Nonprofit Expert Episode 41 – Finding the Right Ask: Matching Donor Interests with Program Needs

DonorPerfect

Welcome to Nonprofit Expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. I’m Julia Gackenbach and I am here at HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy and we’re joined by Ceciry. Read More

DonorPerfect

Welcome to Nonprofit Expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. I’m Julia Gackenbach and I am here at HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy and we’re joined by Ceciry. Hi. Welcome. Thank you for being here.

Ceciry

Thank you so much for having me.

Julia Gackenbach

Yes. We’re really excited to hear about the mission and vision of everything happening at HMS School. Why don’t you share a little bit about your role here, what you do, and the mission of the school?

Ceciry

Absolutely. So as you mentioned, my name is Ceciry. I am the director of development and community engagement here at the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy. It has been in existence since eighteen eighty two, so we’re celebrating our hundred and forty third anniversary this year, which is phenomenal for an institution like ours. We are one of two special education schools that focuses on students with CP. The other one is actually located in Australia. So yeah. So a lot of our families move from around the nation to be able to have their students attend HMS because of the highly specialized education that they’re receiving here.

Julia Gackenbach

That is amazing. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about some of the programs that you all have here?

Ceciry

For sure. So we have two different distinct programs that we have here at HMS. The first is our day program where our students come in at eight forty five AM on the bus, and they go home at two forty five PM, three fifteen on the bus, same as you would at a neurotypical school. And then we also have our residential program where students are able to stay the night throughout the week. So they take advantage from Monday through Friday where HMS is really their home away from home. And it also kind of provides a sleep away type of environment where kids are able to interact with their peers on a more personal basis, and they really get that feel of being able to be a little bit more independent.

Julia Gackenbach

What is something that, student might do during the day if they were here for school?

Ceciry

What are they up to throughout the day? So throughout the day, our educational programs are taking place so they are in the classroom but then we also have all of our therapies on-site available for each of our student. So that includes speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, recreation therapy, which kind of also covers our dance movement therapies, music music therapies, arts, expressive arts therapies, and we also have theater and yoga programs that happen throughout the day as well.

Julia Gackenbach

Oh my goodness. That is amazing. It sounds like there’s a lot going on at all times. Yes. It is. Are there just people buzzing around constantly? Does it just feel busy like things are always going on?

Ceciry

Yes. There’s always something for our students to be able to interact and enjoy throughout the day. We try to provide as much of an educational experience while having as much fun as possible as well. So even though all of our kids are in power mobility chairs or manual wheelchairs, when they come to HMS, they’re not the only student in their school that is in a power mobility or manual wheelchair. So they’re really able to engage with their peers and have a lot of fun throughout the day.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s awesome. What about,

Ceciry

like interacting with one another? Are they often in classrooms together? Do they work with each other? How does that look? Absolutely. So each of our classrooms are set up a little bit differently than you would in a neurotypical school where it’s based on grade. Here, we’re based on kind of age and ability.

Julia Gackenbach

Mhmm.

Ceciry

So we have students that’ll be grouped for about three to four different age groupings, and it depends on what they’re focusing on. For students that are a little bit older, from our fourteen to twenty two year olds, they’re focusing more on transitional life skills and functional life skills to be able to help them prepare for more independence when they leave HMS.

Julia Gackenbach

Well, and I’m lucky enough to be here with you today. So I was able to walk through the school a little bit and see some of the things that are going on. One of the things that really stood out to me was all the tech that you all have. There are students that are able to communicate using their eyes. They’re able to communicate using click buttons, things like that. That is really unique. How how do you see that in a day to day basis?

Ceciry

Absolutely. So a lot of our students are not able to communicate verbally like you or I. So we do encourage the use of assistive technology, whether that’s through an iPad of sorts or some other communication device where they’re able then to communicate their thoughts, feelings, opinions, a lot of opinions, through those devices and able to effectively communicate that way. As you mentioned, we do have some students that use eye gaze technology, so they’re able to look directly at their communication device and depending on where they focus their eyes, it will select a different item for them and based on wherever they’re at in their communication journey.

Julia Gackenbach

That is honestly really cool. Like, I’m not a very techie person and I could not imagine all the things that went into that. But the fact that that exists is insane. That’s amazing.

Ceciry

It is very, very cool to see in action too. And especially when you have a student that wasn’t able to communicate prior to coming to HMS. And then through speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy as well, being able to select different things on their communication device and tell their family something for the first time. Oh my gosh.

Julia Gackenbach

That would be

Ceciry

It’s a very cool experience.

Julia Gackenbach

That would be such a cool breakthrough.

Ceciry

For sure.

Julia Gackenbach

Oh my goodness. Well, and also walking around here, we got to walk into one of the therapy rooms. Yes. And there was a boy in there that was just ready to talk and hang out with us. He kept asking us questions that was just so heartwarming to see the work that you all are doing here. It’s really amazing.

Ceciry

Thank you.

Julia Gackenbach

Well, I also wanna talk to you a little bit about you as a fundraiser. I know, a lot of our listeners especially are fundraisers, and they’re in the thick of doing all the things to raise money for their mission, which is just a heavy burden to many people. So Yeah. Let’s chat a little bit about how you got into fundraising and, how how you landed here at HMS.

Ceciry

For sure. So breaking into the nonprofit sector is difficult enough as it is. Mhmm. And then learning how to fundraise can be very, challenging, especially when you’re first starting out. So when I first broke into the nonprofit sector, I started out as a development professional but also an office administrator.

DonorPerfect

So it

Ceciry

was kind of

Julia Gackenbach

All the jobs? Doing all

Ceciry

the things as per usual in the nonprofit world. So that was a fun way for me to kind of learn a little bit. And I do think that sometimes fundraising can be very transactional. The way that I’ve learned to fundraise and how I personally view fundraising, I don’t like it to be transactional. I find it to be much more helpful and beneficial to be in a relationship with your donors

DonorPerfect

Mhmm.

Ceciry

Because you’re asking them to invest in your mission. It’s not just about a transaction. Sure. At the end of the day, yes, they’re giving you a check or, yes, they’re filling in their credit card information. But at the end of the day, it’s really about the fact that the donor is willing to invest in your mission And being able to build that relationship to really learn why they’re invested in your mission is, I think, the best part about being a fundraiser. So that’s how I like to fundraise and what my fundraising journey up till this point has really taught me is that I like to be able to communicate effectively, and each individual donor likes to be spoken to in different ways. So building those relationships are really important for me.

Julia Gackenbach

For sure. Do you think that the there’s a secret sauce to learning how to communicate with people? Like, what how do you know that someone wants something special for them? Or is it just all in your brain?

Ceciry

I think that just really comes with time and practice. Being able to have conversations. We’re just talking now. I’m learning more about you. You’re learning more about me. You’re learning about the organization, being able to show you the impact. So having donors come into the building and being able to show them around, and if there’s any particular area, like, for you, you’re talking about the tech, I would focus on technology with you and be able to show you a little bit more about the AT that we do here. So I think it just depends on each individual case by case basis and being able to really talk with those individual donors to see what they are most interested in.

Julia Gackenbach

And you’re right. The relationship is so important because they’re giving out of something that is individual to them. Yeah. And that’s that’s an important key to know.

Ceciry

For sure.

Julia Gackenbach

Very cool. What about your team? So you what does it look like if you were to come into the office in the morning and greet your team, what would that

Ceciry

look like? Well, I’m saying hello to myself. Okay. I’m looking in the mirror and I’m saying good morning. Giving ourselves a pep talk. No

Julia Gackenbach

problem. Myself

Ceciry

a pep talk for sure. Yeah. So I am a team of one here at HMS, which comes with benefits, but then also obviously has some of its downfalls because you can’t effectively communicate with a thousand donors as a team of one. Yeah. So it does make things a little bit difficult, but I do find that I am able to kind of create different avenues for myself being a team of one.

Julia Gackenbach

Mhmm.

Ceciry

And it also encourages our donors to kind of get to know me a little bit more Yeah. And why I’ve decided to be here and more about the mission. So I know our donors a bit more personally.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s a great point. It makes the relationship two way. Yes.

Ceciry

For sure.

Julia Gackenbach

There’s an opportunity to not only you be connected to the donor, but the donor be connected to you. That’s really Definitely. What are some of the shortcuts or cheat codes you’re able to take in order to reach these donors or reach your fundraising goals? What what tools do you use? Things like that.

Ceciry

Yeah. So DonorPerfect is a big part of my day. I’m logged in constantly throughout the entire day. I will say being a team of one, I rely heavily on DonorPerfect because I’m able to utilize the, contact section of

DonorPerfect

Mhmm.

Ceciry

A bio. That is my go to area because again, I’m communicating with a thousand donors throughout the year and I might forget what we’ve talked about. Yes. I might use

DonorPerfect

some notes.

Julia Gackenbach

Very important to the donor, but also I just need some notes. I need some

Ceciry

notes to keep me a little bit more organized. Yeah. So I definitely take notes whenever I have a conversation with a donor, if I’ve received a letter from them, or if I’m sending them a letter, then I can follow-up and be like, hey. By the way, did you get this back in January? And then follow-up with a conversation from there. But I heavily utilize that contact section

DonorPerfect

Yeah.

Ceciry

Of DonorPerfect to keep me as organized as possible. And it also allows you to set notifications for yourself in the future, like follow-up with this donor

Julia Gackenbach

Mhmm.

Ceciry

On this date about x y z. So I utilize that feature all the time.

Julia Gackenbach

Great. That is great information. Thank you for sharing that with me. Okay. Something else we’d love to talk to you about is a little bit of the specifics of how fundraising goes with HMS. So, I know that you all have been working on a program around major donors. Why don’t you share a little bit about that with us?

Ceciry

Sure. So prior to my arrival, there wasn’t a real major gift program happening at HMS. We did have some donors that were giving at the capacity that you can tell there may be potential for major gift giving, but nobody had been asked. Mhmm. So once I started and I was able to really dive into the data, thanks to DonorPerfect, then I was kind of able to see what the donor history was and who may be a potential to tap for a major gift. Thanks to donor search, which we do have integrated with DonorPerfect, I was able to find a specific donor that had been giving for a while at the thousand dollar level, two thousand dollars a year, five thousand dollars a year, and I was able to use donor search to see what they were giving at different organizations over their course of their donor lifetime, which was very, very helpful because then I was able to kind of talk a little bit more about the mission, learn more about why they had begun donating to begin with, and then ask them to increase their gift. So I was able to go from a five thousand dollar gift to a twenty five thousand dollar gift, which was super impactful, especially for a smaller organization like ours Mhmm. Where every dollar really does count.

Julia Gackenbach

For sure. That’s interesting. Something you said was they had you could see they had capacity, but they hadn’t been asked. Yes. I think that’s a really consistent theme in fundraising. It’s like, I just I just have to sit down with them and talk to them about what they wanna do and how they wanna be part of this and ask them to be part of it. But that is such a scary moment for fundraisers. How do you feel about getting over that hump of making the ask?

Ceciry

It is very scary, especially when you’re starting out to do it. But as I mentioned before, I think with relationship building

Julia Gackenbach

Mhmm.

Ceciry

That’s really, really important. And you’re not asking somebody for a dollar amount. You have to think about it as you’re asking someone for an investment.

DonorPerfect

Mhmm.

Ceciry

You’re asking them to invest in your mission. So they may not be receiving something tangible at the end of the day, but you can show them the impact that they’re able to make by giving them a tour, by writing them letters, by sending them an annual report. Like, here’s precisely where your dollars went, and this is the type of impact that your investment in our organization is making. Mhmm.

Julia Gackenbach

That is a great point. And by, like you said, knowing the donor, you’ll be able to make the ask. So for example, if I were a giver and we saw earlier on our tour two types of buzzers, one was a three dollar one and one was a two hundred dollar one. And if you had said to me, like, hey, Julia, we need a few more of these. You could do some of the three hundred dollar ones or you could do some of the two hundred dollar ones. That would have been an opportunity for me to upgrade my giving because I would have been so interested in the high-tech clicker.

DonorPerfect

Yeah.

Julia Gackenbach

That would have been so cool. For sure. And so knowing your donor, knowing that that interested me is a great way to make your gifts a little go a little further,

Ceciry

you know? Definitely. That’s how you can increase your asks or give them something

DonorPerfect

tangible that you can be like, this is what

Julia Gackenbach

you bought. That’s true.

Ceciry

This is a This is exactly what you bought for us.

Julia Gackenbach

And watch how it affects the day to day life of this student. Yeah. And that is really amazing. It’s been so cool to be here and see all the things you all are doing. It’s really I’m

Ceciry

so glad you were here.

Julia Gackenbach

Yeah. Okay. A few. I’m sorry. More of the touchy feeling later. Yeah. So the major gifts situation is something that you all are really working on. Do you have any plans for what’s next with some of that segmentation or what you wanna do to increase your fundraising?

Ceciry

Yeah. Definitely. I mean, major gifts is a big part of what I’m trying to increase right now because with different funding revenues and different funding streams, making sure that we have donors that are able to sustain our programs at that level is very crucial, super important. So trying to build up all of those donors that may be at that that very threshold that we could then just kind of bump them up just a little bit more, Utilizing things like donor search and being able to see their donor their donation history Yeah. Is very important for me too because that makes things a little bit easier for me to understand what they’re interested in and how I can then approach them later on.

Julia Gackenbach

And I think that’s something that’s kind of underrated in fundraising. I remember when I started fundraising, I inherited a system that had a bunch of information about a bunch of people that I had no idea who they were or what they were doing or why they were there. And some of that donor history is what I built my foundation of fundraising on because I knew who was interested in going to events and who was doing monthly giving and who had capacity to give more. Some of that donor history is so so valuable. I think we forget that. Yeah. Very cool. Well, the, the other question I have for you is you are part of this EITC program.

DonorPerfect

Yes.

Julia Gackenbach

And so I’d love to hear a little bit about where some of the EITC funding goes and how you all use that through your programs.

Ceciry

Yes. Our EITC program is very unique here at HMS. It enables us to provide our residential services completely free of cost for each of our students that take advantage of the residents. Wow. It also enables us to be able to offer respite care. So if there is a student that maybe isn’t part of our residential care or residential team throughout the year, but they may need to stay the night at a place where they know their educational needs are getting met and they know their medical needs are getting met. So we are able to offer respite care for each of our families as well free of cost for them. So let’s say we actually have one student that, her brother is on the football team at school. He goes to a neurotypical school. She attends HMS. Mom and dad, on Friday nights, like to be able to go see brother play. So they’ll have our that student stay here on Friday nights once a month so that way they’re able to go and see their brother or her brother play at school and watch a football game where they know that that student is being taken care of, has their educational needs met, their medical needs met, all of their basic care and necessities met.

Julia Gackenbach

That is amazing. And you do that right here at the school? On campus. Yeah. That’s awesome. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been a pleasure to see your mission and all the things that you all are doing to impact lives, and we’re grateful to know you. So thank you.

Ceciry

So glad to have you. Thank you so much.

DonorPerfect

Thank you for listening to Nonprofit Expert, presented by DonorPerfect. For more information and a special offer, visit donorperfect.com/podcast.