How to Fundraise Without Selling

Steve Thomas is a veteran fundraiser, with more than 20 years of experience leading nonprofits out of financial crisis, and into unprecedented growth.

In this article, Steve shares the keys to building mutually beneficial relationships with donors, so your nonprofit can build a brighter future.

Note: This was excerpted from Steve Thomas’ interview with Author Hour.
Click here to listen to the full interview on iTunes.

Find the magic of connection.

If I can connect with your interests, and if you have a connection with what my nonprofit is trying to do, then we have something to talk about. But it has to be about the donor, not about trying to pay bills, or meeting a budget.

Shift from thinking only about what you need to how your words are perceived on the other side of the desk. That person is a person — not a contact or a move or a marker on a whiteboard. They have a life and their own interests.

It’s magic when you don’t have to convince somebody to do something.

Just guide them. Help them understand how they could be a part of something. Then, it’s not you selling something. It’s about you connecting with them as a person.

What does an email look like that considers the reader’s perspective? What does a direct mail letter look like when I’m putting myself in their shoes?

It is a fundamental mindshift.

Remember: It’s about more than money.

A donor wants to be asked to do more than just give a gift.

I don’t know about you, but there are occasions when I don’t have money to give to organizations that I love.

There are times when someone we love says, “I could really use the help,” and we think to ourselves, “Gosh, this is not the time.”

If I only think about the dollars in that moment, I’ll feel really bad because I didn’t give you a gift.

But if you give me the option to do more than just give a gift, things change.

When the dollars come back around, I have the warm feeling toward you, not the bad feeling of having said no.

Donors are looking for you to involve them — not just with their income, but in other significant ways.

Our clients serve Christian ministries. Now, I am a person who believes in prayer. When I ask someone to pray, I actually believe something happens.

But they also feel involved. I have connected them to our cause. Not as a strategy to connect them, but in the same way they give a gift.

(I also might say to them “Now, share on Facebook” because I like pairing the idea of hifalutin-spirituality with the low end of Facebook.)

Be sure they know that they are doing something that makes a difference in this moment.

The ROI of Validation.

Say you and I are best friends, and you ask me to rate and review of your organization.

So I do my part, and I never hear from you again. Or, maybe you’ll say, “Thanks Steve! Good job!”

But what if you did something different?

What if you came back to me and said, “Holy cow, Steve! Do you realize that you were one of a few people who helped book sales leap off the charts because you wrote — I counted them — a total of 17 words. Thank you!”

Then, I might ask: “Hey, would you do one more thing for me?”

Man, I’m going to lean in and go, “I gave you 17 words and it changed your life? You bet I will.”

You’ve validated my effort, my gift, my participation.

Yes, it’s still good to say, “Thank you.” But that’s not enough. “Thank you” means nearly nothing.

Tell me my dollars, my interest, my effort meant something.

“Thank you” isn’t enough.

Give me a metric. Give me something concrete.

For an organization that helps people who are homeless, you might say, “See that family over there? They are going to get a chance to not only have food but to get off the street because of your gift.”

“These people over here are going to get job training because of you.”

“We can help pay for the tutor who will be helping them with resume writing because of you.”

These are the faces of the lives you’re changing.

Donors don’t give for thank-yous. Donors give because they’re ready to change the world in some way that’s significant.

If you can tap into that, then they aren’t dreading your next conversation. They’re going to have a conversation to get another opportunity to change the world.

Give donors a recipe they can follow.

If it’s all about the money, and if it is all about what the organization is trying to do, you’re going to fail.

Look for what is important to them, and how that aligns with what you are doing.

There are ways to connect with donors that focus on what they want to do.

You don’t have to sell them.

You don’t have to persuade them.

If you’re only asking for money and only asking for one thing, they’re eventually going to say no, or that they don’t have money.

And then, all you can do is look at your wrist watch and go, “Would that be, like, a couple of weeks from now? When will you have money?”

That’s a miserable scenario for everybody.

But if you can say, “Totally understand, but would you help in this other way?”

I might come back to you and tell you what a difference your action made, and how you could do just a little bit more.

Donors are very busy, so you’d better give them a recipe.

Tell them, “Here’s what I’m looking for, here’s the link to click, here’s how you’re going to do it so that you don’t have to think about it…”

Your baby isn’t as cute as you think.

Most non-profits struggle with finding new donors. Most people are not going to be your donor. I call it “The Ugly Baby Strategy.”

You’ve been in an elevator or an escalator, where you bump into a mom or a new dad who has a baby wrapped up in a blanket.

They are so proud of that baby.

Then they pull back the blanket and it looks like a little wrinkled, smooched-up Winston Churchill face.

But they are so proud of that baby. To them, it’s a beautiful baby.

Most non-profits have to understand that the vast majority of the world will think their non-profit is an ugly baby.

We get past that with a couple of techniques.

Make sure that you are getting in front of enough people, and presenting your messaging so that it can resonate with whoever might find your baby beautiful.

Craft your stories so that a donor understands why — in spite of what you might think of your baby — they ought to pay attention to it.

Dig deep to find the donor’s “why.”

Get a donor on the phone. Whether they’ve given you two dollars or $200,000, call someone who’s made a gift of some money in the last couple of months.

Once they get over the awkwardness of you getting them on the phone, ask them why they gave their gift.

Ask why three times, because you probably won’t get the deepest, most candid answer first.

Donors have motivations that the organization usually doesn’t think of.

When you begin to think about your donors as people, things change.

It is a joyful, amazing experience for most non-profits. Actually have a conversation with somebody who gave a gift, and appreciate them.

But then say, “Why? Why did you give that gift?”

Usually they will give a surface-level answer. Then say, “Is that the only reason? I’ve noticed that you have been giving a number of years. I’m curious: why have you stayed with us for so long?”

Pursue that path to get you to the deepest “why.”

I’ve encountered lots and lots of clients, with lots and lots of donors. At the core, they have a desire to change the world.

It all comes down to this metric of changing the world.

Your communication is not going to be about what you want to do. It’s tapping into what that donor wants to do. If I make things about what you want to do, then I’m going to move into the direction you want to go.

It becomes effortless.

Steve Thomas, author of Donoricity, is a veteran fundraising consultant. He believes in building mutually beneficial relationships by emphasizing the donor’s needs over the nonprofits. He can be found at Donoricity.com.