Why Relationship Fundraising Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

You might think this is a bold statement, but the nonprofit sector is at risk of moving back to a way of fundraising that is ineffective, doesn’t honor donors and, ultimately, blocks organizations from actually achieving their missions. 

Why do I think this? Two things:

1. Nonprofit leaders everywhere are shifting back to action-focused metrics that prioritize the money over the relationship.
2. Donors are pulling back on their giving (or they’ve stopped giving entirely) because they are not being treated as partners and told how their giving is making a difference. 

These two things are clear indicators, to me, that we are going in the wrong direction. 

Instead of focusing on building meaningful donor relationships where the donor and the fundraiser are partnering together to achieve the donor’s philanthropic interests, nonprofits are becoming obsessive about things that just don’t matter. 

Things like: 

• The number of visits a fundraiser has logged.
• How many face-to-face meetings a fundraiser has had.
• How many cold calls the fundraiser made last week.
• How many emails the fundraiser has sent per month.

Now, I want to be clear that I am not against visits or face-to-face meetings. These are critically important to a fundraiser’s work with a donor. But when a fundraiser is faced with a ridiculous metric, like 20 visits per month, their focus moves from developing the best possible partnership with the donor to hitting their goal for visits.  

And when this happens, donors feel how disingenuous the outreach is and they can sense the pressure to get the money. This is why donors shift their interests, reduce their giving or go away altogether. 

It’s time to change the direction we’re heading and embrace a commitment to relationship fundraising. Truly, this kind of fundraising has never been more important.

So, how do you start moving the culture at your organization to prioritize relationship fundraising? 

1. View Your Metrics 

Most likely, you have at least some metrics that are actually counterproductive to your goal of deepening your donor’s connection to your mission. Review the metrics and explore how you could create metrics that prioritize the relationship with the donor. I suggest monitoring:

• Individual revenue goals per donor.
• Is there a strategic plan for every donor (and is the fundraiser working those plans)?
• Retention rates (donor and value) of the portfolio.
• The number of meaningful connections (aka an interaction that moves the relationship forward).
• The number of solicitations.

2. Build Collaboration Into Your Process 

Collaboration across your team allows you to approach donor strategy from an integrated way. It also connects everyone together to understand how their role supports relationship fundraising. I encourage you to spend some time evaluating the current state of collaboration and identify any obstacles. 

Then, build trust and partnership in natural ways. Maybe this starts with some blended asks between planned giving and major gifts, or a post-event meeting to discuss major donor prospects. However it happens, it’s important to bring everyone together and show each team member how they support this goal. 

3. Leadership Needs to Be Actively Involved in Shifting the Culture and Mindset Around Money 

Shifting the focus to be on the relationship — not the money — requires leadership buy-in. It doesn’t matter how dedicated the fundraiser is to this approach — if leadership can’t let go of insignificant metrics, the pressure and focus will stay on achieving those metrics just to tick boxes, not to develop the relationship. This may require a lot of intentional conversation and education to really change your organizational mindset, but getting leadership on board and committed to this has to be a priority. 

Remember, managing action-focused metrics isn’t going to result in the long-term, transformational fundraising impact you want and that your mission needs. By partnering with your donors, identifying their passions and interests, and working together to find alignment between your organization’s work and each donor’s philanthropic interests, you will be able to achieve incredible things. 

But don’t wait until your donors stop engaging or quit giving altogether. Make the change now. You won’t regret it. 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.