From the nonprofit’s perspective, the job of the gift officer often seems to be to convey wealth from supporters. But the gift officer’s job is primarily not about this. Your primary job is not to raise money. That’s the outcome of your work, but it’s not your work. Your work is to provide value to wealthy supporters of your cause.
These are not the same thing, and understanding the difference will transform how you approach your job and make you far more effective at bringing in revenue.
How do you provide value, and why is this the primary job of a gift officer?
We’ll unpack how to provide value in a bit. This is the gift officer’s job because you aren’t dealing with bank accounts, portfolios, stock options, IRAs, or properties. You are dealing with people. And people have needs, wants, desires, interests, values, concerns, and passions.
If you fail to engage the person in a sincere manner that provides meaning and joy for them, you will also fail to win over a lifelong supporter and will not get as big of a gift, or as many gifts, as you could have.
Remember this: All exchanges of money require an exchange of value.
Donors Have Needs
Wealthy donors want things. They have needs associated with giving, and they want their needs met. The problem is, many donors and supporters don’t know this about themselves. They feel it deep inside, but they may not be aware of it, and almost certainly aren’t able to express it.
Nevertheless, they do have needs, and they want to receive personalized value through their experience in giving a transformative gift to a nonprofit.
The way you meet those needs is to provide individualized value to each major donor and prospect. And you begin this process by defining what it is you actually do. Once you understand it yourself, you’ll be able to explain it to your prospects so they understand it too.
In other words:
- You must understand the actual job of a gift officer
- Your donors must understand the same thing – how you benefit them
To help get you started on this re-imagining of the gift officer’s work, here is a list of ways gift officers provide value to major donors.
You Are a Skilled Professional
Your field of expertise is to deliver personalized giving experiences and outcomes to each and every major donor and prospect. You help people find meaning and joy through giving. You are like a counselor, guide or sage.
Your expertise is on par with financial advisors, lawyers, business coaches, and other similar types of professions.
You Provide Extraordinary Giving Experiences
People who can give extraordinary gifts will usually want an extraordinary experience, and this is part of your job as a gift officer. When donors feel great about their experience, and even months afterward have no second thoughts about giving, you have done your work well.
You Provide Lifelong Memories
You want this experience to be so good that it becomes one of the donor’s most treasured memories. When they look back on their life, they will see this moment as one of their greatest acts, when they made a tangible difference in the world through their gift.
You Help Fulfill Donors’ Desires
Donors have desires. They have dreams and hopes. They want to see things happen that they care about. When your greatest joy is to help donors fulfill their desires through philanthropic endeavors, you will be providing great value.
You Create Roadmaps for the Giving Process
For wealthy donors, the giving process can get pretty complicated. It’s rarely as simple as just writing a check. They need help navigating this process. Your work includes creating what we call a roadmap, which helps donors work through the process of giving major gifts of assets while feeling respected, valued, appreciated, and fulfilled.
You Are a Matchmaker
When you are able to match the motivations, convictions, values, and passions of donors to specific projects and initiatives at your nonprofit, you are doing your work well. In many ways, you are like a matchmaker. You’re matching ideals with actions.
You Ensure Gifts Express the Donor’s Best Self
A gift isn’t just money. It’s an expression of the donor’s deeply held beliefs, values, and motives. It is their best self, put out there for some part of the world to see and experience. Donors feel profound joy and gratitude for making big gifts when you can help them feel this way during and after the process.
You Ensure Donors Experience Financial Benefits of Giving
There are various tax benefits to making large gifts, especially gifts of assets – if you do it right. You want your donors to experience all the financial benefits of giving wisely that align with their particular situation. This will look different for every person, and it’s part of how you customize the giving experience and the outcomes for each major donor.
You Ensure Donors Receive Recognition or Anonymity
Some donors want public recognition for their gifts. Others want no one to know. You provide value by making sure every donor gets the recognition they desire, and in a way that is meaningful to them. The more personalized, the better.
For example, one donor might derive great joy at seeing the new hospital wing named after them, while another donor might want complete anonymity.
You Are Guided by the Code of Ethics
The Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) publishes a widely accepted Code of Ethics for fundraisers. Major donors will feel more secure in knowing your profession has such a code, just like other professions that are advisory in nature. The AFP’s ethics are here.
You Proceed at the Donor’s Pace
Not all major donors are able to work through the giving process at the same pace. Some will be ready in just a few weeks or months. Others will take years. You provide value by being happy to go at the donor’s pace – however fast or slow that may be.
You are patient and polite, and yet persistent in sticking with them and working to move them forward.
You Customize the Giving Process
A customized giving process is far more meaningful and valuable than a cookie cutter process. Your process will require meetings, ongoing communication, time for getting to know each other, learning the motives, desires, values, and interests of each supporter, and figuring out meaningful ways to involve them in the organization.
You Create Formal Giving Proposals
When donors are ready to make their gift, your job includes the creation of a formal giving proposal, which the donor can edit and refine. You create this proposal only after they have given permission for you to do so, and in a timing that works for them.
You Allow Prospects to Opt Out Any Time
Along the same lines as the last one, you allow donors to opt out of your giving process at any point. You provide value by never pressuring, coercing, or compelling a supporter to make a gift. They are under no obligation to remain in the process or complete it. It’s their decision.
This can be rough for the gift officer, of course, if a donor does drop out after you’ve invested so much time and effort in the relationship. But, it has to be allowed in order for the donor to fully trust you.
So, they can fire you at any time. They can halt the process, switch to a different gift officer, and bring in professionals, advisors, family members, accountants, and other valued contributors to the process.
You Ask for Commitments to Make Gifts
At some point, you will ask supporters to make a commitment to giving. You need them to make a giving decision and they need you to press them — but only when the time is right! In other words, while you respect their timing, you also don’t want the process to stall and they don’t either. Once it’s clear their goals and desires match what your organization can make possible, it’s time to make a decision. In fact, I’ve seen donors will thank fundraisers profusely for pressing them at the right time.
You Help Solve Problems
Their goals are your goals. If the donor experiences problems or challenges in working through the giving process, you will do your best to help solve them. You are a resource. Again, you are a guide, a counselor, a person they can trust who has their best interests at heart.
You aren’t an extractor. You’re a collaborator and facilitator. You work together for the best possible outcomes.
Create Your Own Gift Officer Job Description – for Donors
You have a job description that is internal for your organization. But donors don’t care about most of that stuff. They want to know what you do for them. They want to know how you provide value to them.
You’ve just read numerous statements describing ways you can do this.
Now, it’s your turn to take what you’ve read and customize it to describe yourself in a way that is meaningful and honest for you.
Ideally, you’ll create several versions of this:
- One-sentence description
- One-paragraph description
- Longer list that could be given in printed or digital form
Your description should communicate three core elements:
- Who you are
- What you do for people like them
- Why they should trust you
Take some time to work through the descriptions in this article for how gift officers provide value to wealthy donors and supporters, and start using it with your prospects.
If your current approach isn’t working or feels stale, you will notice the difference immediately.
Related Resources:
- Automate These 4 Fundraising Tasks and Keep Your Gift Officers from Quitting
- Why Nonprofit Fundraising Gift Officers Quit Their Jobs
- 10 Traits to Look for When Hiring a Major Gifts Officer
- Are Nonprofits Driving Gift Officers to Do Fundraising Activities that Don’t Work?
