In general, people prefer doing business and engaging in transactions with other people with whom they already have a relationship… – Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Thou Shall Prosper
Here are 10 ways to find new donors and earn their loyalty.
- Your board members and founders should be your organization’s first donors. Respecting that your leaders have a variety of income levels, ask them to give “their largest personally appropriate gift”. Tip: When you can tell donors you have 100% board participation, this is a compelling case for support.
2. By using your gift range calculation and donor ranking, you will be equipped to ask each person within the range of their largest personally appropriate gift. At your next meeting, ask your current leaders for referrals. A helpful way to brainstorm is with a Bubble Exercise: Each person, on your own paper, head columns or draws big bubbles. Each bubble or column represents someplace you spend time: work, home/family, clubs, church, neighborhood, associations, sports teams, etc.
Under these headings, without considering anybody’s ability to give or interest in your organization, list everyone you know.
Rank each person 0 – 3, 3 being the high score, on each of these three factors:
Interest in your cause
Linkage, or connection, to your organization
Ability to give
When each team member has added up their prospects, add the totals. Compare this total to the prospects needed from your gift range calculation.
3. Are all past donors on your prospect list? At a 135 year old Chamber of Commerce, I found a donor list from the 1960’s. When I contacted some of those past donors, they were honored to be remembered. Some made new donations.
4. Based on “linkage” alone, add your staff and vendors. When you meet with them for solicitations, ask for their referrals, too.
5. According to The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, the people with the greatest ability to give to your organization today are older adults. Communicate differently with your different age demographics. Your next major donor may not be online, but waiting for paper correspondence. Tip: Many older donors can be found on Facebook.
6. Do you have a list of past event attendees? At all future events capture contact information for attendees.
7. Ask for grants from your local Rotary Clubs, other service clubs, and local community foundations. They might make a matching gift to help you motivate other donors.
8. Online giving portals: Claim and keep your Guidestar profile current. Donors looking for nonprofits to support online can find your cause and donate through Guidestar. Some Fortune 500 companies use Benevity.com for their employee giving programs. You can easily register your organization there, too.
9. Ask your social media followers to donate, and ask them to refer their friends and family. As your organization gains positive name recognition within and beyond your local community, you can focus more resources on cultivating online donors. For most nonprofits, your larger donations will come through your annual campaign.
10. Run a “silent” referral campaign annually: board members ask current donors to recommend like-minded connections that may like to support your cause.
If you still come up short, you can scale back your goals for this year to fit a calculation with a smaller number of prospects required. If the numbers don’t project that the support will truly be there, regroup.
As always, I am hoping for your every success!
