Inside the mind of a donor handler
Summary:
In this episode of the 7-Figure Fundraising Podcast, host Trevor Bragdon sits down with Fred Fransen. Fred is the founder of Certell Inc., an education nonprofit which provides social studies curriculum to more than 5,000 teachers across the United States. Fred also is an advisor and consultant to major donors who give to higher education, medical and scientific institutions and the arts. He has 25 years experience in the nonprofit world within universities, colleges and international think tanks.
Fred walks through how small or start-up nonprofits can get into serious fundraising. He shares how to build a positive, beneficial relationship with donor advisors and touches on important insights into how major donors think.
From fund-giver to fundraiser
Fred speaks about how he started out as a donor advisor for the nonprofit that eventually became Certell. Eventually it became clear that in order for the organization to achieve success, it needed someone with coordinating skills to help lead it. So, Fred offered his expertise. In his new role, he found the difference between fundraising and giving funds surprising.
5:38 “On the fundraising side, the thing that’s been most surprising is just how patient you have to be — that fundraising really is about developing and cultivating long-term relationships with the right people and that you have to prove yourself before you’re going to get funded. The real challenge of being in a nonprofit is that without funding, you don’t have any tools with which to prove yourself.”
Ambition and results get donations
Fred says in order to prove yourself as a starter nonprofit, you have to take chances. Often it comes down to choosing between being very careful with your resources while risking under-delivering or thinking ambitiously while risking failure.
8:09 “You need to be able to demonstrate that the projects, the things you are trying to do, are going to make a difference. One of the questions that I’ve been frequently confronted by is: ‘Ok, if I fund this and you succeed, will it matter?’”
Donors are looking to give to nonprofits that can demonstrate that their work makes a difference — and that the difference extends beyond those it directly affects. They expect fundraisers to have a thought-out plan. They don’t expect that things will go exactly according to plan, but donors want to see that you’re ambitious and thorough.
How major donors think: fundraising and bragging rights
Fred shares one of the things many fundraisers overlook: The giving process is entertainment for many large donors.
11:44 “You’re helping to create stories that they can use to impress their friends.”
This means you can help your donors be the person on the golf course with bragging rights or the person at the dinner party with the great account of what their grantees are doing. Fred shares an insight a philanthropist gave him. He told Fred that once you have five million dollars, having more money doesn’t change your life; after that it’s just a game to out-compete whoever the competition might be. As a fundraiser, you should always be trying to create a benefit for the people who support your organization.
16:31 “What’s different for people who are really wealthy is that they think more in terms of certain appropriateness because absolute dollars don’t matter to them. They think of more, ‘What’s appropriate in this budget category? What’s an appropriate gift in this charitable category?’”
Fred gives the example of shopping for a sofa. A wealthy person does not want to get cheated in any of the categories of things they spend money on, so they would be offended if someone tried to overcharge them $200 on a sofa even though they can more than afford it.
18:46 “It’s not the absolute amount of things that affects them. . . . They don’t want to be looked at like a chump because somebody took advantage of them, that they’re getting good value in each category.”
It is essential as a growing nonprofit that you ensure donors think you’re in a higher donor category than you are; this ensures your ability to grow. For donors to partner with you, they must think of you as a success.
Approaching a donor advisor
Fred says donor advisors act as a filter between the donor and nonprofits. He says the best way to approach an advisor about asking for a donor to increase their gift is to get outside of the formal approval process — start a conversation about your mission alignment and the donor’s goals. Often the advisor is entrusted with authority to make filtering decisions, and it behooves nonprofits go through the advisor instead of trying to go around them and straight to the donor.
25:12 “That’s rarely successful. Sometimes it is successful, but it often backfires.”
Fred gives the example of a fundraiser who goes around the back of a family foundation’s advisor. The head of the family is developing dementia and the family wants to keep it private because it may be embarrassing. The fundraiser skirts around the advisor and succeeds in landing a large donation from the pre-dementia family head. Thus, the fundraiser creates embarrassment by ascertaining sensitive family information, creates extra work for the family and has weakened the relationship.
Fred also stresses the importance of not overwhelming the advisor with paper. Help them be efficient at their job — prepare succinct yearly reports before scheduled advisor meetings. The report should be digital and include:
The nonprofit’s 990 tax form
A link to the annual report
A summary of either what has happened in the last six months or what you promised at the original meeting
What has been accomplished
The power of showing over telling
In the 25 years Fred has worked with fundraising and giving, he has learned that the most valuable information about the things an organization is doing comes from experiencing them firsthand rather than reading about them.
34:16 “The value I add to my client is that I don’t rely upon the grantee’s reports of what they’re doing; I like to go and visit.”
Fred finds that visiting an organization’s office and seeing its environment can be more valuable for understanding what kind of investment it is than a formal meeting in which he sees the organization’s best face. Some human elements of the organizations’ work could be overlooked without an in-person visit.
He gives the example of a visit an advisor he knows made to a hospital in Mexico on behalf of a donor. The advisor discovered a large network of volunteers had arisen out of the organization’s work, which provides comfort to the families of children in the hospital.
37:26 “A report just can’t do justice to that in the same way [as a visit]. . . . (37:46) The emotion of that is something that does [and] can get communicated by a good advisor to their client because you’re giving the report and you get choked up and it’s real because you’re not the provider — you’re the monitor.”
In other cases, an in-person visit can uncover that an organization is underperforming considering the amount of donations it receives.
Working with a donor advisor
Fred says the biggest piece of advice he can give concerning donor advisors is to not be afraid of them.
45:18 “The earlier you can begin to have an open and honest conversation with them, the better. Try to develop a relationship or a conversation that’s outside of the formal grant-making process.”
Listen to the advisor’s advice and recognize that while the process of securing donations is formal, there are humans behind it — and the way you fundraise should reflect that. Fred says to avoid under-asking and the poverty mindset as well. Raising money is a lot easier when you avoid operating from the notion that you’re desperate and adopt the conviction that your program is great and it is an unmissable opportunity for a donor.
50:52 “The successful nonprofits are the ones that figure out how to do that.”
For more information on Fred and Certell Inc., visit donoradvising.com or certell.org.
To find out how to become an expert fundraiser, visit 7figurefundraising.com.