Too Many Times to the Well

As the Director of Development for local community’s New Arts charity, Jerry sat in the board meeting with a sense of embarrassment. Over the last several years he had successfully gathered significant gifts from community leaders for the little arts group. In fact he had been surprised at the willingness of many business owners to provide the nonprofit with many essentials, including auction items and small grants for local artists’ exhibitions.

But as he thought over his experience in recent weeks, he began to wonder what was wrong. He had been out pounding the pavement, going to see all his donor friends in businesses, and in offices and homes, because he had a goal of $500,000 to raise. That money would be used for the development of a new exhibition space and the acquisition of new donor software plus the use of a consultant to help the board do strategic planning. He was experiencing a singular lack of attentiveness on the part of those he was visiting. They weren’t as sanguine about New Arts as they had been just two years before. Not only that, his latest direct mail appeal apparently fell on deaf ears. Very few people responded as they had in previous years. Yet the need for this project was greater than for any project they had yet undertaken.

As Jerry finished is dismal report to the board about current fundraising efforts, Howard, the board’s treasurer said, “Well, I guess this just proves the old adage that you can’t go to the well too many times. Looks like we’ve gotten to that point, doesn’t it? We’ve tapped out generous people, asked them too many times. We’ve got to find some fresh blood in this community!”

Listing to this as she sat across the board table from Jerry, Martha, the owner of a local car dealership reflected that neither Howard nor Jerry really knew anything about motivating donors. She guessed that probably came from their inability to put themselves squarely in the donors’ shoes and see New Arts and its fundraising efforts from the donors’ point of view.

Martha also served on the boards of other charities in town, and she was particularly interested to see that one of those nonprofits, Helping Hand, seemed to have the ability to gather support for whatever they needed, whenever they asked donors. And she knew why. As a car dealership owner and a former top regional salesperson for her manufacturer, she understood that buyers always needed something fresh to respond to. She knew that unless there was another unusual offer on the table, people would go elsewhere. Everyone loves a deal or a new car, new features, new benefits from buying a car. And she suspected the case for support for New Arts was simply getting to be “old hat” for community donors.

Whereas Helping Hand was always adding a new twist or a new feature to their case for support, New Arts hadn’t revamped their case for support in several years. They were talking about the same values, the same services, the same types of exhibits over and over again. It was probably true what Howard had said about not being able to go to the well too many times. Especially if every time you went to the well you had a lazily constructed case for support.
After the board meeting, Martha went to Jerry’s office and knocked on his doorpost.

“Hi, Jerry,” she crooned. “I was really feeling for you this afternoon at the board meeting. Sorry your solicitations haven’t been going well. I know we really need that money to keep ourselves afloat.”

“Oh, come in, Martha. Yes, things are in a bit of a muddle these days,” said Jerry. “I just don’t understand why some of our long time supporters are backing down in their commitments now that we have a really substantial project that could give New Arts a real facelift and keep us chugging along.”

“Well, Jerry, I want to share something with you. I think New Arts’ case for support needs a little shining up. I think we’ve been saying the same things too many times to the same people and it’s not that they’re not supportive of the organization and what it’s trying to do. I think it’s just that we’ve not really expressed our need to them in terms that grab their attention and motivate them to give. There’s no “pizzazz” and nothing to get them excited. You have to have excited donors. You have to give them something to get excited about in order to motivate them to give. They want to see success; they want to be part of the latest happening; they want to have a sense that they’re giving to something new and exciting.”

“Well, I guess that would mean we have to re-vamp our case for support in mid-campaign, then?” He was irritated. “That’s a lot of work right in the midst of things. We’d have to start involving the board members and work our way down. We did that several years ago and it took forever. So I’ve been hanging onto that case for support, not wanting to have to go through that process until it’s absolutely necessary.

“Well, don’t’ you think your current returns show that it’s probably time to do that again?” asked Martha. “Maybe you should consider being open to the possibility that you need to go through it because otherwise your donors aren’t going to respond. Come on, I’ll give you a hand. I know that Development Committee of ours has good intentions, but quite frankly there’s no one on there who really understands customers (and donors) the way I do. Let’s work on it together, shall we? I can show you some good shortcuts with the board that will help get the job done in a third of the time. It will be a lot less painful that you experiences before.”

“Thanks, Martha! I’ll take you up on that offer. Let’s have lunch together next week and we’ll discuss your ideas and see what kinds of next steps we need to take.”

”You’re on, Jerry! I know New Arts can do better than it’s doing right now.”