Cultivation through marketing efforts
The new charity’s donor cultivation effort starts with our marketing and advertising materials and media. We will deliver our Case for Support to prospective donors through our newsletter, our website, our direct mail program, our special events, and any other media we can use. Further details of our marketing and public relations program can be found in our Strategic Plan and in our marketing and public relations plan.
Cultivation through personal relationships
Each volunteer and each staff person will be asked to provide a list of their family members, friends, colleagues, associates and business acquaintances who might be likely prospects for giving gifts to our new charity.
The sequel to providing this information is that each volunteer and staff member will also be assigned one or several donor prospects for cultivation and solicitation. It is likely, but not necessarily the case, that a prospect whose name appears on the list provided by a specific volunteer or staff member will be assigned to that person. Assignments will be made on the basis of criteria such as the following:
- Who is closest to the prospect in a way that promotes giving?
- Who is most clearly able to form the kind of relationship that motivates the prospect?
- Who has the personality and behavioral style most appropriate to a given prospect?
As we are able, we will provide training to both staff and volunteers so they will know how to do this fundraising work.
Cultivation through direct mail efforts
We will use our direct mail efforts to deliver our Case for Support to donors, friends and prospects in a variety of ways. This would include our newsletter that goes out to interested people, as well as our direct mail solicitation any time during the year.
Cultivation through the new charity’s website
We will create a donation portal on the new charity’s website and will provide articles and other information relative to how donors can achieve their objectives through our programs of service to the community. We will describe our programs, show what measureable results we are getting, and will suggest to viewers that their assistance is not only needed, but will produce good results in the community. The website will be one of the primary ways we get our Case for Support to donors and prospects, and also one of the ways we deliver key program and results information to the public.
Cultivation through Special Events
One way that we anticipate cultivating major gift donors is to use our special events program to generate new prospects and bring older prospects closer to us. Volunteers and staff will be assigned to follow-up each special event with donor prospects by personally phoning them and asking three questions: 1. “What did you think of the event last night?” and 2. “Are there other people you know who should have the opportunity to learn about what we do and how they can serve the community through our program?” and 3. “Can you see yourself becoming closer to our organization in the next few years?”
The responses we find to those questions will guide us in our approach to our donor prospects. We will encourage donor participation in a variety of ways, and will remain flexible in our ability to use volunteers both in fundraising and in our mission accomplishment and service to the community. In this way, the people we are cultivating will have a motivational, hands-on relationship to our new charity and its programs of service.
Determining when donors are “ripe” for solicitation
Part of the responsibility of the volunteers and staff of our new charity will be to determine when the people on their list for cultivation and solicitation are ready to be asked. It is important that we not ask too early in the relationship, before the prospect has had a chance to grow in their enthusiasm for what we are accomplishing in the community. But it is equally important that we not pass up opportunities to request significant donations from our prospects when they are ready.
Individual volunteers and staff will not be required to shoulder this responsibility alone, however. We will make an effort to provide training, help and assistance to each person so that we are making these judgments as a group when this is appropriate and necessary. If, and as, individuals are comfortable proceeding on their own, they are encouraged to do so.
Soliciting donors by direct mail
As we are able to afford to prepare and send solicitation mailings to people we think will support us, we will use this method of requesting donations. We will be judicious in selecting the names and address of those to whom we want to mail, so that we can be as efficient as possible in our direct mail effort.
We are aware that mass mailings to a large group of otherwise unqualified donor prospects is very inefficient and a waste of money. Therefore, we will attempt to gauge each direct mail prospect’s ability and motivation to give. We will also prepare as many letters as we need in order to meet the fairly wide variety of individual behavioral styles and personal needs for information of the people on our mailing list. We acknowledge that this is somewhat time consuming, but we know that it will bring us better responses and more money in the final analysis.
Soliciting donors by website
We will prepare the donation portal of our our new charity’s website in a way that is inviting and motivating to prospective donors, so that they are compelled by the information we share to identify with the community’s need and make generous donations to our work.
We will attempt to gather as much contact information about our Internet donors as we can, in order that we may provide more information that they will use, and in order that we can provide further personal follow-up where this is appropriate.
Soliciting donors through personal requests for donations
We anticipate that one of the primary sources of significant revenue to the our new charity’s operation will be that of major gifts from individuals. The volunteer and staff who are assigned to individual donors will have this goal in mind, so that we have a growing and fruitful major gifts cultivation and solicitation effort.
Soliciting donors through special events
As we are able, we will create a series of special fundraising events that both call attention to community need and provide our friends, prospects and donors with opportunities to give in support of our work. Annual dinners, auctions, awards presentation, chicken dinners, and a wide variety of other special events will help us join fun and fundraising in ways that will attract and motivate our donors.
For further information on the approach to special events donors, the reader is referred to the section on “Cultivation through Special Events” above.
Soliciting corporate and foundation donors through proposals
We will research a variety of local businesses and corporations, and regional foundations, in search of those who are interested in supporting the kind of mission our new charity seeks to accomplish in our community. We will make a list of these prospects, and will attempt to qualify them in terms of the extent of their interest and the likelihood that our programs fall within their scope.
When we have created this list of prospective grantors, we will assign volunteers and staff members to create, maintain and enhance relationships with the contact persons in each prospective institution or business. Over time, we anticipate that these relationships will demonstrate that the our new charity’s programs of service are both relevant and attractive to these prospective large donors. Out of these relationships we will devise a set of strategies of approach, cultivation and solicitation that we will use with each of these prospects. These strategies will be written down and entered into our donor database for further use and adaptation as we move forward.
When the time is right, we will approach each corporate or foundation prospect with a grant request or proposal that is appropriate to their style of operating. In this proposal we will give the prospect the information they need to make a positive decision to make a grant to our new charity. This will be in accord with their specifications as to what they require and how they wish us to proceed.
Soliciting corporate marketing sponsors through personal contact
Using our research on corporations, we will also approach marketing and advertising departments to see if there is interest in using our organization and the special events we put on as a means of advertising the products and services of these businesses throughout the community.
We will create a menu of benefits for our corporate and business partners, and will generally proceed in much the same way we will do for grants. We will form relationships with the contact persons in these organizations, and will attempt to involve them in our organization as volunteers, or to by inviting them to come to our various functions. As our relationship grows with each prospect, we will prepare short proposals to them for sponsorships and offer them the opportunity to give in support of our work in our community.
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