MarketSmart talks a lot about why automated communication is the best way to manage and grow relationships with major donors (including legacy donors) and prospects at scale – meaning you do it with thousands instead of just the few dozen a gift officer can handle at one time.
But how does this work? And why does it help people move themselves toward giving bigger gifts?
To answer, we’re going to share an example of a real major donor who was self-qualified through our fundraising automation communication platform. Then, we’ll unpack what this major donor case study reveals to nonprofits about how they run their major giving programs.
The Story – Major Donor Case Study
We begin with a 78-year-old recent widow, who we’ll call ‘Emma’.
Emma prospered financially in her life, and accumulated quite a bit of wealth by the time she retired, including two homes. She and her husband never had kids, and when her husband passed, she found herself living alone for the first time in decades. Emma had been supporting several nonprofits for a number of years, and had decided she wanted to sell one of her homes and give the money to these organizations.
But right now, she was grieving, and didn’t want to think about any of that for a while.
One of her favorite charities had been communicating with her for quite a while, including offering her the chance to fill out surveys and share details of her life and finances. She filled out many of these surveys over time, and even shared the details of her recent life experiences and the loss of her husband in an open comment box.
So the charity knew she was now a widow, had no children, and wanted to sell one of her homes. But, they also knew she was grieving.
The charity responded with patience and sensitivity. They gave Emma space and time to grieve. They refrained from asking for money, pressing for a gift, or even underhandedly trying to speed up her decision to start the home-selling process.
They made no asks during this time.
Instead, they just kept sending her emails that gave Emma value and that kept their organization – one she cared very much about – on her mind.
Then one day, Emma responded to another email survey, and made it clear she was now ready to begin the major giving process.
The charity responded, and eventually introduced her to a gift officer who met Emma in person and worked with her to develop a giving plan that was tax-smart.
The result?
Emma gave all the money from the sale of that home to this one charity, and none to the others she had previously cared about. When asked why, Emma said the other charities annoyed her with how they communicated during this time, or they just ignored and forgot her.
So one charity received the full amount of a gift Emma had originally planned to spread out among several.
Lessons Learned from Emma’s Story
The fact that one charity ended up winning the entirety of a major gift the donor had originally planned to distribute to several ought to give every nonprofit a serious pause.
Do you want to talk yourself out of a major gift a donor wanted to give to you?
We don’t want that either. So let’s draw some lessons and insights from this major donor case study.
Traditional fundraising tools can’t deliver this outcome
First, let’s notice what isn’t in this story.
There is no mention of wealth screening software tools like RFM, propensity, or AI-driven attempts to predict what Emma will do and recommend a course of action. Those tools are simple inadequate to be of any benefit at this point in the donor relationship.
At best – and it’s pretty iffy – these tools might have managed to identify Emma as a potential major donor. But they can’t know of her recent loss, or that she has two homes and wants to sell one of them, or that she has no kids, or several other key details in this story.
Relying solely on these sorts of tools to identify and qualify major donors will leave you coming up short.
Donor relationships take time and patience
While it’s easy to point out the shortcomings of wealth screening software, when you pair that up with automation software that enables potential major donors to self-qualify, it can help find more donors.
But it doesn’t end there. That’s just the beginning. To take a potential donor from ‘identified’ to making the actual gift, this takes time and patience.
Emma had been identified long before she was ready to give. But it was the ongoing relationship that ultimately led to the gift.
Relationships take time. Trying to rush gifts only leaves the organization out in the cold. You must be patient with people and wait until they are ready to make the gift.
The organization that was happy to work on Emma’s timeline is the one that got rewarded.
Build trust with no-pressure communication
Notice how Emma described other nonprofits as “annoying.” And remember – these are charities she had previously supported and cared about a great deal. But they managed to take all that goodwill and become annoying. How did they manage to fumble such an easy handoff?
By pressing and pushing for faster progress toward the gift. Emails and letters got sent, but they focused only on the organization’s desire for the gift. Once they knew she had capacity to give, it’s all they cared about.
They didn’t hold back, wait, and let Emma get through her grieving process. They didn’t respect her humanity, and treated her more like an ATM.
The biggest gifts happen when you first seek to build trust. And you do that in part by respecting the donor’s timeline and stated preferences. When Emma asked for time to grieve her husband, only one organization gave it to her. See why trust in nonprofits is declining.
Giving things the donor values
The charity that won Emma’s gift didn’t just ask. They gave.
They continually sent surveys – using the automation software so they didn’t actually do any of the work – asking for her thoughts, interests, and updates on her life. And they responded in accordance with how she answered – again using the automation software.
They sent her valuable content that made her feel part of the mission of the nonprofit. They gave her things she wanted to hear, and that didn’t ask for anything in return.
Fundraising automation is essential to scaling up major giving
Lastly, you can see throughout the story and this analysis the essential role played by the fundraising automation.
Emma’s story is just one story. Imagine interacting with thousands of donors in such a highly personalized and responsive manner. Human gift officers simply can’t do it. Nor do they want to. It’s tedious, slow, and difficult to keep track of everything for so many people.
But MarketSmart’s fundraising automation software can do it. In fact, this is the whole reason we exist – to enable nonprofits to communicate effectively with far more donors than you ever could using human gift officers or other staff.
Our system enables donors to self-qualify, and then it continues to communicate with them so they move themselves toward the decision to make a major gift.
With fundraising automation, you can know all sorts of things about each individual major donor and prospect:
- Why they care about your mission
- How your mission relates to their life
- How supporting you gives them meaning
- How close, or far, they are from becoming ready for outreach from a human gift officer
- What to say when you reach out, based on their previous engagement, what we call digital body language
- Key demographic information, such as if they’re childless like Emma
- Insights into the kinds of gifts they are considering
- Individual preferences, concerns, and interests
With this approach, donors feel in control of their giving. That’s how Emma felt, and it’s evident throughout her story. The way the winning nonprofit treated her just feels right. It’s how all donors want to be treated. And it’s how they should be treated.
With fundraising automation, you can treat all your major donors and prospects this way, and you can do it without having to hire a single person.
See a video on how fundraising automation works
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