I recently spoke with a potential client, who wanted to strengthen support from individual givers, since most of their support has historically come from grants.
After talking for a few minutes, she asked me: so what would your strategy look like to grow individual giving?
And I looked at her, and shared my honest assessment – I don’t know. Yet.
Why?
Because individual giving isn’t a formula where you input activity one and get output two. A one-size-fits-all strategy is not going to work.
Individuals (a.k.a. people) are not formulaic. They don’t make decisions for purely logical, empirical reasons. They don’t always act or react in the same way from year to year.
And, what makes it most different from grants and foundations is that individuals generally do not designate their charitable donations into specific sector areas, while foundations generally grant funds based on a few priority areas.
I’ve been hearing a lot from nonprofits that are looking to diversify their revenue and expand their individual giving program. They’re looking for sustainability amidst a lack of predictability in the institutional, corporate, and government grant-making space.
But here is what matters when trying to make these changes:
Individuals act like, well, people. They don’t have to report to a board of directors or file public records of exactly how money is spent.
Instead, individuals donate because they care about the cause.
Because they have a connection.
Because this mission and this organization are a priority to them.
Because someone asked them.
And because of all this, you can’t make assumptions about people. You can’t make assumptions about what someone’s priorities are, and definitely not about how much someone will give.
What else shouldn’t you waste your time on?
Trying to persuade someone why this needs to be a priority.
People are complex. And what matters most to you is not necessarily going to matter most to me.
Do a quick exercise for me –
Write down your top five causes or nonprofits you care most deeply about. Now turn to a coworker, a friend, or a family member. Ask them to do the same.
Do you have any of the same priorities? What about in the same order?
Maybe a couple of similarities, but people are each unique and we’re not robots. Trying to convince someone that your cause matters is difficult. It’s even harder to explain why your nonprofit, out of all your peers, is where they should be designating their dollars. And persuading someone to change their priorities is nearly impossible.
Therefore, it’s best to prioritize your time around the people who already care, a lot, about your mission.
As we approach the end of the year, and the need to get gifts in only increases, let’s think about what you can do.
1) You can research people in your database.
2) You can review the data and assess what approaches have already been tried so that you can make informed, data-driven decisions.
3) You can make your asks clear and show the need for what the money will be for.
4) You can pick up the phone and talk to your donors. You can ask them questions about their philanthropic priorities.
5) You can follow up with people who said they would give later in the year.
These are tactics to get you started on individual giving as you close out the year. But the bigger questions will arise around how to keep your funding sustainable and grow.
This is the type of work a fundraising assessment and plan can really help with. Rather than guessing or reacting to symptoms, an assessment unearths what is actually happening in your fundraising program, outlines leadership alignment, explains the donor experience, and evaluates internal capacity.
It helps identify what is going right, where there are opportunities for improvement, and actionable recommendations for how to improve.
Look, we’re living through a changing economic and philanthropic landscape, so it’s more important than ever to strategically allocate resources to create an ambitious, actionable, and achievable fund development plan.