Donor Advised Funds, Part Two: Managing and stewarding gifts from donor advised funds
by Alissa Silverman, Nonprofit Industry Advisor, Salesforce.org
This is the second article in a 3-part series on Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). We started with an overview of DAFs. This article talks about how to manage DAFs, as a nonprofit receiving gifts from DAFs. Our last in the series will focus on DAF sponsor organizations. Throughout, we’ll share how Salesforce technology can make your business processes more efficient so you can focus on your donors.
An envelope arrives from a financial institution addressed to Development. It’s thick. You open it to find a check for $10,000 from a family name you don’t recognize and a request to mail all communications to philanthropic advisor and contact information ONLY for the financial institution, at a generic address across the country from you.
You celebrate. Ring the bell. Take a moment of gratitude for the supporters who move your mission forward.
And then, your desire to build relationships kicks in and, while telling yourself this is a good problem to have, you need more information about this supporter — perhaps more than you will ever have, even if this donor gives annually and loyally.
This journey is just one of the many ways fundraising teams and Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) interact. For an overview of the history and growth of DAFs, see the first article in this three-part series.
So how can development teams build relationships with DAF sponsor organizations and the donors behind them? Through leveraging the information available to execute strategies that you already use with your portfolio — and ones you with which you wanted to enhance your work already!
You have to start with good data governance and structure.
First, every donor advised fund organization MUST have a unique record in your CRM. Just like you would for any organization, you need to maintain accurate and current contact lists within that organization, including roles. These records will serve important roles in both how you work with each person, including the donor themself, and how you building relationship strategies.
Next, you need to outline how you’ll connect DAFs to your donors.
— If you know the donor, you can use soft credits to connect the gift to your donor, and/or you can affiliate the donor record to the DAF sponsor.
— If you have a donor name and no other contact information from the DAF, you should still create a record for the donor, connect it to the DAF organization and then work to obtain additional information about the donor you can add to the record.
— If the donor is anonymous, you might consider creating an anonymous donor record connected to the DAF so you can at least track where the funds are coming from and how many discreet donors are giving to your organization even if you don’t know who they are.
Assigning DAF sponsors to portfolio managers is also critical. Following the same guidance you use to set portfolios is usually the easiest way. For example, a community foundation that manages donor advised funds as well as a grants program.
— Your grants portfolio leader should be the DAF sponsor organization owner so they can follow the foundation’s strategy and priorities closely. They will also manage relationship with the grants administration team.
— Philanthropic Advisors at that foundation should be assigned to Major Gift Officers. While they do not make decisions about gifts, their advice to donors often triggers gift. Keeping PAs informed about your programs — in the same ways you do major gifts — if a great prospecting and stewardship practice.
With better data, you can now build better relationships.
The best way I’ve found is to schedule an annual meeting with the Philanthropic Advisory Team. This is NOT EASY with DAFs run out of the large banks — but I know a brilliant major gifts leader who did it. Your meeting has three main objectives — to educate them about your mission and how it relates to key community needs; to understand how you can help them work with their donors; to prospect with them.
Philanthropic Advisors know a lot of the community and the orgs within it. Their job requires breadth of knowledge about the community; you should help them gain depth around your issue area. How are you addressing community needs today? How does your program fit into the broader solution within your issue area? How is your organization similar or unique from other organizations in the field? What outcomes and impact are you having? You can share your annual report, but they literally have stacks of them and it may never get read. It’s best to get in the habit of providing 3–5 bullets they can remember and share with their donors.
Like you, Philanthropic Advisors seek to know their donors and provide information to them that help meet their goals. You should be able to articulate a few donor profiles or personas to them that they can use to think about who might be interested. If you’re able to name a local donor they know and why they give, that’s often helpful. In addition to making sure the info you provide them will be useful with their donors at large, it’s also fair to ask if they have any donors in mind to share this information with. Even if they do not provide a name, you can learn more about the donor and co-write a donor plan together.
The best donor relationships consist of personalized and consistent communication.
10+ years ago, I created what I now know to call a donor journey for the philanthropic advisors in my community. At the time, I kept a manual list (spreadsheet) and used a mail merge into my email program to send a personalized newsletter. Luckily, now, this work can be automated.
First, create a donor segment for your donor advisors. Second, create a communication calendar, ensuring they get personalized versions of your newsletters and annual reports. Add 2–4 bullets especially for them, designed to help them absorb key talking points quickly that they can pass to their donors. Third, set triggers for a thank you note and ‘mission moment“ every time you receive a donation from their fund OR the donor who they manage. If you are fully digital with your marketing, also set a trigger when they visit your website or social pages.
Hopefully, I have provided a tip or two that you can put into practice to better manage DAFs and the relationships behind them. The last article in this series goes deeper into the different types of DAF Sponsor organizations and how they cultivate and manage relationships with their donors and nonprofit recipients.
