Do More 24 2017 Capacity Building and Strategy Training Series: Session 2

Do More 24Capacity Building and

Strategy Training Series

Session #2: Creating your donor strategy

December 2, 2016

• Welcome, introduction• Reviewing goals• Refining and mapping a comprehensive

strategy• Q&A, wrap-up

• Reviewing goals homework• Sharing our goals• Approval?• How was the process?• Any challenges?

• Comparing to last year’s goals and results

Goal Setting

• WHAT = the SMART goal (session #1)

• WHO = the UNIVERSE (session #2)

• HOW = how you’re going to engage them (sessions #2-3)

• WHY = their motivation for funding the goal (session #3)

Refining and mapping a comprehensive strategy

• WHO = the UNIVERSE• Segmenting• Helps with better management of donors and data• Allows for better collaboration• Helps with breaking your main goals into manageable

parts• Helps to focus outreach activities for you, your team,

and for your ambassadors


• Define the segments• Back fill the “HOW” and the “WHY” for each

segment• Creating your segments• User defined levels• Collapse and combine as needed


• Segments for discussion:1. Board of Directors

Current and former

2. Top donorsHigh gift of $10,000 and up

3. Mid-level donorsHigh gift of $1,000 to $9,999


• Segments for discussion: (continued)4. Annual fund level

High gift is less than $1,000

5. Prospects/Non-donorsVolunteers, vendors, people served, and staff who have never made a contribution

6. Institutional partnersCurrent or past funders – foundations, corporations, churches, local governments, other nonprofits


• HOW = getting to your goal:

• Part 1 (today) = tie strategy into your goals

• Part 2 (next session) = review technical details, outreach, and content


• HOW = getting to your goal:• Ladder of communications (from most to least effective (and most costly)):

face to face meetings small group event, meeting, or discussion phone conversation handwritten letter or note personal email (from your Outlook or Gmail) typed letter website/blog large group event, meeting, or discussion mass produced, typed letter (direct mail) video mass produced email (Constant Contact/listserv) brochures, pamphlets, annual reports, and marketing items news items advertisements


• #1 Board of Directors:• Who do you need to leverage?

• Probably the Executive Director and Board Chair• Board’s fundraising committee

• The ask(s)• Ask the Chair in a face-to-face meeting for personal gift and buy in, try to get on

agenda for a board meeting• Leadership funding and matches• Personal give and get goals (their gift plus 5-10 others)

• Provide engagement opportunities for board members, and their guests, to learn more about your project

• Help and educate the Board as needed• Start early, coordinate with ED and Board Chair in January


• #2 Top donors:• Who do you need to leverage?

• Major Gifts Officer, relationship owner (ED, etc.)• The ask(s)

• Personal give and get goals (their gift plus 12 others)• Maybe for matching funds

• Provide engagement opportunities for them and their guests to learn more about your project

• Immediately after commitments from Board


• #3 Mid-level donors:• Who do you need to leverage?

• Relationship owner• The ask(s)

• Personal give and get (their gift plus 12 or more other)• Act as an ambassador• In most cases, there are more mid-level donors than top donors• More calls and emails than face-to-face meetings

• Provide engagement opportunities for them and their guests to learn more about your project

• Immediately after commitments from Board


• #4 Annual fund donors:• Who do you need to leverage?

• Staff, board, others for outreach help• The ask(s)

• Will the Board Chair, a well-known top donor, or your Executive Director kick off the emails with a personal message and appeal?

• Ambassador program with personal gift plus 24 or 48 other asks• Ask via email, mail, and at already scheduled events

• Start in April/May


• #5 Non-donors:• Mostly the same approaches as Annual Fund

• Except language - don’t lead them to assume they already give…or that volunteering is enough

• Who do you need to leverage? • Staff, Executive Director, volunteer managers and leaders

• The ask(s)• Will the Board Chair, a well-known top donor, a leading volunteer, or your

Executive Director kick off the emails with a personal message and appeal?• Ambassador program with personal gift plus 24 or 48 other asks• Ask via email, mail, and at already scheduled events

• Start in January by collecting data – at volunteer events have cards on hand they can fill out so you can engage them via email

• For staff…make it very personal, treat them like mid-level donors – ask in person. Create a competition and make it fun.


• #6 Institutional partners:• Who do you need to leverage?

• Executive Director, relationship owner• The ask(s)

• Start with your strongest institutional funders and work your way backward• If they’ve never given you money, it’s a low possibility but worth a

conversation• Develop a sponsor proposal• If its staff volunteers turn it into a leverage point – ask them to run

an internal campaign and to match employee giving for the day• Ask them to share on social media too

• Start early (Jan/Feb) as partners will need time to plan• Corporate and church are best bets; foundations & government are long-shots


• Questions and clarifications

Q&A

• Donor Strategy• Use segmentation to better manage your donors and data.• Define your segments according to what makes sense for your

organization and your universe of donors• Consider the “Ladder of Communications” when planning

outreach and engagement for each segment• Homework:

• For session on 1/12/17, review your segments and brainstorm potential outreach strategies

• Next class: Thursday, January 12th, 2017 – Motivating donors to give to your project

Summary and next steps

Do More 24 2017 Capacity Building and Strategy Training Series: Session 2

Government & Nonprofit

Transcript of Do More 24 2017 Capacity Building and Strategy Training Series: Session 2