Interim assignments

The following article appeared in Charity Funding:

"OVER THE YEARS I have worked with a number of major donor programmes and capital appeals in the UK and Australia, both setting them up and also driving them forward. These dealings have been with all sorts of charities of differing sizes from local hospices and hospitals to theatres and arts organisations, from university colleges to the country’s largest charity –Cancer Research UK.

I have also come across many donors themselves who have shared with me the highs and lows of being a ‘major’ donor. I think I have a pretty good idea of how a major donor thinks, their aspirations and motivations. Whether your organisation wants to run a capital appeal or would like to set up a major donor programme, the methodology is very similar. I could go through the ‘seven steps of stewardship’ to attract people to become major donors, but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to tell you exactly what I think – without all the carp. 

The first thing is to decide what project is the best one to start off your major donor work. This is important as you want something that will attract donors but is also, ideally, a priority of the charity (as this itself is a great selling point and you will be able tonaturally enthuse about it). There is no doubt that a capital appeal will attract more interest – donors feel that they get good value for money by investing in building work (or possibly equipment). It is certainly possible to package up a few projects together, but beware that this is done correctly. 

Now you need to find your prospects. Yes, you can certainly research a list of suspects who are probably interested in your kind of work and try and directly convert them to prospects but this is a drawn-out process that can take 1-2 years if you’re not careful. The best and easiest way to do this is to produce the lists of suspects (as broad a list as you can make it – don’t be afraid if it is 4-5 pages long of just names and half a line of description). Then go around and personally show this to senior people in your organisation – this must include the chair, all the trustees (or certainly the more well connected ones), the chief executive and all the senior staff. You may consider recruiting some kind of advisory board – but again beware there are pitfalls to doing this. I cannot stressenough that this ‘networking’ has to be done in a personal way – do not email this list to people asking them to mark those whom they know. Only when it is done in a personal way will it work.  

You need to ask each person you network with if they know any of the listed suspects and if so what they might be prepared to do to introduce them to the charity (they then become prospects). You may want to make some suggestions of your own – for example, invites to good events, lunch with the chair or chief executive, visit to the project, etc. Appropriate stewardship is then necessary to ‘steer’ the prospect to the ask. I suggest that each prospect has one main contact with the charity who is in touch at appropriate times and is the contact person. Most major donor managers should be able to deal with 25-50 prospects in a new major donor programme rising to 100-150 prospects in a mature programme. 

In my experience, sometimes a charity will already have up to half a dozen prospects ‘in the wings’ who have never been approached for money. They themselves are rather perplexed by this and, when finally approached, welcome the discussion and usually give rather generously. As well as this there are those that have always hinted they may give, but when approached back off and end up not giving anything. This is life! Once the right time comes about you must ask them for money. Remember one of the fundraiser’s basic rules – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. The best person to do the asking is a peer of the prospect (preferably the person who introduced them to the charity) but sometimes this is very difficult and so a good, experienced fundraiser can do the asking in the presence of that peer. The Americans and Australians try and ensure that askers have already given before asking. This is preferable, but the Brits somehow don’t seem to manage this too well – there are ways around this, but givers certainly make the best askers. 

Also in the UK, many wealthy people and families give via their trust so it is very important to try and link both the major donor and trusts and foundations programmes within your organisation. When you are preparing your lists of suspects you can also prepare lists of trusts that may be interested in your work together with their trustees and senior staff. This ensures you do a ‘double whammy’ when seeing your senior people – something that is always well worthwhile. Remember that the perfect ask is when the right person asks for the right amount, for the right project, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place (these are in order of priority). Try and get at least 3-4 of these right for every ask. Realise that this process takes time and you will not get too much, if anything, in the first six months of a new major donor programme or capital appeal. Budget for three years, ensure that you have the support and input from the chair, the trustees and the chief executive and give your major donor programme time to bed in.

So undertake your major donor programme logically, in the right order, take care of the needs of your individual top prospects and make sure you ask as best you can. One more thing: In my experience most wealthy people are pretty normal really, just be yourself, be confident, use senior people around you and organise the ask at the appropriate time."

How to contact Paddy Hunter-Murphy