Fundraising is Hard Work. Every Fundraiser Needs That "Someone" in Their Corner

If you work at any one thing long enough, you get to experience both success and failure. Hopefully, you learn what works and what doesn’t work. If you are a slow learner like me, it may take you years to figure it all out, but once you do – you gain a great deal of confidence in how to tackle your work.

I’ve worked in prospect development for 27 years. Long before it was even called prospect development.  I’ve worked at six non-profits which includes three universities, two hospitals and one cause specific organization. I think I’ve learned a thing or two about development and fundraising as a whole.  That includes the people who fill the various roles in the fundraising effort.

My life experiences mean something.  At least I hope they do.  There are times when my head becomes so full of ideas and thoughts about fundraising that I feel like I’m going to explode. 

There’s a scene in the original Rocky, where Mickey (Burgess Meredith) goes to Rocky’s apartment to ask him if he can be Rocky’s manager.  He says “I have all this knowledge up here (pointing to his head) and I want to give it you.”

That’s how I feel sometimes; maybe even a lot of the time. I want my fundraisers to benefit from my having had a front row seat in the development arena for all these years.  I want the organization I work for to be successful and also benefit from my years of experience.

I’m at that point in my life where I know what I know. 

I’m certain I understand what it takes to be an effective fundraiser and what it takes for an organization to achieve its fundraising goals.  I can spend a short amount of time with a fundraiser and know if they “get it” or if they’re just going through the motions.  I’m confident that if I’m working with the right group of fundraisers, we can achieve a very high level of success.

Let me explain.

First of all, fundraising is hard work.  It’s extremely hard work.  It’s challenging and it can wear you down if you let it.  That’s because the effort you have to put forward has to be monumental in scale.  Some people never understand that and fail to embrace it.  They start to look for short cuts and an easier way or worse – they shy away from it all together.

Now, I’m all for finding an easier way – but what that usually means to me is finding a more strategic way of doing things.  Even then – the work is still going to be hard and the effort is still going to be on a monumental scale.

Again, you can’t escape that. 

Fundraisers are going to have to make a lot of calls just to get appointments and they’re going to have to do a lot of qualification work just to find those individuals whose passion and ability to give align with the mission of their organizations.

This is where prospect development can help.  It’s all about the story; the story behind the donor and the story tied to their giving.  This is what we know how to do. It’s the core of what we do.  We are the dot connectors.  We’re the one who can make sense of a large database and help a fundraiser focus on the right people. 

What we can’t do is provide you with a magical list of names that are sure to give and give significantly.  No one can do that.  No one.

However, we can make the process easier, but it’s still not going to be “easy.”  We can help you be more strategic, but you still have to put in a great deal of effort.  It’s still going to be hard and somewhat overwhelming, but we know how to give you a pathway to success.

I keep emphasizing how hard the work is.  I do that because I don’t ever want you to underestimate that. 

Every donor is unique.  Every donor’s story is special.  Our job (and when I say “our” job, I mean yours and mine) is to uncover each donor’s story.  That takes time. That takes effort.  That takes an approach that’s authentic and unique to each and every donor.

More times than not – we aren’t going to learn the story and in those cases – our chances for success will be slim.  That’s okay.  We’ll move on from that and on to the next story. 

Sound overwhelming?

Well, it is.  But when we find that special donor – whose story and whose passion aligns with our organization’s mission, it’s going to be magical.  It may even be transformational.

The goal for prospect development has always been to find the people in our databased (and in rare occasions outside of it) who’s passion, interests and desire to give match the mission of our organizations and the projects and programs that sustain it.  That group can’t be identified by the assets they hold.  They can’t be identified by the titles they have and they can’t even necessarily be identified by the gifts they’ve given to other organizations.

Those things can be factors, but it’s not the best way to segment your database.  Some fundraisers have a hard time accepting that. 

We’re not necessarily looking for the wealthy.  I think way too many fundraisers think that major gift bar is higher than it really is.  I believe every donor should be given the opportunity to be a major donor.  And those donors come in all shapes and sizes, but at their core they have “something” in common. 

We are looking for a very specific individual who has not only has the ability to give, but also has an affinity for what we are doing.  They’re likely to be very similar to others in our database who are already giving major gifts, but not necessarily similar in the way you might think.

Their titles are irrelevant.  Their hard asset data is even irrelevant.

They have very specific attributes that aren’t on their resumes or in their LinkedIn profile.  And most importantly, those attributes are specific to our organizations.  Our donors (yours and mine) have a certain DNA and the more people we can find with a similar DNA, the more likely we are to find success in our fundraising.

And then there’s the timing of it all.  So many variables have to come together in order for us to achieve our fundraising goals.  There is definitely a process behind it all.  I say that knowing that a great many fundraisers don’t necessarily like process. 

Prospect Development can help with that.  We can do a lot of things.  In fact, we can do so much more if you just trust us enough to let us.

Have I piqued your interest?

I’ll end this post here.  The “how” of all of this is for another day.  The take-away from this post is all about how difficult fundraising is and how important it is to have a process and a strategy in place to make things a little bit easier.  There’s a science to it all and we’ll jump into that next time.

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Even though, I’ve been in prospect development for more than 25 years, I continue to learn new things every day.  It amazes me.  Just when I think I have things figured out, this field can humble me.  Often, when I think I’ve found the right way to do something, something else comes along to challenge that best practice and show me another, better, more strategic approach.

To be honest with you, sometimes that just ticks me off.

I don’t mean that in a bad way (if that’s even possible).  That bit of an angry feeling comes more in the form of “Oh crap… I wish I had known that sooner.” It also often leads to “Great, now I have to learn that thing.”

That bit of anger usually fades away and is replaced by a genuine curiosity about how to actually get better, be more strategic, and focused.  That doesn’t necessarily happen overnight.  You see, it’s not my nature to be an early adopter, but when something new comes along, I definitely pay attention.

Unfortunately, while I’m paying attention – that new thing usually flies past me and I have to play catch-up.

That’s how I feel right now about Artificial Intelligence (AI).  I don’t completely understand it, but I see it coming like a title-wave.  Some people like the folks at City of Hope (Nathan Chappell and Nathan Fay) are riding that wave, hanging ten on their surfboards and waving at the people on the beach, who are wishing they were on that wave with the two Nathan’s.

Nathan Fay and I sat down to lunch several weeks back and I could see how committed he was to AI and I walked away having no doubt that he was going to help City of Hope raise more money.  I was envious.  Not jealous, because I love City of Hope – just envious that he had the support and resources to move forward.  Good for him.  Good for City of Hope.

AI is overwhelming to me. It’s huge. It’s mega-big. It’s a game-changer. 

I’m all about finding the story behind a donor’s gift and their connection to my organization and its mission.  It takes a lot of work to find that story and then turn around and tell it to the right people.

And when I say a lot of work, I mean it.  When I was at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), I came to realize I could spend every moment of every working day – finding and telling those stories.  Every moment.  Every day.

It’s a daunting task when you’re looking at a database of more than a million records.  Heck, it’s even a daunting task when you’re looking at a few hundred thousand records.  If AI can look at all that data and then go beyond to learn the story, I want in on that (By the way, it can).
 

Are you kidding me?

I don’t know about you, but I often feel a sense of urgency in the work I do.  I especially felt that working at PanCAN and City of Hope because quite frankly, people were dying every day.  Meeting volunteers, who lost someone to cancer will do things to you.  Being someone who has lost family to cancer does things to you.  In my case, it motivates me to do better.  Be faster.  More strategic. 

I have a strong work ethic, but if I can work smarter – I want that.  I know if I can combine the two, I’ll be a force to be reckoned with.  I’m just one person, but I can make a difference.  We all can.

Why am I writing all of this?

I recently listened to David Lawson’s podcast where he explains "How Big Data can translate into Big Good."

As always – David makes me think.  He has this way of presenting new ideas that really piques my interest.  Mind you, my interest was already piqued by conversations with Nathan Fay, but David’s podcast hit me in the face like a cold wave from the Pacific Ocean.

David addressed the bias we have in the work we do and the bias that often exists in our data.  He told the story of a visit with an Ivy League school a number of years ago where he was trying to convince someone that younger donors could have a major impact.  The response was “Our major donor’s average age is 72 years old.”  David replied with “As long as that is who you’re going to focus on, that is going to be true.”

Bam.  A self-fulfilling prophecy.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the predictive modeling results we just implemented.  I mentioned that I saw this trend where our highest scores were often represented by constituents who were alums, parents and either faculty or staff.  Those that had all three attributes “looked” like our best prospects.

I acknowledged that this made sense since they were the most engaged. It was our own self-fulfilling prophecy. I knew it was biased.  I also realized that if we continued to focus on these constituents, our model wouldn’t change.

David’s podcast reinforced the idea that we often do things that become self-fulfilling prophecies.

It’s one of the reasons I set aside those prospects/donors who had all three attributes and began my implementation of the results by looking at other alums who had high scores – knowing we didn’t have the best engagement with our existing alums. 

I wanted to change the focus of our major gift team (who has a history of focusing on new parents) and help them focus on a group of people that would have a more long term impact on our fundraising efforts.

As I listened to David’s podcast, my head began to spin.

I began to think about the fact that even though there is value in predictive modeling, there is even greater value in utilizing big data and more specifically, AI to do even more. 

I know there is bias in modeling. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if you know that in advance. It has taken me some time to realize that.  You see, it’s often a bit of a process for me to figure out what that bias actually is.  AI helps us avoid some of that bias, if not all of it.  At least, I think it does. 

At PanCAN – we took the modeling results and really analyzed it to the point where we started to develop our own model of who our best prospects were.  When I say “we” – I really mean our data analyst at the time – Victoria Merlo and I worked together.  She did the heavy analysis and really led the effort. 

We found very specific characteristics/data points in our donor records that really helped us focus on a specific group of people to target for major gift cultivation.  The modeling scores were a part of the profile, but now we were armed with additional data to help us be more strategic.

Like I said earlier, I’m always learning.  Every time I take on a project like a wealth screening or predictive modeling, I become more aware and more informed.  My goal is to find what is truly predictive.

That’s the thing.  That’s the secret sauce.

How can we know who is really most likely to give and how do we engage them?  The answers appear to be in AI through machine learning.

AI can learn things faster than I can.  It operates without bias and when operating in that realm, the data is never going to lie.  This is real science.  This is game changing.

I want in.

Right now, I have no choice but to do the work that needs to be done manually at times. It’s just my reality.  I will continue to move forward; armed with the self-awareness, that there is bias in what I do and that it’s not going to be perfect.  It can still be effective, but it’s far from perfect. My new objective isn't to just follow a predictive model - my goal is to change the model in a way that will make us more effective.  It's an idea that Lawrence Henze of Target Analytics actually put in my head when we took delivery of our predictive modeling results.

Models change.  We can impact that change.  Lawrence has helped me realize that.

I will continue to move us forward and continue to advocate for the use of AI.  I know I may only be able to take baby steps; when in reality, I want to sprint forward and dive into the wave where I can join the Nathan’s of the world.  
 

I’m trying to do that, by introducing companies like Gravyty to our organization.  Unfortunately, we’re not using their product just yet.  Fortunately, by introducing them to our team, we have opened the door for a conversation about AI.  It’s a start and I am hopeful. 

I know there may be resistance, but I can be like a dog on a bone when I think something is important. In the meantime, we are all doing the best we can with the resources we have.

It’s all about the big picture.  Non-profits want to change the world and make it a better place.  Those of us in prospect development can help drive that effort. If I’m going to have a self-fulfilling prophecy; let it be this.