Nonprofit Expert Episode 31 – The 90-Day Roadmap to Launching Your Major Gift Program

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Welcome to nonprofit expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello, and welcome to nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. My name is Julia Gackenbach, and I am excited to be here with our guest, Tammy Zonker. Tammy, welcome. Thank you so much for being Read More

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Welcome to nonprofit expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello, and welcome to nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. My name is Julia Gackenbach, and I am excited to be here with our guest, Tammy Zonker. Tammy, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

Tammy Zonker

I’m delighted to be here, Julia. Thanks for inviting me.

Julia Gackenbach

We’re so excited to have Tammy with us today. Before we get into our conversation, I wanna share a little bit about you. Tammy is an internationally recognized fundraising strategist and major gifts expert who has helped raise nearly one billion in her thirty year career, including a record twenty seven point one million dollar gift. She is the founder of Fundraising Transformed, host of the Intentional Fundraiser podcast, and serves as the president of the Modern Institute for Charitable Giving. Tammy trains and speaks globally, equipping fundraisers to build transformational donor relationships. Tammy, you have had a remarkable career in fundraising. That was just four lines about thirty years of fundraising. So we know you have so much more to share with us today. Can you tell us first though before we get into all that, what drew you to this work originally? How do you find yourself here today?

Tammy Zonker

Amazing. What a journey in thirty years. I mean, it feels like it was just yesterday. But I actually started my career in IT consulting. I spent almost fifteen years, helping organizations provide, you know, do technology solutions, for national national organizations. And so as a practice director for that employer, they put all their people through the Stephen Covey seven habits of highly effective people five day course. And there was no such thing as a virtual course back then. So this was like go to a place, park in the parking lot, you know, go through the course. And I remember distinctly, the last day, the first exercise of that day was asking all of us to visualize our eightieth birthday party. And so we were visualizing, like, who was in the room and essentially, what were they acknowledging us for? What did our life’s work? How did it impact people? What what did people have to say about it? So, essentially, the legacy question. And I realized in that exercise that other than my faith and my family, that what I loved the most about my life was the volunteer work that I did with women and children’s causes. And so that was a light bulb moment. I’m like, oh, well, that’s what I should be doing. And so I went back to the Indiana University School of Philanthropy, the fundraising school, and and, you know, begun my career. Like, okay. How do I transition from for profit consulting into fundraising. So that’s how I got here, and I’ve never ever regretted that.

Julia Gackenbach

Wow. That is a very interesting, like, segue into fundraising to think who’s gonna be at my eightieth birthday party and what are they going to say. And we have a million things we could talk about, but this podcast, we’re going to talk a little bit about major gifts. And I would be interested to know if you’ve ever asked any of your donors that question about their eightieth birthday and how has that affected their giving.

Tammy Zonker

Yeah. I mean, I think it first of all, I like to ask that question long before they’re eighty.

Julia Gackenbach

Good point. Yeah. Good point.

Tammy Zonker

Yes. Just just to clarify. And I do ask that question or and have asked that question. And it’s, you know, just like for me, they have their own kind of epiphany. And what I’ve often been surprised by is what they say versus what I thought they might say. You know, we as fundraisers, we do a lot of due diligence. We know, what organizations typically these are are prospective donors or even our loyal donors. We know a little bit about what they give to other organizations. And so sometimes we kinda piece those together, and make some assumptions about what they’ll say about their legacy or what they wanna accomplish or they again, how they picture their eightieth birthday. And so often, we’re not we’re we’re wrong. And they illuminate something amazing that is, like, takes our understanding of them and our respect for them to the next level.

Julia Gackenbach

And I know we’re gonna talk about that a little bit more too. It’s very cool to see though how your story has shaped how you talk to donors, and I’m interested to learn more about that. Before we get into some of this strategy and best practice, is there a story from early in your career similar to this one about the eightieth birthday party that was an interaction maybe with a donor that affected how you talk to donors now or how you approach donors?

Tammy Zonker

Yes. I mean, so much of what I have learned about major gift fundraising is from mistakes I made.

Julia Gackenbach

Samsies.

Tammy Zonker

So, this was my very, very first fundraising job. This was, a girl scout council in Northeastern Indiana that took a chance on me. You know, this, like, fundraising or this IT consulting person who wanted to make this leap. And so my very first job was DD of the Girl Scouts for Limber Loss Council. And they’re still, like, doing amazing work. And I remember sitting down with our very top donor. I’ll I’ll call him John. So I sat down with John, and just naively, I said, John, it must be incredible being in a position where you can give to so many causes in such an incredible way and to make such a huge difference. And he looked at me. He actually had those, like, half reader, half lens readers, and she he tilted his head down and he looked at me over his readers, and he said, Tammy, some days it feels more like a burden than a joy. Because I have to say no way more than I can say yes. And that was a huge moment for me realizing that I did make an assumption. You know, I am sitting here with a completely different paradigm, looking at him as someone that I see as, like, uber wealthy, very charitable, and I just guessed that must just be amazing. And I’m sure it is on some days, but there’s also I didn’t think about the shadow side of that. And so, again, the big lesson out of that was don’t make assumptions. Ask questions. Be curious. And I think curiosity is one of the most important traits, definitely in the top three important traits, of any great fundraiser. So our job is to really ask questions and to explore why they give, what what’s the best way they best gift they’ve ever given or the best impact or the, most meaningful way they’ve ever been acknowledged, for their giving. And again, don’t make assumptions. Ask questions. Ask follow on questions and, yeah, be curious. Don’t make assumptions.

Julia Gackenbach

That is perfect. But even those three questions that you just shared, I feel like would unlock so much about a donor. How what’s your favorite way to be have been acknowledged? What’s the biggest impact you’ve made? Things like that would share so much about their heart and help you get to know them. You know, we talk a lot about the importance of relationship and, yeah, those questions are really helpful ways to get to know anybody, but especially someone that you’re working with to make an impact. That’s great. Well, I appreciate you sharing that story, and I’m I’m already so inspired. And so I’m really looking forward to learning more from you today. I know that you’re gonna have a lot of encouragement, and I’m just excited on behalf of our listeners and on behalf of myself because I’m just excited to learn from you today. So let’s dive into some of the best practices and strategies that, go along with major gift fundraising. My first question is, what do you think are the most common misconceptions that nonprofit leaders have about major donors? I think, like you said, you sat down with this donor and made a statement. I think a lot of us tend to do that. So what are some other misunderstandings we may have about that person sitting across the table from us?

Tammy Zonker

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think the first misconception, I think, that a lot of nonprofits have, especially mid sized nonprofits or small nonprofits or, really, any nonprofit that doesn’t have a robust, high functioning major gifts program, is that so often, we believe that those major donors are are out there. Like, we need to go find those major donors or we think, oh, I mean, when I first got started in fundraising, it was like, Oprah. We just need Oprah. And, of course, the, you know, the modern day, Oprah, although she’s still very generous, we think Mackenzie Scott. How do we get on Mackenzie Scott’s radar? Or, you know, I’m, have a I’m based in Detroit. And so in Detroit, it’s Dan Gilbert. You know, he owns the Rocket companies, Rocket Mortgage. He owns the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s just an incredible philanthropist and, you know, one of a a billionaire. So we just need Dan Gilbert. But the truth is most organizations, your major donors are hiding in your database right now. If you really looked at your data, if you logged in to DonorPerfect, you logged in to your CRM, and you started really looking at the data, you would see that you have donors right now who have the capacity to give you a major gift. But equally important, if not more important, is that they have already demonstrated their propensity to be charitable. They’ve already given to you. So that’s like, they have the capacity. They are charitable because there are a lot of people who have a really massive wealth who aren’t charitable at all. So they have the capacity, they’re charitable, and they’ve already raised their hand and say, hey. I like your work. I’m I’ve already given to you. So they’ve got that trifecta, the capacity, the propensity to give, and, of course, the affinity for your cause. So the first thing is the grass is not always greener on the other side. You have a lot of wonderful resources or potential major donors in your database right now. So let’s find them. Let’s start there. So I think that’s probably the biggest misconception that I encounter. The second misconception that, I encounter is when people think about major gift fundraising, they think it’s all about asking. And, Julia, you know it’s not about asking at all. It really is about relationships. Right? And relationships are built on shared values, or at least some shared values, not a hundred percent, but shared values are common ground, and those relationships are built on trust. Even if we look at the relationships in our own lives, it’s all about beliefs and values and trust. And so it’s not about asking. And so often, we approach it like like it is about asking. So think about, even some of us who have reached out to our board members and saying, we need help in developing our major gifts program. Who who would be willing to help? Who knows someone and you hear crickets?

Julia Gackenbach

I laugh because I’ve been there. Yeah. I’ve been in those meetings.

Tammy Zonker

You hear kids and you’re like, oh, I don’t know anyone. Well, of course, they don’t know anyone if it’s really all about asking. But a better way to say it or to ask the question is, who would be willing to help us build and develop more meaningful relationships? I mean, people build relationships day in and day out in their lives. Of course, they can help do that. In fact, if you really look at the, you know, kind of that five step donor engagement process, the asking and the recognition is maybe ten percent tops. The rest of it, the discovery, the cultivation, the stewardship, that’s ninety percent of what major gift development is really all about. And so that’s the second misconception, I think, is that it’s all about asking when it’s just a tiny bit about asking, and it’s way more about relationships and coming together for a shared vision and, you know, what people wanna see happen in your community through you, through your work.

Julia Gackenbach

Well and I wanna talk of a lot more about the relationships because those are an important part, like you said, of building trust. And I think sometimes especially people who come into an organization who’s the organization is maybe all already established, trying to figure out how to build trust with donors who were established with a past development director or a past executive director. How can someone build that relationship? Let’s let’s use your, twenty seven point one million dollar gift and talk a little bit about what the ingredients are to make something like that possible relationally, not just practically or tactically, but relationally. How did you get to that point?

Tammy Zonker

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you’re coming into an organization, like, you’re new, or if you are maybe you have been with the organization, but you’ve been promoted or you’ve been moving you’ve moved from annual fund and maybe you’ve transitioned into managing a portfolio of donors. So the first thing is, you do wanna establish that trust and you wanna establish that relationship. And sometimes, no matter how wonderful you are and no matter how lovely and delightful you are in that voicemail or that email that you send trying to set up that first meeting, again, you don’t get a response. I mean, people are busy and you just sound kinda like the friendly stranger from the nonprofit that I support or that I care. And so the first thing is, I always say peer to peer relationships. So if you can have someone that they have an existing relationship with, whether that’s a board member or maybe it’s the executive director or CEO, Maybe it is another donor, another maybe they’re a member of the a certain giving, you know, community, a giving circle, and and they can kind of make that warm introduction. You know, Tammy’s new. She’s just come on as the in this role. And I gotta tell you, she’s really amazing. Or, I’ve never met anyone so committed to this cause. And I I would like to actually just set up a little coffee visit and introduce you. They don’t have to say, I know I I hear you’ve been, like, ghosting Tammy. No shame. So I, you know, I just really think that you would enjoy meeting, and I’d like to help facilitate that. The other little nuance that I said in that example was I’d like to set up a visit. You know, if we’re really looking to build relationships, I’m not sure that the meeting is the warmest way to invite that that gathering, that meet that meeting. And I rather I prefer to call them visits. I mean, think about other relationships that you have and see if there’s some correlation. So for example, I always give the I always give the example of my grandmother. Like, if I were going to want to sit down with my grandmother, I wouldn’t call and say, grandma, it’s Tammy. I wanted to set up a meeting with you. It’s been way too long. I would say, grandma, it’s Tammy. I miss you, or I it’s been too long since since we’ve talked, and I would love to schedule a visit. I know you’re always out and about. What might work for you? I am do you have your calendar handy? So, again, just being more familial. I think meeting is kind of, is more of a transactional language. So I just want us to kinda watch the language. So that was that’s my answer to, like, part one of your question. If you could have that peer introduction, if you can set up visits instead of meetings. You know, if this is a very formal corporate meeting, I would call it a meeting. But if it’s an, you’re you’re trying to schedule time with an individual, I would call it a visit. And be clear about the purpose of the visit and how long you’re asking them to give you. Again, wanna have a visit? Do you have do you have thirty minutes? And can we do it sometime in the next two weeks? What might work for you? Now that’s part one. The other part of that question was related to the twenty seven point one million dollar gift. And, you know, there were like, what were the ingredients that really made that gift come to life? So first was a really inspiring, courageous vision. Like, something that inspired people to wanna be a part of it. So in this particular example, this is the story from the, gift from General Motors Foundation to the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. And this gift was actually cultivated while General Motors was in bankruptcy. So this was two thousand ten, two thousand twelve, The economy we were in a huge recession nationwide, and I would argue that no one was hit harder than Detroit. Two of the three biggest, employers, the automakers, were in bankruptcy, General Motors and, Chrysler. The unemployment rate was about thirty percent. In the city of Detroit, one in five homes were in foreclosure. The city itself was eighteen billion dollars in debt. So it was really tough times, and our population plummeted. People, they lost their jobs. They walked away from their mortgages. They were just leaving to go find meaningful employment so they could take care of their families. And so the United Way and their board, their CEO, Michael Brennan, just had this big a Jim Collins, good to great, big, hairy, audacious vision. And that was to make Detroit a top five city to live and work by the year two thousand and thirty. And, I mean, in the face of those stats that I gave you, you can see how, like, big and hairy and truly audacious that statement is. And so but there was some, you know, the courage to say it out loud, the courage to do some pilot work, and the generosity of some foundations, Kresge and Skillman Foundation and AT and T and some other real leaders to help do some pilots around high school turnaround because Detroit public schools were graduating about thirty percent of their students at that point in time. A lot of challenges. Early childhood development, kids were showing up to kindergarten, not meeting, you know, ready to learn standards. There was a food shortage, not a single grocery store in the city of Detroit. And, a lot of the families that were living, the native Detroiters, were unbanked, again, as a result of distrust, institutional racism, generational poverty, like this all these legacy issues. Folks didn’t put their money in the bank. They would cash their checks either at advance, payday advances or cash them at the local gas station or liquor store. Now let me just say, I love Detroit. Detroit has made a huge turnaround, a comeback, a renaissance, and you should come to Detroit. But at the time, it was really, really hard. And so this courageous vision, with from the CEO and the board was truly inspirational. So a courageous, inspiring vision was the number one ingredient. The number two ingredient. And these are not in a stacked ranking. Right? This is like the the trifecta of these things. The third was peer to peer relationships. So it wasn’t me, the senior director of corporate engagement, calling up the North American president of General Motors. It was leveraging one of our volunteers. He was both a board member. He was also chair of the campaign cabinet for the United Way annual fund campaign. His name is Jeff Bergeron, and he is now retired, but he was the practicing director of Ernst and Young, just an incredible human. And, of course, he had a relationship with Mark Royce, the North American president of GM. He set up the appointment. He called. He said, hey. You know, I’m on I’m on the board. I’m on the cabinet cabinet. You’ve been GM’s been a great partner for many years with the United Way, and you’ve run these workforce campaigns. We just wanna come in and talk about what we’re doing now and learn more about what you’re doing, especially in these trying times. And so he set up the visit, and so it was he and he came on the visit along with Mike Brennan, our CEO. And, and and then I came along as the the fundraiser, if you will. And so we sat down and niceties were changed, of course. And then he said, listen, we’re gonna do our best to run a United Way campaign with our employees right now, but we just laid off, like, ten thousand people. So I don’t know how it’s gonna go. The people who are remaining are nervous, so we’ll do our best. And we’re not in a position to give a corporate gift this year. Is anything else? I mean, he was very kind, amazing, but he had a lot of work to do. And so we said, well, thank you. Thanks for what you all what you have done all these many years. Thanks also for being willing to run a campaign in in these trying times, but we’re not here to talk about the campaign. We’re here to talk about the future, and we’re here to talk about our vision on how we, with support of this community, can make Detroit a top five city to live and work by the year twenty thirty. And we talked through each of those strategies. So it was the peer to peer engagement and the courageous vision, and then a compelling story well told. In that, the one ask coming out of that meeting was not for a gift. It was to come to our offices for a tour. A tour of how this turnaround work was going to happen. Now you have to know we had a pretty boring office. Like, a lot of nonprofits. Right? The work happens out there in the community. But we had some you know, we had our war room with our the initiatives and the the, you know, the flip chart paper. Where were we green, like, on track? Where were we yellow and at risk? And where were we red, like, fail? What were our problems? Where were we failing in this turnaround work? And we walked him through all of that. He sat in on a two one one, a a help, you know, where where folks call in and ask for basic needs assistance, signed a nondisclosure, listened in our call, and really got present to that immersive experience. And then we talked about the work. And what was interesting is the more that we talked about our failings, the more we talked about what what wasn’t working and our vulnerabilities, the more transparent he became and talked about their their their vulnerabilities. And he said, you know, we’ve lost our soul. We’ve forgotten who we are at General Motors because of this bankruptcy, because of these, you know, these these very difficult times. But we are going to come back. We are gonna make this up to our employees, to the city of Detroit, to the to the nation. So the one ask coming out of that meeting was not for money. The one ask was, come to one of our turnaround schools where we’re where we’re having success, where we’re on track to graduate eighty percent or more of these youth. Where that we have a early learning community where those children, those families, those that network of of family, friends, and neighbors who are doing caregiving during the day while mom and or dad work, are are getting support. And so, he said, okay. I’ll come on that tour, but I’d like to see a proposal for what would it take to turn around five more schools because we had shared the results or the progression of the five pilot schools. And so, of course, we’re telling stories and he’s listening in on that call, coming to the school. And frankly, that coming to the school was an immersive story experience as well. He walked through the same metal detectors that every student walks through in the morning. He sat down in a library with us that had scarcely any books. We talked with the principals, and they talked about why they do this work, why they give their their students their cell phone numbers. And they’re like, you call or text anytime, any hour, any day of the week. You’re not at school today. Where are you? What’s going on? And then we had a student. Some students tell their stories, inspiring stories, courageous stories, like, such tenacity, such resilience, and such commitment to being, like, the first person in their family. I mean, very strength based ethical storytelling that let them tell their story how they wanted to tell it from a place of strength and and and aspiration. And so then, principals left and the students left and it was just us. Meaning, Jeff Bergeron, the peer, the volunteer, Michael Brennan, the head of our, the VP of the educational turnaround work, myself. And we walked through the proposal. I had a chance to walk through the proposal line by line by line. And then Mike Brennan, the CEO asked. He said, we’re asking you to make a an investment of twenty seven point one million dollars in our work. And then there was silence. And then Mark said, yes. Let’s do this. I don’t know how we’re gonna do it, but let’s do this. And then there was more silence because we had forgotten to rehearse what to say if he said yes. And so I said, thank you. Like, this is a day we’ll never forget. So it was the inspiring vision. It was the peer to peer relationships, and it was the story well told and not just told, but lived. You know, that immersive experience. So that was a a bit of a maybe a longer story. I never know how to tell that story in a short way.

Julia Gackenbach

No. There’s so much in there that is valuable and, like, you could replicate that in many organizations whether big or small. Invite someone to your office. Invite someone to your site. Whether you’re looking for twenty seven point one million dollar gift or a two thousand dollar gift. It’s that translates in many ways. And I my favorite part of this story is that in your first meeting, they said no. I love that that they said we can’t give a corporate gift this year. And even knowing that, you all still invited them to see what you were doing. And I think the key is what you said that you weren’t worried about the gift. You were worried about the future. And so it didn’t matter that they said no because later on, maybe they could say yes. And I think that’s really inspiring how you left the door open for them, not only to see the transformation that was happening through your organization, but also to be part of it. That is just so cool.

Tammy Zonker

That’s a great insight, Julia. And I never really thought about it quite in that way, but it would have been easy to say, oh, well, thank you again, and we’ll come back when you’re out of bankruptcy.

Julia Gackenbach

So true. Which is so transactional. Exactly. You were looking for a relationship, not a gift, which is this whole the whole crux of this conversation. And I think that’s really like, what you said about the future is so powerful because I think as fundraisers, sometimes we’re just concerned about this current program or this, the end of year is coming and we’re in the red or whatever. But there are relationships to be built for long term, and the way you do that is through letting them in, which I think is so powerful.

Tammy Zonker

Yeah. Yeah. And we really need leadership’s buy in to this whole approach to philanthropy, to major gift fundraising, to any fundraising, relationship fundraising, human centered fundraising. Because the reason that we as fundraisers, like culturally, we’re so obsessed with the ask and getting the dollar goals because we live on a fiscal year. What have you done for me lately? Right? And again, it’s circumstantial. It’s not that any, you know, board member or CEO or executive director feels that’s what feels that way authentically. It’s just that we are under so much pressure to hit a number to make the to end the year in the black, not in the red. And to, you know, demonstrate that the that the community can trust us. We are a well run organization. And so we do. Sometimes we sometimes we ask low because we think it’s an easier ask, and we’ll get something at some points on the board. Yeah. Or we rush to that ask when we know it would serve the relationship to wait a little longer.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s really wise. Thank you, Tammy, for sharing that insight. It’s very helpful. I have a question for you now because you’ve just inspired me in so many ways. And so I think many of our listeners may be thinking, okay. Today is the day I’m gonna start my major gift program. They are inspired like I am, and they’re gonna hit the ground running. What do they do first? What do they need to accomplish in their next ninety days? What might that look like practically

Tammy Zonker

Yeah. So first thing, yay you. That’s the first thing is, like, commitment and the mindset that we are going to do this and to make certain that that mindset and that commitment is a long term commitment. Right? The consistency. Major gift fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. So first of all, like, really I identify and and document why is it important for me to do this now? What difference will a major gift program have for the sustainability of our organization to take to ensure ongoing services to whomever we are serving through our mission, whether they’re students or patients or readers or helping get more, neighbors housed. So what will what’s possible? Because there are those days when you’re like, that’s it. This board member just approached me with another event fundraising idea. I’m feeling frustrated with my major gift program, getting it momentum, so I’m just gonna do the event. No. Stay, like, stay the course and you’re gonna need your why. Why is a major gift program important? You’re gonna need that, like, where you can see it every single day. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is, honestly, assess where you are. So I would look at my data. Again, this is why it’s so important to have a robust, like, a database with integrity that you can trust the data that you is, you know, robust in its reporting and tracking and reporting capabilities. So where are you? How many donors active donors do you have? What’s your three year rolling average? What are the segment how many donors do you have segmented by gift values? How many donors? And I would maybe even map this to the fundraising effectiveness project data. So who who are your micro donors? Meaning a dollar up to a hundred dollars. Who’s a hundred and one dollars up to five hundred and so on. Who are my fifty thousand dollar plus donors? And look at how many of them do you have, and not only that, but what is your retention year over year? Now I would say, you know, I’m a so such a data nerd. I I liked you, Julia. And so I would look at, like, what is my retention for those those gift values? Who’s and what’s the like, who’s moving up? Who’s disappearing entirely? Like, just tell yourself the truth about what’s happening. And then look at even the revenue buckets, meaning how much is coming from foundations versus individuals versus corporate corporations, and understand your year over year trends. I would say I would look at a three year snapshot in my heart. I mean, I always loved having a pre pandemic view, but now, like, here we are. That’s, like, five years ago now. So I would say just do three years if if you can’t do five. So see what you see, and then ask yourself this question. Or if you have a team, pull your team together, ask the team because, you know, different team members are gonna have different vantage points. They’re gonna see different things than you see. So do this as a collective. The other thing is people will be more bought into a plan that they help to create than the top down plan. Like, here’s our plan. Go do that. And that’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way also. So assess what is working and what could we scale. What’s not working? Maybe it’s an event that has a high cost per dollar raise. I mean, best practice has been fifty cents to raise a dollar in an event, but maybe you have an event that you lose money on or it’s seventy five cents to raise a dollar and that’s not even factoring in staff time. The point is, look at all of it so you can determine how productive is your major gift pipeline, how could you reallocate resources if you created a stop doing list of things that aren’t productive and can’t be turned around. Like, just have these honest conversations. And I’m not saying dump the event this year, but maybe we look at, can it be reimagined in a way that is more productive? Or could we try two things this year? And if it doesn’t that doesn’t turn it around, let’s retire it next year. And, again, reallocate those resources to our major gift program. Or maybe you’ll see that what’s not working is that we aren’t scaling our monthly giving program. And we know that our monthly givers are the feeder system to our legacy giving program. So, again, not just looking at things in silos, but looking at the integration of them, the progression of them. Of course, not every donor is gonna progress like we would think, like, oh, they’ll be a first time donor and then a monthly donor and then a mid level. And then maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but some of them will. So look at what your the story your data tells you and then figure out, alright. How does that inform not only my fundraising strategy, but how can that now inform my major gift plan? And the truth is, it sounds like a lot, but there are really just a handful of key data points. You know, the growth in your donor file by segment, the retention in your donor file by segment, and then the upgrade or leveling up, in your file by segment. And then just assessing, like, what do you see out of looking at those to inform your strategy? So assess where you are, make a data informed plan with projections. Like, if you calculate, I wanna increase my major gift, but maybe I mean, first of all, what do you call a major gift at your organization? For some people, it’s a fifty thousand dollar gift or a hundred thousand dollar gift. I’ve worked with a lot of organizations where a major gift is a thousand dollars. It’s all relative to the scale of your fundraising. Now so see just begin identifying, you know, if you were to increase your retention by, say, five percent or ten percent over the next twelve to twenty four months based on the median gift value of that segment, what kind of revenue would that project? You know, we’re so good at making case for support, projections for our foundation applications or even our corporate applicate funding applications. We are not as good about making a case to our own executive leadership about what an investment in fundraising could do, reallocating resources, or bringing in additional staff, or maybe just training the next level of our current staff or bringing in a technology tool, whether it’s a your CRM or, you know, again, some, predictive analytics if that if your CRM doesn’t include that. But again, finding, like, maybe a technology tool or robust system that is really integrated to help get you to the that next level. So assess where you are, make a data informed plan, make a case for investment or reallocation of resources, and then just start and be consistent. I think that that’s that’s what I would do in the first ninety days, and it actually is doable if you prioritize it.

Julia Gackenbach

Tammy, this is so incredible. I’ve I love the fact that you have gone from inspiring and encouraging into this very practical way to get all this started. It’s really a helpful process, and I know that our listeners are going to benefit from it. You’re you’re the best. I’m just so grateful that you’re having this conversation with us because it is, it’s it’s a scary area of fundraising, and I know that you have just broken down a lot of walls for our listeners, and I’m really grateful for that. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate the time that we’ve spent together and all that we’ve learned.

Tammy Zonker

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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