John Bryan

Making Major Asks to Private Donors

Posted by John Bryan, Feb 18, 2015 1 comment


John Bryan

There is a gigantic, come-and-have-some, boatload of private sector money available to all arts organizations. New research from Richmond, Virginia confirms that most don’t ask for it.

What’s the pot of money? It is the money in personal pocketbooks of the arts organizations’ most loyal constituents: pocketbooks that already make ongoing donations in response to grassroots solicitations such as direct mail, special events, and crowd-source platforms. But new research shows that most arts organizations rarely have personal, look-you-in-the-eye meetings with their best donors to ask for major amounts of money. The donor who loyally and happily writes an annual $1,000 check never experiences a personal meeting to ask for $25,000.

(Side note: There’s a chance you may be included in the group that doesn’t ask for available money. Join Americans for the Arts, other guests from Richmond, and me for a free conference call on February 23, 3pm to learn more about how you can take better advantage of this untapped private sector resource. No registration is necessary; all you have to do is dial 605-475-4825 #255988).

This pot of money–the personal major gift solicitation pot–gives away $250 billion each year nationwide and would give even more if more arts organizations were to ask. This total dwarfs the other private sector funding sources: $27 billion in response to grassroots solicitations, $50 billion from foundations, and $17 billion from corporations.

Just about every arts organization has enthusiastic supporters who have never ever been exposed to this sort of solicitation. And it’s a shame, because many of them would respond, “Yes indeed!” As one of my colleagues says, “The money isn’t going to walk up and surrender. You have to ask.”

Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Center for Urban and Regional Analysis has now completed research among 110 large and small arts and culture organizations in Richmond. Here are three findings from VCU’s 30-page report:

  • 65% of the organizations have zero personnel (including chief executives) who have, during their entire careers, made at least 10 in-person major gift solicitations of at least $25K.
  • 77% of the organizations have zero board members who have made personal gifts of at least $25K during the past 12 months.
  • 63% of the organizations received zero major gift commitments of at least $25K during the past 12 months.

Does this research reflect national numbers? Richmond, one of the nation’s top ten test markets, is the first city to conduct this research, but I have asked arts leaders in a few dozen other cities to give their best-guess answers to the following question: What percent of your city’s arts organizations conduct in-person major gifts solicitations of their individual donors (excluding corporations and foundations)? Every answer has been 25% or less.

Knowing about this pot of money and actually accessing it–looking a donor in the eye and asking for a specific major gift–are two different things. How do you learn to do this?

There is of course an abundant availability of classes and workshops and books and certifications and online information. But in 2013, we conceived and piloted something different in Richmond: the Moose Management Academy (derives from “moves management”)–a 12-month learning/mentoring/doing program for persons with full-time responsibilities at nonprofit arts organizations. And we kept score; we counted real financial results. We found that Academy participants not only learn how to fish, they also catch fish: just over $1.6 million for the Academy’s first 12-person class, and that total–a total that happened during the 12-month Academy–was on top of their ongoing and already-established fundraising programs. Two more Academy classes are now underway.

Moose Management Academy participants range from executive directors to staffers to board members, and they represent organizations with budgets ranging from several million to less than a hundred thousand. They meet monthly as a group and take on individualized “assignments” to move forward with their own specific major donor prospects. And they sit in living rooms and ask for major amounts of money from their supporters who love them most.

One of the Academy’s most important keys to success may be its magic weapon: its instructors are full-time highly successful executive directors and major gifts officers who raise money every day for their own nonprofit organizations. Their consulting services can’t be hired elsewhere, but they enjoy sharing their strategies and expertise within the Academy as one of the ways they help make our community ever better.

Any community can do this. If a community can conduct formal research such VCU’s, it will command attention and cause concern. To start an Academy, we suggest that three ingredients are vital:

  • good relationships that can attract the community’s best major gifts fundraisers to be on the faculty;
  • a successful front-line major gifts professional who can devote a lot of time to keeping the Academy organized and on track; and of course,
  • money.

Tuition for our Moose Management Academy is $5,000 for 12-month participation in a 12-person class. Many of the tuitions are paid for by donors who want to help specific organizations. The return on investment is large and it gets ever larger throughout each participant’s full career.

The ultimate beneficiaries are of course the persons whose lives are made better by the good work of the community’s arts and culture organizations.

Contact me for a copy of VCU’s full 30-page research report entitled Results of a Survey on Major Gifts to Arts and Cultural Organizations in Richmond, VA. I will also send you our 2-pager on how to leverage this first-time research to help you get some major gifts now–whether you’re new to major gifts or a successful veteran. Learn about the Moose Management Academy at our forthcoming (2/23/2015) website: www.moosemanagementacademy.com.

1 responses for Making Major Asks to Private Donors

Comments

Marty watkin says
February 21, 2015 at 7:59 am

This idea is vintage John Bryan -- clever, innovative and practical.

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