Inside the Donor’s Mind: A Fundraising Deep Dive

1. Treat your donors like humans.

Spend as much time speaking to them and understanding their motivations, not just in philanthropy but in life more generally. What keeps them up at night? What are they excited about? Donors want to be heard and have meaningful relationships — like the rest of us!

2. Case support vs business case.

Are your written materials reflecting the language, data and information that high-net-worth individuals will be used to seeing? Take time to refine the language you use in your proposals and reports — and ask your donor what they want to see the most.

3. Shifting the culture on internal KPIs.

We know this isn’t possible for everyone, but if you have the power to build in more relationship-building KPIs as a measure of success, you could see better results over a longer period of time. The average major gift takes 18 months on average to come in, and the largest gift is usually a donor’s seventh. It takes a lot of patience and relationship-building to achieve that.

4. Don’t be scared of highlighting the importance of unrestricted gifts.

Many donors don’t know or understand the value of unrestricted giving. Isabelle encouraged us all to feel confident in educating our donors, as it is usually well received!

5. Know your own charity’s endowments, investments, and ESG policies.

This is something many donors are asking for. Swot up before your next donor meeting by looking at your annual accounts or internal policies.

6. Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are booming.

These low-cost/low-admin structures may be less transparent or harder to prospect, but they are only going to increase. It may be worth exploring blended portfolios as more major donors move to formal giving vehicles.

7. No professional advisor will tell someone where to put their money.

Working with wealth advisors can help build an understanding of your charity. Fundraisers are in a great position to educate donors and advisors alike – take the opportunities when they come!