0:09
Welcome back. In this lesson,
we will introduce several different types of
donors and associate each with their motivation.
At the end of this lesson,
you will be able to describe the seven faces of philanthropy with donor personas,
identify eight things that motivate a donor,
discuss how belief and confidence play a role in motivating donors to give,
and finally, discover the primary motivator
that prompts a donor to give. Let's get started.
The final dimension outlined by Schiller offers us
a nice transition into our final component of this module,
which is donor motivation.
Robert's book opens with eight sections,
which describe the importance of belief and confidence of your donors.
Those are belief in the importance of giving.
Not everyone who is in a financial position to
make major philanthropic gifts choose to do so.
Giving can be a modeled behavior that is learned from others, typically family members.
Later in life, peers can also provide a positive modeling influence.
But if someone is not a joyful giver,
the likelihood of sustained and/or substantial giving is very limited.
Confidence and personal financial circumstances both present and future.
Caring for ourselves and our immediate family is a basic instinct.
The specific standard of living that is required is unique for each individual.
No matter how large my financial holdings may be,
if I have shaken confidence in my ability to maintain my lifestyle,
and those things which I consider basic necessities, again,
each determined by the individual,
I am not likely to part with my money.
Philanthropic gifts saw a dramatic downturn during
the Great Recession as a result in the loss of donor confidence.
Ironically, the impact was most seen in gifts made by the wealthiest Americans,
and that particular group of donors took longer
to come back to pre-recession gift levels.
Confidence and other personal circumstances.
All of the things in our daily life that can cause worry or
anxiety can also lead to a lack of confidence required for giving.
Family concerns, health issues, major life transitions,
and in some respects,
just basic timing can become an obstacle to a potential donor.
As an example, in my previous position,
I was working with a donor who had a strong interest in
providing a gift to construct a new alumni center,
which would result in a naming opportunity.
He fully understood the benefits of the project,
saw his gift as providing seed money for the university,
and that it was building infrastructure for alumni and donor engagement.
He also had the capacity to make the required gift.
Ultimately, what got in that way was an effort by his daughter,
that was unknown to him,
to encourage her siblings and cousins to jointly pool a family gift
to name a room within the same building in honor of him and his two older brothers,
who are also alumni.
His concern over trumping the efforts of his daughter was ultimately too much for him,
and that particular gift was never made.
Belief in your mission.
You may receive some gifts out of obligation to a friend or colleague who made an ask,
but without a strong belief in the mission of your organization,
no major gift prospect will ever really engage with your program.
Confidence in your leaders.
While it is true that leaders come and go,
and the mission of an organization remains the same,
without the confidence in your organizational leadership that they can
effectively manage and affect the change outlined in your mission,
donors will not engage.
Belief in vision and confidence in strategy.
Good intentions can be found in every nonprofit.
Major and principle gift donors are looking for something more.
They are looking for creative approaches to provide solutions that match their goals and
a belief that your organization's plans are realistic, accomplishable, and sustainable.
Confidence in the organizational financial planning and stability,
both present and future.
This is another area where sustainability is key.
Donors want to make certain that their investments
are not simply for a one and done efforts.
If there is any question about your nonprofit's long term viability,
significant gift support will be hard to come by.
Finally, confidence in the capacity to raise additional funds.
Rarely are we asking donors to fund a project or initiative in total.
Your ability to raise additional funds can impact your sustainability.
If you are seeking funds for a building project,
what confidence does the donor have that you will actually secure all
of the necessary funding to move forward with construction?
If you are presenting a request for programmatic support,
without additional funding, will you really have the impact you are suggesting?
This is part of the thinking and motivation of a typical major principal gift donor.
Of course, first, we need to identify our prospects,
but that is a topic we will dig in to into our next module.
For the purposes of this discussion,
we can assume that we have a prospect in place.
Donors of all kinds,
from our annual giving programs to our high net worth major and principal gift prospects,
are motivated by a sense of wanting to make a difference.
In truth, we are better served to remind ourselves that our donors are
giving through our organizations to solve an issue that is important to them,
rather than giving to us.
Often, when someone first engages in a discussion about relationship-based fundraising,
and the cultivation of donors,
they are skeptical and consider the process to be too calculating to be genuine.
The simple truth is,
all prospects with significant financial capacity
know when they are being cultivated. It is okay.
Realize that if they had no interest in you or your organization,
you would know long before this stage of a relationship.
During this initial getting to know you phase,
our prospective donors are trying to sort out answers for
themselves to some very important questions.
Those questions are, what is this organization's mission and what need are they meeting?
Do I agree with their perception and understanding of the need?
Are they truly having an impact and how they are addressing that need?
Am I sold on their plans for the future?
Do I like the leadership of this organization?
Do I consider them experts?
And are they passionate?
Who else is involved?
What do I have to offer?
Knowing that these are their questions allows you to frame
the relationship in a way that provides them with the needed answers.
Jason WohlmanAssociate Vice Chancellor for University Development
