In this section, we lay out the basics for creating a culture of fundraising, starting with the relationship between the kinds of money you need to raise and the types of gifts donors can give to meet those needs. Then we explore how to show your gratitude to donors—the middle of the tweet: “Thank them.” (A tip—if you don't have time to read any more of this book, just read the chapter on thanking and you will raise more money.)
A large part of this section is devoted to helping you and your team feel more comfortable with asking for money, followed by a discussion of how to identify whom to ask. Identifying prospective donors instead of haphazardly asking anyone in your path is key to success. The section ends with the logistics of asking for money in person—a how‐to that can be used to get a $1 donation for a raffle ticket or a $1 million pledge for a capital campaign.
Building a donor base is a labor‐intensive task that requires persistence and attention to detail, along with a healthy sense of risk and willingness to spend money in order to make money. Not all strategies suit all organizations, and every organization will need to figure out which strategies work best for it. As your organization matures, you may grow out of some strategies and become able to take on others. Strategies must also adapt to the external reality, with the largest and most clear example being the pivot we all had to do during the COVID epidemic, such as moving quickly to conducting all meetings and events online and having everyone work from home. At the same time, organizations need to resist the temptation to fly from strategy to strategy looking for the magic one that will solve all their financial problems. Strategies that work well for an organization are often those that have been honed over many years, with lots of evaluation and planning each year, and they are coordinated with all the other strategies the organization uses to raise money.
This section ends with a chapter on how to segment your donors into smaller groups so you can more effectively focus on what might make one type of donor want to give (for example, they love your annual event) and what another type of donor finds very off‐putting (for example, they dislike getting several appeals a year). Segmenting your donors helps you use strategies even more effectively and builds donor loyalty.
The work of inviting people to make their first gift to your organization and then asking those who give to give again and again requires about 40 to 50 percent of the time we spend on individual donor fundraising. These chapters will help you use that time to maximum effectiveness.