How do you inspire a donor to make a transformational gift?
Find out what inspires them, from their heart.
And you might start with making sure you are clear on what inspires you and your organization. Here are a couple of activities that you can do at an upcoming staff meeting or Board meeting. Ask:
“What would the world look like if we were accomplishing our mission 100%?”
This is the kind of world that you really want. Your organization was created to make an impact on the way the world is today so you can make it more like this ideal.
After taking some time to share everyone’s ideas about this amazing world where your mission is accomplished 100%, then ask everyone:
“If we could have it any way we wanted it – with unlimited resources – what would our organization look like and be like so that we could achieve the dream of our ideal world as effectively as possible.”
So now you have two dreams – one is a dream of the ideal world and the other is a dream of the ideal organization, which could help create that ideal world.
These conversations usually produce some very cool and inspiring ideas.
Next, engage one of your donors with these same questions. Don’t tell them what you and your team came up with right away. Let them answer first. Ask them what they think of when they dream a world where your mission is accomplished 100%. Then ask what they think your organization would look like ideally to make that happen. The donor’s answers to these questions will give you clues to what inspires them.
Once you find what inspires the donor then you can build on these conversations. How would they like to contribute to that inspiration?
Personally, I have seen these conversations convert a “never donor” who became a $50/year donor, then $1,000/year, and ultimately made a $6.4 million bequest to an organization that had an annual budget of $1 million. That is a transformational gift.
Most transformational gifts have inspiration from the heart at their core. Find out what inspires your donors and show them a path to transform your Mission Impact.
