My name is Gary V. Fisher,

and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share with you some of

the methods and strategies that will make you an effective front-line fundraiser.

I've been in the nonprofit sector for just over four years,

following a 20 year career in corporate and consumer sales and marketing.

Four years ago, I returned to my roots as a fundraiser.

Successfully transitioning my research, appointments setting,

and solicitation skills from the for profit to the nonprofit arenas.

I'm motivated every day by the opportunity as

a donor-centered fundraiser to connect the power of philanthropy to change the world.

I came to UCDAVIS as

the Coordinator of the Davis Chancellor's Club or leadership annual giving society.

We raised over one and a quarter million dollars in that position.

Today, I'm going to share with you the art and the science that led me to that success.

The number one thing I've learned over hundreds of face to face visits,

donors give because they're asked.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard a donor and even some non donor say,

yes I'll be happy to make that gift,

but only because you asked me.

The in person attention and

solicitation makes the difference in the gift amount every time.

Without question this is the biggest key to realizing leadership annual gifts

often defined between a 1,000 dollars and 25,000 dollars annually.

Rare in my experience as the donor who will be

motivated to make an investment in your mission at this level,

or higher over the phone through direct mail or e-mail.

The face to face visit is key to opening the door to raise these larger gifts,

and that's what we're going to discuss today.

The first key to your success is a positive attitude.

Zig Ziglar famously has said,

it's not your aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude.

Successful ongoing fundraisers come to the table with a solid set of

basic skills that allow them to be successful as road warriors,

interviewers, and resilience fundraisers.

That's aptitude. All the skills in the world won't alone create positive results,

for this you need an optimistic attitude

filled with a sincere belief in the mission of your organization.

If you believe in personally support your organization,

and yes that means making your own gift, your pride,

enthusiasm and sincere passion will show through and it will inspire others to give.

So aim high. Another of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Ford.

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right".

It's just like with Yoda from Star Wars. Do or do not.

There is no try. Think back to high school psychology class.

Remember the self-fulfilling prophecy,

the prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true by

the very term of prophecy itself due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.

As face to face fundraiser's,

we will be faced with tons of rejection.

Prospects will say no to letters,

they will say no to e-mails, they will say no phone calls and even more.

Just when you're trying to secure the visit,

many of them will turn you down and your solicitation when you're asking them for a gift.

Success requires you to have a thick skin and to focus on the positive.

No, it often means something other than No.

Always remember it is never personal,

and it's where the conversation about a meaningful gift actually begins.

Believe in yourself every day.

The success of your organization relies on you.

Find the time and the space to pump yourself up.

Some of us do it in the gym.

Some of us in the car during the commute.

I start my day with positive self talk in the shower.

I know it sounds silly, but every day I tell myself,

it's going to be a great day,

and it totally works.

Sure. The moment I step into the office life gets in the way,

and my grand proclamation of a great day falls right apart in front of me.

But it doesn't stop me.

It just makes me adjust and look for the next when

see hurdles and challenges as opportunities to be creative.

You still have to achieve your goal.

You just have to find a new way to get there.

The successful front-line or face to face fundraiser needs

to have a ton of skills to their credit.

Many of which can be learned, refined and developed.

But without a positive attitude where you believe you can accomplish the task at hand,

and secure the largest and the best gift from your donors for your organization,

all the skills in the world won't lead you to positive results.

Some key competencies are noted on the slide,

but most importantly to be successful

you must be disciplined and strategic with your time,

and exceptional active listener,

flexible and not only ready for but fearless in the face of objections.

The learning objectives for this session are first,

how to build a portfolio of annual giving

donors capable of "Leadership Level" annual gifts.

How to secure a face to face donor visit.

How to successfully qualify and solicit a high-value annual donor,

and how to build relationships with donors to

help them achieve their philanthropic goals.

First and foremost, always remember people give to people.

If you have not heard this before,

put it in the front of your mind and keep it there.

This idea lies at the heart of our objectives and your success as a fundraiser.

Big gifts come from donors who build trust based relationships with people who help them,

to strategically align their philanthropic goals with

the opportunity impact the world through the work of your organization.

Why do people give to people?

Because they're asked.

So let's get to it.

In a perfect world, the leadership giving officer would begin with the perfect database,

perfectly accurate and filled with the perfect prospects.

All of those perfect donors would be wealthy.

They would be current donors making

progressively larger annual gifts for each of the last five years.

We would have all of the up to date contact information on them,

know where they work,

have a comprehensive understanding of every point of

philanthropic passion and their personal values.

It's a great dream.

Unfortunately the reality for each of us is starkly different from that dream.

The need for skilled front-line fundraisers lies in the fact that

most of the donor data is a mixed bag of not very current information.

Sure, we all have lots of current and engaged donors.

Obviously this is the best place for us to begin our efforts.

But there are never enough of them.

And we're in the job of building a pipeline,

a pipeline of high potential annual donors

that we can then move into the major gift levels.

Where is the donor base where all things are there?

So a huge part of the job is focused on prioritizing

your data into a pool of those with the greatest capacity,

strongest affinity, and the highest inclination to make a gift to support your mission.

These high potential prospects and suspects

represent the greatest philanthropic opportunity for your organization.

So once we figure out who they are,

we want to go see them and move them into

the donor pipeline with a leadership level annual gift.

So the root of the leadership annual giving officers job

is to identify and meet high potential donors,

qualify them as donors for the organization,

solicit them, renew them and then upgrade them into the major gift levels.

Donor centric.

This is a term you're going to hear a lot.

The donor-centered matchmaker that's what you are.

Simply put your matching the intent of

the donor to opportunities for philanthropic investment at your organization.

Realizing the largest annual gift is contingent on your skills as a matchmaker,

you will more often than not leave empty handed if you don't listen,

pivot and make the right "ask" while you're in front of the donor.

I would assume most of you will be seeking unrestricted dollars,

and those fit most every donor except when they don't.

If the donor tells you they never invest in unrestricted dollars,

then you'd better not ask for that,

or you'll forever damage the relationship.

We will get into this more later in the negotiation phase of the conversation.

But for the purpose of this session,

I'm going to assume we're all asking for unrestricted or discretionary gifts.

Depending upon the size of your organization,

many of you may be responsible for both leadership annual and major gifts.

Every organization is a bit different.

Were a 1,000 dollars as an entry level leadership annual gift here at UCDAVIS,

it may be considered a major gift at one of your organizations.

The thresholds and the terminology may be a bit fluid industry-wide,

but they should be defined by your organization.

Giving thresholds for a pyramid and your goal is to transition

individual giving of your prospect from one level up to the next,

always keeping sight on the critical importance of the annual gift.

Never forget that annual gift.

Just because you're asking them for a million dollars to the new hats center,

doesn't mean you don't still need those unrestricted dollars.

More importantly, donors expect to be asked for these gifts.

Never assume a donor can make an annual gift,

when you're talking about a one off larger gift,

always include the annual gift and the conversation.

Consistency of their giving is key to long term success

and overall increased giving, the giving pyramid.

For this session we're going to focus on

the base level through the middle level of the donor pyramid,

or the giving life cycle.

As we begin, our goal is to identify and engage

the best potential prospects and then to move them up the pyramid,

elevating them over time into the major gift pipeline

toward the ultimate and transformational gifts at the top of the pyramid.

Strategic personal cultivation and solicitation are key to elevating them up the pyramid.

Remember from the beginning,

people give to people, and donors give when they're asked.

Building a philanthropic advisory relationship with your donor is a long term and

meaningful conversation with face-to-face leadership annual gifts

the stepping stones to greater engagement and individual support over time.

Philanthropy is a journey,

it's not a destination and donors not only need but are

happy to have your expertise to help them accomplish their goals.

Face to Face is important at the base of the pyramid,

as the other annual solicitation channels will

rarely if ever lead to major gifts on their own.

Personal solicitation supported by purposeful visits,

meaningful stewardship, and personalized cultivation will

predictably lead you and the donor up the pyramid.

Certainly it's implied when we're talking about annual giving,

what we're trying to do is build a habit of giving.

The classic cycle of giving starts with a prospect identification.

From there the donor is engaged by

the front-line fundraiser who qualifies them based on capacity,

affinity and inclination, for entry into

the major gift solicitation cycle with a leadership annual gift.

If they're not qualified or not capable of making a gift or perhaps not interested,

the prospect is then return to the annual giving program

continued engagement and solicitation through the other channels.

If qualified the prospect moves from qualification,

to cultivation, to solicitation,

to stewardship and then back to

the cultivation for continued engagement solicitation activity.

We'll talk later in the session about what would qualify or

disqualify a donor for continued personal engagement.

When we're thinking of leadership annual giving,

those dollars provide a mission critical pipeline of both cash and donors,

who will hopefully grow into major give prospects in the future.

The leadership annual giving officer has

a more transactional high-volume operation than the major gift officer.

As such the moves as you'll see in the slide are more condensed.

Typically you see leadership annual gift prospects annually.

Major gift prospect, you're going to see at least three times a year.

So by nature of the level of the gift and the mission to fill the pipeline,

the leadership annual giving development officer,

must see a high-volume of prospective donors.

The moves are condensed accordingly, with qualification,

cultivation and solicitation all happening

typically in the first meeting or during the course of a single visit.

Ideally you leave with a gift in your hand.

Like a boy scout, you're always prepared.

You have gift documents with you and you're ready to

secure a gift and negotiate a pledge.

Then you rinse repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's a very tight process.

Building a Portfolio (Part 1)

Annual Campaigns: Building a Case for Support

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