Winning major gifts is a complex process, but it can be broken down into a series of steps. You can automate many of the steps on the front end – the hardest ones to do at scale if you rely on people and inaccurate wealth ratings data. But after you’ve prioritized who is ready for personalized outreach from a gift officer, the next step is to get prepared to make that first outreach call.
Personalized outreach involves its own unique set of skills.
It begins with prioritizing who to reach out to. Then, you figure out how to get ready to make calls.
While there is an aspect to preparing for outreach that will be unique to what you know about each major donor prospect, there are several components of preparation that apply to all future outreach efforts.
It’s a system of preparation. A series of things you do once, and keep doing over and over until you become a master of them. These are the skills we’ll cover in this article.
How to Prepare Yourself for Major Donor Outreach
We’re going to cover five primary aspects of outreach preparation. Some are habits you’ll keep working on. Others are one-time tasks. When used effectively and consistently, all of these together create a system of preparation that will turn any gift officer into a master of outreach to new prospects.
Step 1: Know yourself
Knowing yourself is about self-confidence and having confidence in what you do – the service you provide to major donors. There are several aspects to knowing yourself:
Know what you do
You are a professional. You’re an advisor, a guide, an expert who leads wealthy people to the places they want to go in terms of philanthropy. You help people have the best possible giving experience and seek to deliver the most valuable outcomes for all involved.
Know your process
You have a system for developing a gift, making sure it aligns with the donor’s values and hopes, and enabling them to experience their own set of tax benefits and whatever recognition they might want, if any. You have a communication process that is flexible according to their timeline and availability. You’re guided by a Code of Ethics.
There’s probably a lot more to your process, and you want to have it mapped out, including the parts that are flexible, so you can speak confidently to the prospect about where this might go.
Know your story
Write out your own background so you can communicate why this work is important to you. Have reasons for caring about this cause, along with your credentials and experiences with other donors.
Step 2: Change your job title
Most gift officers use job titles that actually repel donors. And yes, this has been researched. Dr. Russell James researched how various job titles affect donors’ perceptions of the gift officer and the organization.
What he found was striking. Most of the commonly used job titles for gift officers are organization-centric and not donor-centric. They are transactional and impersonal. Here are six of the worst offenders:
- Director of Advancement
- Chief Advancement Officer
- Director of Development
- Chief Development Officer
- Director of Institutional Advancement
- Chief Institutional Advancement Officer
Perhaps you can see the pattern. The common thread with all these is, none of these names mean anything to donors. They’re bureaucratic. They don’t inspire any giving emotions. They don’t inspire trust. And again – this was researched. These titles repel donors. They do real damage to your effectiveness.
The two most positive job titles found by Dr. James:
- Director of Donor Guidance
- Director of Donor Advising
Again, you’ll note the significant shift in emphasis in these titles. The donor sees themselves in these names. You come across as an ally, not a representative or official. That’s a good thing.
Now, you might have a few concerns about this.
First, your job title might not be up to you. Second, you might want to keep a job title that will be recognized at other nonprofits should you ever need to work somewhere else.
Both of these are valid concerns. And both are easy to overcome. You can use your official job title in all your internal communications and documents, and your resume. But use the donor-centric one on all your donor communications. Simple solution, and everyone wins.
Step 3: Determine what to say – in general
You’ll want to prepare a specific approach for each donor prospect. But there are certain things you can plan in advance and use every time. Here are some ways to prepare for what to say:
Plan your first 30 seconds
Your opening makes all the difference in how the rest of the conversation goes. You want to make a good first impression. Don’t wing it. Don’t trust your gut to just know what to say. Your opening needs to be clear, engaging, respectful, informative, helpful, and compelling.
And don’t start off by apologizing for the call. Here are four things NOT to say in your opening:
- How are you?
- Am I interrupting you?
- Do you have a few minutes?
- I know you’re probably busy but…
These waste time and fail to start the conversation off with any momentum. You’re calling because these people want to hear from you – if you’ve prioritized the right people for outreach.
Write down your initial message and your voicemail
As you work on your opening, write it down and make sure you’re covering all the main items that need to be there.
Ask yourself: How would I feel if someone called and said this to me?
Edit it. Rewrite it. Keep working on it. And then make a voicemail version too. It will be similar but not the same, because you’ll need to include callback information – and still keep it under 30 seconds. So your voicemail version will have different information than the version you’ll use with a live person. But you need to have both ready because you don’t know if they’ll answer.
Rehearse it
As you rework it, say it out loud. If you keep tripping on certain phrases, rework those until it flows smoothly. If it’s too long, find things to cut. Think about the items you’ll be able to bring up later, and remove them until you settle on what absolutely needs to be said at the start of the conversation.
Keep working it until you can say it in a natural way so it doesn’t sound like you’re reading it or memorized it. Make it sound sincere and conversational.
Add in the personal details
Finally, make it personalized to the supporter. Come up with something to offer that you believe they will appreciate based on what you know about them. It could just be a question – something you want to know about them like their best memory with your nonprofit, how they first got involved, or how they became a generous person.
You might give them an opportunity to help your organization with something – as long as it’s a real need and you’re not just trying to make them feel good. You really want their help.
Also, if you know this supporter knows someone else at your organization, have that person reach out first and introduce you so that when you call, they already have a warmer feeling about you.
Step 4: Block time on your calendar
This one is very important, because people will do anything to avoid making outreach calls. No matter how much preparation you do, you’ll still probably feel a little jittery when you pick up the phone. That means you’ll take any excuse to delay it.
Don’t delay it. Schedule it.
Pick out specific dates and specific times of day when you will make outreach calls. If you make a lot of calls, schedule time every week or every other week. If it’s on your schedule, you won’t book something else, and you’ll turn down offers to do something during those times.
Also, decide who you will call during each block of time. This can include people you already talked with and are calling back a second or third time. It can also include follow-up calls to people who you couldn’t reach the first time and left a voicemail.
Step 5: Develop your success routine
You’ve already got part of your success routine down by the time you get to this step. Scheduling blocks of time and rehearsing your first 30 seconds are success habits. Here are a few more.
First, use a headset or headphones.
You do this so you can talk freely with your hands, and so you can jot down any notes you want to remember. It’s better to handwrite notes than type, because the supporter will be able to hear you typing, and this will make the call feel less personal and sincere, and more official and business-related. Headphones allow you to jot notes privately.
Second, stand up and smile while you talk.
Believe it or not, people can tell if you’re smiling through the phone. You sound different because your lips are making a different shape. And your tone will be different. Also, you sound more confident, clear, and enthusiastic if you speak while standing instead of sitting. Record your first 30 seconds both ways and see if you (and other people) can tell which is which.
There’s a reason public speakers almost always stand while speaking.
Third, learn to be bold and direct, and also brief. Try to answer questions quickly and directly, without droning on and on. It’s better to let the supporter talk more, while you listen and respond.
And, being bold is about confidence, and this is why you don’t want to start off with weak questions like “Is this a good time to talk?” They answered the phone, so it’s either a good time to talk, or they’ll tell you it isn’t. And even if it isn’t, you can still give your 30-second introduction and then plan a time to call back later that they agree to.
Last, make sure it’s easy for them to contact you.
Your voicemail message should include clear contact information. Any emails you send should include multiple contact methods. So should your social media profile.
It’s also smart to use a scheduling app so they can quickly schedule a phone or video call with you.
Outreach is about breaking down barriers. The fewer barriers you put up, the easier it will be for the conversation to proceed and for trust to grow.
From there, you can work on follow-up calls, and eventually ask for an in-person meeting.
Related Resources:
- 5 Tips to Being Persistent in Outreach to Major Donors
- The Secret to Raising More Money: Focus on Impact, Not Just Strategies
- Fundraisers Share What Obstacles They Encounter When Making Outreach Plus How to Overcome Them
- The Days of Easy Fundraising are Over