think about asking donors about how much time you have together at the start of a meeting, who is involved in their decision to give, and whether additional materials would make the donor’s decision-making process easier. Then, ask those questions in the donor meeting.

43:07 Just ask the question. That’s how we started...Think about the donors that you have...and just bring it up.”

For more information on Wolf, visit wolfvonlaer.com.

For more information on Students for Liberty, visit studentsforliberty.org. Type “learn liberty” into YouTube for over 1,500 videos on the free market and the philosophy of liberty. To see Students for Liberty’s work in action, visit libertycon.com for information about their flagship event in Washington D.C.

To find out how to become an expert fundraiser, visit 7figurefundraising.com.