Donor Cultivation: A Term We’re Using Out of Context

“Cultivation.” It’s one of the most frequently used words in fundraising, but used by so many in so many different ways that it has become all but meaningless.

“Cultivation,” in so many instances has become a parking lot term – where we put prospective donors when we don’t know what to do next. We see that they are not ready for solicitation yet we hold out hopes that someday they will, so we park them in “cultivation.” That usually means that we will continue to befriend them and try to warm them up when we have the chance, thereby consigning many a prospective donor to a form of suspended animation for years. I have come to call this the Hansel and Gretel deep dark woods of cultivation into which many a prospect has been lured and from which few donors actually emerge.

So let’s remind ourselves that cultivation is a term used to describe a phase in a larger agricultural cycle. It is proceeded by planting and followed by harvesting.

Cultivation, therefore, is not a stand-alone phenomenon. We can’t cultivate prospective donors if we do not first plant seeds of hope in the form of real possibilities and real differences to be made.

Trying to cultivate prospective donors with seeds of short-term needs proves increasingly fruitless. We keep coming back to donors with another year’s budget to be balanced and often with only a few abstractions and anecdotes to justify or illustrate why they should give again. We lose four out of five donors because the seeds we attempt to plant have so little potential for long-term growth. We further exacerbate the problem by seeking to hurry up the harvest and wonder why we have lost so many donors for decades.

We must put the cultivation back in its agricultural context. We must seek to plant seeds with far more tangible potential. We must be far more patient in allowing those seeds to take root. We must seek to harvest not on our terms but when our donors become philanthropically mellow, when they have come to believe, belong, and see the chance to make the world better by giving through us.

And, when they have given, we must remember another agricultural tenet – the importance of letting a field lie fallow until it naturally regenerates. In other words, we need to learn the fine art of letting donors see and enjoy the fruits of their philanthropic labors. And we certainly should not ask them to give again and again without having a lot to show from previous harvests and without offering promising seeds of new hopes lest we experience further philanthropic erosion.

Jim Langley is the president of Langley Innovations. Langley Innovations provides a range of services to its clients to help them understand the cultural underpinnings of philanthropy and the psychology of donors, and with that knowledge, to develop the most effective strategies and tactics to build broader and more lasting communities of support. Jim has authored numerous books, including his most recent book, The Future of Fundraising: Adapting to New Philanthropic Realities, published by Academic Impressions in 2020. 

Related Resources:

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• The Power of Building Relationships: Why Donors Need Good Fundraisers
• What Is and Isn’t Philanthropic
• Why what you do is called ADVANCEMENT