A Foodie in Development: A Super Green Salad and an Annual Giving to Major Giving Pipeline
Dear Diary,
I am thrilled to return to this delicious series for foodies, where we enjoy something hearty from time to time. Today, we will make a salad that includes several ingredients with one required color: everything must be green. Ingredients in your salad could look like mine and include broccoli, lettuce, green beans, spinach, green spring onions, and kale. I love to include a bag of leafy spring mix for fullness. You could also want green apples included for crunch and sweetness. Again, all ingredients are included as long as they’re green. Have a large bowl ready, shredded parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and Caesar ranch sauce.
Similar to the stems of the leafy greens and shapely vegetables being thrown into your large bowl, we have people in our CRMs, right now, sitting in multiple reports from unassigned annual donors to LYBUNT donors (people who gave last year but not this year). These are people in your annual fund receiving great communication but grouped in with the majority. When suddenly, the annual giving program catches one person with an interest in increasing their gift – now there’s a pause and the question arises, “Could there be others?” Suddenly, as you’re chopping and steaming the broccoli and spinach, there’s a need to create a pipeline from annual giving to major giving. This is not for urgency’s sake but to elevate a solution, one that could lead to so many opportunities.
As your eyes are fixated on the enlightened connection of shades of green and giving programs, you wonder – “But how?” and “How can we create a process that identifies people with more capacity to give and then raise them for the major gift program?”
Full of character and curiosity, you should add all of your vegetables into your large bowl (green and chopped up, uniquely shaped). Consider the stem of your kale and the connecting veins – creating a connection between annual fund and major giving allows for an interlocked process for the sake of fundraising and an optimized donor journey.
Next, a review of the actual necessities to build an upgrade system.
1. Create annual fund and major giving donation thresholds. For example, maybe annual fund donors at your organization give under $10K (or $9,999), and so everyone at or above $10K could be considered for the major gift program.
2. Utilize wealth screening, there are many options available nowadays that can help you screen a batch of donors as you decide whether or not they should be in the annual fund program. Prioritization systems help.
- If screening results show they have major gift capacity then you can add them to the program until they disqualify themselves from major gifts as uninterested in upgrading their giving or simply uninterested and unresponsive.
3. Consider who will support and moderate the handoff process. Who will be in charge of the screenings, the cadence, and the process of flagging persons in both programs of new prospects.
Number 3 is the seasoning and added flavor that helps with the pipeline’s impact. It is similar to the performance of adding to your bowl of greens - a handful of parmesan cheese, a light dusting of salt and black pepper, and light pour of Caesar salad dressing.
Mix everything together.
This process should professionalize how donors are organized within a given program while providing flexibility and management of those who are more inclined to give a little more.
The bones of the process should be repeated and tested – imagine as you are tossing and mixing all the greens together within the salt, pepper, cheese, and dressing – this repeated motion that allows for the success of an overarching fundraising vision.
Enjoy your salad and test out opportunities to connect your annual giving and major gift programs as they should work in tandem. Different green veggies, one big bowl.
Until next time,
September 15th!
