On June 30th, I looked at my year end fundraising results on CRM and I felt like I had failed. Despite all of my education, my experience and my best efforts, I had come up short by raising just under half of the million dollar fundraising goal that I had been tasked with nine months earlier. My inability to raise a million dollars made me feel like a failed major gift officer. And yet, I know now that I had no reason to feel that way.
Major gifts fundraising is about more than measuring the amount of dollars raised, donors retained or moves made. It is about building meaningful relationships with people who love our organization and believe in the cause even more than we do. It is about being authentic to our donors and to ourselves. It is about valuing our organization’s long-term goals over potential short-term gains.
When a major gift officer’s performance and compensation are measured on quantity rather than quality, they can’t help but focus on targets before donor’s needs. Their job depends on it. Every good major gifts officer starts out with the best of intentions and wants to build authentic relationships with their 100-150 donors. However, with far too many donors in their portfolio and the measure of their success being based on how many major gifts they close in 12 months, many major gifts officers focus their efforts on reaching their annual fundraising goal rather than building authentic donor-centred relationships. Since the system isn’t built with the donors interests first it is major donor officers often move on to another job and relationship building becomes the next major gift officer’s ‘problem’ and the next MGO’s and the next and so forth. It is a vicious cycle that we need to break for our donors’ sake.
But major gift officers can’t do it alone. We need board members and senior executives, many of whom are not fundraisers (no, marketing is not the same) and may have no interest in truly understanding fundraising, to realize that we are effectively forcing major gift officers to do a disservice to our most dedicated, our most passionate and our most generous donors – our major gift donors – by treating them like ATMs on an annual basis.
So what can we do as good major gift officers?
1. Be true to yourself
If major gift fundraising feels yucky to you, it’s because deep down inside you know that your fundraising is organization-centred rather than donor-centred. Asking a donor for gift after you have built an authentic relationship with them, should be natural, not forced or awkward or rushed. A donor who is valued, connected and passionate about a project will be asking you how they can donate to make a difference – even if it’s not at the level you may have been hoping for. No selling, persuading or begging required.
2. Be true to your donor
We’ve all be there. It’s the fall or the end of the calendar year or even worse, the end of the fiscal year, and your fundraising goal is looming overhead like a dark cloud. Every major gift officer is instructed to deliver proposals to each of their donors and close as many gifts as possible often with little regard for the donor’s wishes, interests or timeline. As a result, your donor starts to avoid your phone calls and stops responding to your emails because they know you’re going to ask them about the proposal you gave them that fails to meet their needs. If you feel your donor hasn’t been properly stewarded since their last gift or sufficiently cultivated for a gift, do not ask them for another gift. If the timing isn’t right, do not ask them for a gift. If the project isn’t right, do not ask them for a gift. It’s as simple as that.
3. Demand better
Fundraisers love networking and professional development events because they provide us with all-too-rare opportunities to speak with like-minded individuals who just also happen to understand our job. Amongst ourselves, we lament how frustratingly non-donor-centred our organizations are and how there’s not nearly enough #donorlove (and instead only #dollarlove). As a group, and with the help of our professional associations, we need to demand that non-profit organizations and charities treat their donors better. We need put our necks out for our donors and tell our senior fundraisers and leaders that we cannot continue down the road we’ve been going on. Our current approach isn’t working and the proof is in our sector’s abysmal donor retention and flat growth rates.
4. Be better
Despite our efforts, we may not be able to change the hearts and minds of those calling the shots. If that proves to be the case, we need to resolve ourselves to being better senior fundraisers and leaders when our time comes to call the shots and it will. Those who know better should do better and today’s good major gift officers need to lead the way. The #donorlove revolution may be leisurely but it is inevitable.
Major gift fundraising is for the resilient, the authentic and the donor-centred. It is not for the self-doubting, the phony or the self-centered. And while major gift officers come with all sorts of different experiences, approaches and beliefs, a good major gift officer knows that the long-term value of a relationship outweighs the short-term value of a one-time or final gift.
This article is a cri de coeur for the major gift officer who has been made to feel like a failure. I speak from experience and I’m here to tell you that you’re not a failure and you’re not alone. It’s our conception of successful major gift fundraising and our treatment of major gift donors that have to change – not us.
Jessica Wroblewski is a professional fundraiser and project manager with 5+ years of comprehensive experience in the non-profit sector. During that time, she has had the opportunity to work on annual giving, major gifts, capital campaigns, planned giving, endowment funds, special events and grants while raising over $2.5M. Jessica has obtained the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) designation and a Fundraising Management certificate from Ryerson University. She is currently pursuing a Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership degree at Carleton University while searching for her next fundraising position in the Guelph/KW area. Feel free to connect with Jessica on twitter @jesswroblewski.
