Donor outreach is hard. There’s no sugarcoating required. We all know it. But like anything, there is a skillset, and you can learn it and get better at it.
When you’re ready to reach out to a major donor prospect, there are a number of good practices to use that will increase your chances of a successful outreach. And likewise, you can avoid derailing the call if you steer clear of some common bad habits that are easy to fall into.
Use this list of major donor outreach do’s and don’ts to raise your game and move more prospects closer to making a major gift to your nonprofit organization.
We’ll start with what not to do, and then end with the good stuff.
There are many more – and you can feel free to suggest a few in the comments. But here are five common pitfalls to avoid when conducting donor outreach.
1. Don’t Read from Your Script
Rehearing and practicing your donor outreach plan is a great idea. You should definitely be doing this and not flying by the seat of your pants. Make a plan. Rehearse it.
But the key is to rehearse it until you know it well enough to sound natural. And, no call goes perfectly according to plan. By knowing your script so well you don’t need to look at it, you’ll be able to pivot and adjust during the conversation while still hitting your main points when the time is right. You’re not memorizing a speech.
You can’t force an outreach call to go in the exact direction you want.
Plus, reading from a script tells the prospect you don’t fully believe in what you’re saying. You’re not a telemarketer, so don’t sound like one.
2. Don’t Offer to ‘Update’ Them
This is a weak offer and a generic way to open the conversation. Plus, most people will recognize it as a way to soft-peddle into asking for money.
Did they ask you to update them on something before this call either in previous calls or through what MarketSmart calls their digital body language? If so, then yes, do it. But in most cases, they did not do this.
Find a better, more specific, more authentic way to open the conversation and offer them something they really want.
3. Don’t Worry about Failure
You can’t control the outcomes. Some people will be happy you called and will appreciate the personal outreach. This is why we do it. But some will be put off and will reduce their engagement.
None of this is within your control. Donors and prospects will ultimately do what they’re going to do. And not all of them will want to stay in touch. You don’t have the emotional bandwidth to keep worrying about it.
The more important aspect of failure is failure from inaction. If you do nothing, you will fail for sure. Do something – make outreach – and you will eventually succeed.
4. Don’t Allow Background Noise
Background noise is more than just distracting. It can communicate a level of disrespect to the person you’re calling – if that noise is something you could prevent.
No music, TV, or media should be playing. If at all possible, there should be no one else in the room. And it most certainly should not sound like a call center. This is a personal, private phone call being delivered to a person who was chosen for very specific reasons at this time of their life.
5. Don’t Apologize for Calling
Major donor outreach is your job. You are providing great value and the opportunity of a lifetime to the people who get to give and make a meaningful impact through your nonprofit.
You’re not sorry for calling. You’re excited about the conversation you hope they agree to have, either now or at another time when they are more available.
Inappropriate and unrequested apologies only come across as disingenuous. You want to be sincere and purposeful.
Now that you know a few things not to do, let’s examine some skills and habits that will boost your engagement and conversion metrics.
1. Do Use a Good Opening Line
How you start a conversation makes a huge difference regarding its outcome. You’re setting the tone. Making a first impression. Building trust and establishing expectations.
The good news is, there’s data on this.
A study from Gong.io surveyed over 90,000 sales conversations. Here are some of the most startling findings:
Isn’t it interesting that the first phrase inhibited outcomes? It seems like a good opening, because it’s considerate of their time. But it probably fails because it’s sort of like the apology mentioned in the last section. It’s disingenuous. To them, they think you don’t really care if it’s a bad time, so why bother pretending by asking.
The last two phrases would be a little more difficult if this was your first time ever communicating with this person, either by phone or via email, text, LinkedIn, or other channels.
But if you’ve communicated at all before this call, those make great openings, according to this data.
2. Do Use Technology to Increase Efficiency
Trying to manage all the processes and data recording associated with making outreach calls can quickly overwhelm most people – if you want to sustain a personal engagement approach with each prospect.
There are numerous technology tools to help make this easier and more effective and efficient.
Before outreach ever happens, you can develop a trustful relationship with a prospect using email, personalized surveys and follow-up, and automated cultivation.
This is what MarketSmart’s software platform delivers, and it’s one reason the nonprofits using our system have dramatically increased their major gift revenue – without having to hire a bunch of new people. Why?
Because a properly cultivated donor prospect will be more receptive to your outreach than a cold prospect.
Other good technology that greatly assists in outreach includes your CRM, where you can make notes and record data about key aspects of the conversation. However, you don’t want to type during the call. That’s background noise, and it detracts from the personal nature of the call. People type during business calls, not personal calls.
Appointment setting apps are another great software tool that makes it easier for everyone to set and keep appointments. During your outreach call, if you want to set the time for your next call (which you should!), the appointment software solidifies the next call for the prospect.
3. Do Have Pen and Paper Nearby
Typing during an outreach call doesn’t help the quality of the interaction. But, you do want to make notes so you can enter them in your CRM and have them as a reference for your next call and other future outreach efforts.
So, go old school and jot down key notes with pen and paper during the call. You can formally record them later.
If you don’t do this, you will not remember the details of this call. But by jotting things down, when you have your next call the prospect will feel like you were really listening. Because you were!
4. Do at Least Two Engagement Calls Before Asking for a Meeting
Asking for a gift in an opening outreach call is almost always a bad idea – even if the prospect offers one. Research by Dr. Russell James has found that delaying a gift, even when offered, often leads to a bigger and more fulfilling gift later. That initial gift offer might be a smaller one than they could give, just to make you go away. In fact, at MarketSmart we call these “go away gifts.”
Beyond gifts, you also want to avoid asking for a meeting during your first call. Here, if the prospect asks for one, it’s okay to just move to that stage.
But in general, you want to have at least two engagement calls before asking for meetings. You want to offer and deliver value to them first, build trust and loyalty, and move past the awkwardness typical of opening calls.
That’s how you get the opportunity to ask, “How have you been?” And that’s how Gong.io study participants probably increased their bookings by 660%.
5. Do Shut Up After You Ask for a Meeting
When you do reach the point of asking for a meeting, this outreach tip may sound simple, but it’s not.
Just be quiet.
Silence is uncomfortable for many of us. When you ask for a meeting, sometimes you hear nothing on the other end of the call. When that happens, it’s easy to feel tempted to talk again. You might try to offer more reasons why they should meet with you. You might ask questions to see if that’s a bad time or if something else is holding them back.
But don’t do any of that.
Just wait. Be silent. Oftentimes, the person is just thinking. They might be checking their schedule. They might be thinking about something their spouse, their boss, another prospect, or someone else told them and are wondering if that conflicts with the day or time you’ve offered.
There are thousands of possible reasons why they might be silent, and many of them are harmless. Silence is not ‘no.’ Silence is not even hesitation. It’s often just internal processing. And the longer it’s silent, the more they will feel the social requirement to break it and respond.
So let them think. Count to ten in your mind. Take a sip of water. Jot down a few more notes from the call you didn’t get to finish earlier.
Let silence work in your favor, and don’t interrupt it.
6. Do Consider Giving Two Options
It’s a very good outreach practice to give two options. No matter what has already been agreed to, look for a way to give choices.
If they say yes to a meeting or a follow up call, give them two days to pick from.
If they agree to a day, give them two times that day.
Weekends or weeknights? Lunch or dinner? Morning or afternoon?
Giving choices communicates respect, and gives them the power. Giving them the power shows you trust them, and are not trying to cajole them into doing something they don’t want to do.
The most effective major donor outreach happens when the prospect is expecting it and looking forward to it.
MarketSmart’s AI-infused donor qualification and cultivation software achieves this essential outcome, and does it all with automated communication. So it requires little attention from your existing staff.
They just get to talk with warmer prospects and more receptive potential donors. That means higher quality outcomes, more gifts, happier gift officers (and less turnover), and happier donors.
It works. Really well.
Want to see how it works? Schedule a free demo of our platform.
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