Have you ever wondered, “Why won’t they accept my outreach? Why won’t they return my calls? And why do donors ‘ghost’ me?”
Making that initial outreach call to a major gift prospect is one of the hardest parts of the job. Most gift officers will probably agree with that, but it’s worth some time to understand why.
What are the greatest challenges to reaching out to potential major donors? And, furthermore, can we do anything to alleviate these obstacles?
MarketSmart surveyed a cohort of major gift officers and asked them about their greatest challenges in getting potential major donors to agree to meet. Of course, in most cases, the meeting is an essential part of the process of winning the gift.
Here’s what gift officers said were the greatest outreach challenges they faced.
No Response At All
This was by far the greatest frustration. 60% of gift officers surveyed identified this as their greatest challenge to landing meetings.
They call up the prospect and simply get no response. They leave a message, and never get called back. They call again, same story. Attempts at other forms of outreach like email, text, and social media, if available and utilized, also get ignored.
Bottom line – most of the people being called don’t appear to be interested in talking. It’ll be pretty tough to land a meeting or close a gift if you never get to talk to the person.
Now, it could be that the gift officer failed to answer the age-old question every wealthy supporter asks themselves when deciding whether to return a fundraiser’s voicemail or email: “What’s in it for me?”
If they can’t see how they’d benefit from responding to your outreach, they will be unlikely to do so. So, you’ll want to make sure you prove that you are interested in them and their story, not just their money.
The bigger question is, how did these prospects get identified and assigned as potential major donors if they don’t want to talk?
Something much more important is missing, before these outreach attempts are even being made. Hang in there. We’ll get to that in just a moment.
Brushed Off
Some calls do get through, but 18% of gift officers said prospects told them, in one way or another, that they didn’t need or want to have a personal visit.
Many say things like, “Don’t worry, I’ll give. I don’t need a personal visit.”
And if these people do in fact end up giving a major gift, this might be okay. If all the time you might spend meeting with these people would result in the same outcome, then it’s much more efficient for everyone to skip the meeting. But, as you know, meetings often lead donors to end up giving much more than they had originally planned to give.
Here, again, if they don’t see what’s in it for them, they will be likely to recoil — especially if they sense that you only want their money. For many, that’s because they’ve been down this road before with another gift officer (at another charity or yours). And the result of the experience was less than valuable.
But the deeper issue still relates to why these people were assigned in the first place. Don’t worry, we’re getting to that.
Felt Unprepared
13% of gift officers surveyed simply felt unprepared and didn’t even ask for a meeting. Some weren’t sure what to say in their outreach calls. Some felt okay asking to meet, but didn’t feel prepared to have a meeting and didn’t feel like they had access to enough information to get more prepared.
Just knowing their potential net worth (according to ‘big data’) – which might not even be accurate depending on the source – isn’t enough to be prepared for a meeting.
Gift officers desperately want and need more information about why someone cares, who inspired them to care, where their interests lie (in which programs or initiatives), and where they are in their consideration continuum for giving assets.
In short, they need the kind of donor-supplied information only MarketSmart collects.
The Runaround
The last obstacle fundraisers encounter when making outreach is what we’re calling the runaround. In these 9% of gift officers’ experiences, supporters do agree to meet but then keep finding reasons to delay or avoid committing and following through with it.
Something came up. This week doesn’t work. I’m too busy. My wife’s friend’s colleague’s former roommate’s dog is sick.
There’s always a reason they can’t just set a date and keep it. You get a lot of positive vibes from prospects like these. A lot of friendly conversations and affirmative-sounding language. But nothing materializes, and the meetings don’t happen.
In most cases, this happens because the donors don’t feel any urgency. The timing just isn’t right for them. So, they delay.
What All These Have in Common
If you step back and look at it, you might see the same root problem behind all four of these outreach obstacles.
The root cause is, the major donor prospects were not pre-qualified. We know this is true because if a donor was properly pre-qualified, they would be exponentially more likely to want to meet.
In MarketSmart’s system, this is an unavoidable step that supporters must take before we determine they are ‘outreach-ready’ based on their feedback.
Yes, your outreach techniques and skills matter. It’s important, and that’s also a topic we help our clients with by encouraging them to make sure they prove they are value providers. We encourage them to be prepared to answer the donor’s question: What’s in it for me?
But pre-qualification matters much more. That way, the list of people you engage with one to one outreach are outreach-ready, according to them!
MarketSmart founder Greg Warner’s mentor once told him that 80% of successful outreach depends on the quality of the list. Making outreach to the wrong people produces obstacles almost every time – even with elite level techniques for communicating value.
Now, let’s take a look at how you can overcome these obstacles. To be clear, MarketSmart’s system has a very refined process for how to pre-qualify a major donor prospect. Here, we’re speaking more on a philosophical level than a nuts and bolts one. These are the principles that undergird effective pre-qualification and allow you to bypass the four obstacles that plague gift officers’ outreach efforts.
Give Value First
First, you need to give value before you ask for it. After all, that’s the law of reciprocity. And it’s powerful because people don’t like being sold. They don’t like being manipulated. But they do like getting something that resonates and makes them feel good.
You need a bridge to get over their lack of readiness or their preconceived notions of distrust. Giving to them incentivizes them to lean in and allow you to get closer to them. Calling and asking them to meet or give doesn’t. Just because some wealth screener identified them as having the wealth capacity to make a major gift doesn’t mean they are ready to or want to. It might be nowhere near the top of their mind. Never mind the fact that they’re in your database.
The point is, give value first. That’s how you earn trust and reduce the obstacles getting in the way of advancement and relationship-building.
The ways you might give are endless. Share stories of impact. Offer data and reports, and only send them if they want them. Give opportunities to share their opinion about decisions your organization faces. Let them offer expertise. Ask which parts of your mission matter most to them. Ask why they care. Inspire them to share their story or express how their values align. Find out if they have a personal connection to your organization. Did they have a relative or friend who was served through your mission?
In other words, treat them like a partner, a friend, and a valued contributor by seeking ways to give to them first before you expect them to give to you at all. That includes giving you their time when you make outreach.
Enable Engagement on Their Terms
All of the ideas just listed are examples of what we call engagement fundraising, which is also the title of MarketSmart’s CEO’s book that you can get for free here in a variety of formats including audiobook.
The idea is to put the power of decision in their hands. Let them advance and engage as they are comfortable and on their terms. They don’t want to hear from you for three months? Wait three months to reach out again. They want to receive emails but don’t want to be asked to give a major gift until next year? Keep sending emails that deliver value but hold off on hinting about giving.
We recommend you offer surveys, and then interact based on their survey responses. I promise, they’ll tell you when they’d be likely to engage. Plus, they’ll tell you whether they’ll accept your outreach. And when they say they will, they’ll actually return your calls and emails.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
It’s simple, but not easy!
For most gift officers this kind of engagement for hundreds or thousands of people is too difficult to manage. That is why MarketSmart exists. Our system does exactly what we’re describing here, but it automates the entire process so you don’t have to devote human resources to it. Our system engages and pre-qualifies major donor prospects automatically and autonomously, and at scale – engaging far more people than you could ever hope for using actual employees at high cost and less ‘ghosting’.
Let Them Express Their Desires, Interests, Thoughts
It’s their story. Let them tell it to you.
Surveys are a core feature of our system, because this is where you can uncover the valuable personal details that will drive future major gift conversations. This is how you obtain qualitative data about each supporter you can’t buy.
Alternatively, quantitative data like wealth capacity and giving history is important too, but that’s frankly the easy part. And it doesn’t help you get into personal and meaningful conversations with each supporter. It merely identifies who you might reach out to, with no concern for their readiness.
However, by walking donors through their own little self-discovery journey (thanks to a carefully crafted survey) first, you’ll start to uncover information like:
- Who inspired them to be interested in philanthropy
- How did they get connected with your organization
- How your organization ranks compared to others they also support
- Their openness to talking about giving a transformational gift
- Whether they already left a gift in their estate plan
- What assets they’d consider giving
- If they have children
There’s a lot more, but that gives you an idea.
The point of all this is, when you know this type of information about a prospect (because they shared it with you already), you will have something to say when you call them up the first time. Remember, this was one of the obstacles identified by 13% of gift officers – not knowing what to say.
More importantly, you’ll have helped them think about your nonprofit and why it matters to them on a deeper emotional and personal level. And they’ll appreciate that you’re engaging with them, and not badgering them for money all the time. They’ll feel respected. And when you call them, they’ll feel known.
Then, they’ll respond favorably.
Let Them Self-Identify Their Timing
Last and most important, our system lets prospects tell you when they’re open to having someone reach out to them.
On top of all the other pre-qualification work that’s happening, you’re also getting permission from them to reach out and call them. So, the 60% of gift officers who can’t get ahold of the prospect will now only be calling supporters who gave you permission to call them. That’s what we call ‘donor-driven’ engagement fundraising. Don’t you think that will increase their likelihood of being answered?
It’s an entirely different fundraising experience when you conduct pre-qualification using the methods and strategies we’re talking about.
And, regarding the prospects who brush you off and say they’ll give on their own, with all the pre-qualification and surveying work you can be doing, you’ll know that in advance. You’ll never even call those people, because they will indicate the same preferences in their interactions with the automation software.
Then, if they ever change their mind and decide they do want to be called, they won’t brush you off because, once again, they said they wanted to hear from you.
Outreach Begins Here
Yes, outreach technique matters. There are lots of skills associated with making good outreach calls, and we’ve got a lot to say about that. But those techniques won’t matter much if you’re not reaching out to someone who wants to hear from you. This isn’t a persuasion call. It’s a permission-oriented engagement call.
That’s the difference for you and the donor experience when you do pre-qualification the right way.
Want to see how MarketSmart’s system pre-qualifies major donor prospects?
Watch this quick 2-minute video
Related Resources:
- What’s Your Reason for Requesting The First Meeting With a Prospective Donor?
- The Power of Building Relationships: Why Donors Need Good Fundraisers
- How to Deepen Your Major Donor Relationships
- The Most Important Fundraising Metric: The 20-Year Relationship