My posts on fundraising phrases and questions to uncover donors’ stories are consistently popular on the LBG website. I think readers are hungry for practical advice on donor cultivation, and having go-to resources can be tremendously helpful when balancing many other tasks.
In that spirit, I’d like to share more tools that might help with donor cultivation and help you build meaningful relationships with new and prospective donors.
This is the first in a series of articles where I will cover some of my favorite conversation starters, transition questions, and asks. In this post I focus on new and prospective givers, and go over several ways to get conversations started in a new relationship.
Through donor cultivation, we build relationships and connect donors to our causes through conversations. So much of fundraising work is built around the key skills of conversation and active listening, yet it can be challenging, even for the most experienced fundraiser, to find the right words at crucial moments.
These questions are enormously helpful in keeping the discussion focused. While you want to center the work of getting to know donors, they expect to hear about concrete ways to connect to your mission.
These questions build a roadmap to:
- propel the conversation forward
- nourish the working relationship, i.e. donor cultivation
- respect your supporters’ time
- keep the story of your work at the forefront
Starting conversations and transitioning toward a first meeting
When chatting with a new or prospective donor, it’s important to pay close attention to where their interests intersect in your work, and what initially drew them to your cause.
These questions will help take you from their curiosity to their potential impact:
- How did you first come across our organization?
- How did you get involved with this issue? Do you have a personal connection?
- I thought you might be interested in our new project, would you be open to a conversation?
- I’d like to learn more about your thoughts on this topic.
- I saw this article and thought of you.
- Can I tell you more about what we’re doing?
- I know you couldn’t make the recent program. Can we set up a time so I can fill you in on what we’re doing?
- I enjoyed talking with you, and I wanted to follow up and share more information.
Conversation prompts to kickoff a meeting and foster healthy donor cultivation
If you have secured a meeting, congratulations! Make the most of it by keeping the conversation focused on the donor’s impact, concerns, and potential for unique contributions.
These prompts will guide you through the discussion and deepen the relationship for successful donor cultivation:
- I would love your thoughts on our recent report.
- I welcome your comments and feedback on our new initiative.
- What are you most excited about in the coming year?
- What interests you?
- What do you think we should be doing more of?
- What concerns you?
- How do you envision being involved?
- How engaged with our work do you feel?
If they bring up the ask right when you get started:
- Yes, I do want to talk about your gift in addition to x, y, z. Should we start there? Or: Sure, let’s talk about your gift, thank you for raising it. What are you thinking about this year?
Do you have go-to questions to keep your donor conversations going for impactful donor cultivation? Please reach out and share them!