What are the three wonders of the ancient fundraising worlds? Pyramids, Pillars and Phases
1️⃣ Don’t waste your time putting together a gift pyramid unless you have its essential corollary – a content pyramid. The gift pyramid shows the number of gifts you need at various levels to reach your goal. The content pyramid shows the concepts you will put in front of donors to justify what you’re asking for in the gift pyramid and the difference that will be made when you secure each gift.
2️⃣ Don’t organize your strategic planning or campaign case around strategic pillars unless you illustrate them with specific initiatives that will transform figurative pillars into concrete actions.
3️⃣ Don’t organize your campaign around phases (e.g., the quiet phase and the public phase). The last thing in the world, even the ancient world, you want to do is to be quiet about what you’re raising money for and what you could do if you got it. Don’t try to raise big gifts just in the quiet phase; try to raise them through the life of the campaign by generating compelling impact scenarios, heralded with phases like “Imagine if…” Don’t expect the public to respond to your public phase. The only public you have is the constituency you curated by showing donors why they could believe in you, how they could belong to your community, and how by giving through you, they could better the life of at least one person.
There’s too much reliance on these wonders of the ancient fundraising world – and they were never that wondrous to begin with. Get with the times. Focus more on content, community building, and difference-making.
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.