In a world where most people are easily distracted what can we do to positively ‘break the script’? Is it possible to create positive surprise and connection in our supporters beyond what most would expect?
In Episodes 88 and 89 of the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast, Clio Gressani describes the fabulous growth her high value fundraising team at Shelterbox has achieved in the last 18 months. She shared various tactics that have helped, including the strategy of creating special ‘wow moments’ to create delight and connection for supporters.
Most interestingly to me, she explained that the idea at the very heart of this achievement, the thing that enabled all the other creativity, was what she and the team have focused their energy on. She said that she really liked an important distinction we teach on the Major Gifts Mastery Programme that she attended in 2021, the immense importance of focussing your energy on building relationships.
I know this sounds obvious, but it’s different from the dominant focus in many fundraising teams, whose primary focus is on securing donations or corporate partnerships.
On the course we talk about why the most successful car salespeople tend to focus on booking test drives more than on selling cars. In relationship fundraising, we suggest its helpful to value setting up informal coffees with people who care / the right companies, ahead of seeking gifts and partnerships etc.
What was particularly bold and has paid off brilliantly is that Clio changed her Key Performance Indicators that her team strive to achieve, from being about money raised, to these ‘oblique goals’ that improve relationships. Here are those KPIs:
- Coffee / virtual coffee meetings (ie informal chats)
- WOW moments (things they do to create surprise and delight for supporters.
As the leader of the team, she of course needs to be aware of funds raised and budgeted in future to be raised, but she has worked hard to where possible shield her team from being distracted by these financial goals, because she knows that focusing primarily on the money, skews creativity and energy away from genuine efforts to build relationships and help supporters feel great.
Consistent with what John Kay writes in his book Obliquity, this move has paid off brilliantly in terms of financial results. One example Clio gives in the podcast interview is of how the many proactive conversations her team achieved between August and November, in advance of their Big Give campaign, meant they had all achieved the campaign target of £50,000 by the end of the first morning. And by the end of the campaign, they cruised past that target by 40%, raising a total of £70,000.
Clio also describes how focusing on creating WOW moments has generated both creativity and, just as important, the discipline to follow through on the good ideas. For instance, it led to the team mapping out the one year anniversaries of people giving their first gift to the charity. They then make either a phone call (or, if they don’t have the number / permission, they send a hand-written card) to wish those supporters a happy anniversary and thank them for the difference their generosity has made. Clio shared a couple of heart-warming stories that bring to life how much supporters appreciate these phone calls, as well as how moving they can be for the fundraiser who makes the call or writes the card.
For instance, one generous long-term donor who had been regularly donating £200, was so touched and reinspired by the conversation that he doubled the size of his regular gift to £400.
Using ‘wow moment’ strategies to achieve more conversations with supporters is one of five powerful modules we share in the new practical online course called Wow Your Supporters.
You can find out more here:
Another module in the course is how to create ‘aha’ or ‘penny drop’ moments that bring the cause to life.
For instance, I explain that one thing Clio’s team did was to pay careful attention to their supporters’ interests and needs, rather than base their activity only on what they wanted to say. This curiosity led them to notice an important need in corporate supporters during the lockdown-heavy parts of the pandemic, for ways to bring teams of home-working people together.
During one chat, a team leader told her ‘we’re so sick of Zoom quizzes!’ They wanted a way of connecting to each other and to something meaningful. To respond to this problem, Clio worked with her colleague in the Learning and Development team to create a virtual escape-room style experience for teams at their corporate partners. The activity led them through a scenario based on Shelterbox’s work of delivering crucial emergency aid to help people survive when disasters have happened.
The activity has proved hugely popular with corporate partners that have taken part. By the end of the experience, when the team has had the satisfaction of delivering aid to a family that needs the life-saving supplies, the participants tend to be both more connected with each other and to the cause.
Although I find this example really inspiring, I appreciate that arranging an experiential team building activity is not realistic for most charities. So if it’s not appropriate for where you work, I recommend exploring another way to bring your cause to life, that is still powerful, but simpler and does not need such resources. Again, I acknowledge it may not be practical for every type of charity or fundraising scenario, but I have found that many charities can get good ideas by seeking answers to this question:
‘How could we help our supporters / potential supporters get a deeper connection to the problems the charity solves?’
For instance, Jane Dibble, a New Business Manager who attended our recent Corporate Mastery Programme, shared with the group how she used a short demonstration activity at the end of a recent corporate pitch. As her charity helps people who suffer from lung disease, she mentioned that some people with the condition have described it as ‘like trying to breathe with an elephant on your chest’ or like ‘having to breathe through a straw’. At the end of the presentation, she handed out drinking straws to the pitch panel and invited them to breathe through their straw for the final minute of the pitch.
Apparently, this very brief activity had a powerful effect on the audience. It helped many of them connect at an emotional level with the issue Jane’s charity helps solve. She made sure that no one felt obliged to do the activity if they were uncomfortable with it (in fact, a couple chose not to), but most did. And either way, it stimulated lots of honest reactions among the audience about this issue.
Jane was pleased to share that her charity won the partnership (it’s worth £200,000)! To be clear, the activity was not the only reason they won the partnership, but its one of several things they did to build a genuine connection and inspire the company with the difference they could make to an important problem.
If you’d like to see three more examples of charities using demonstrations or props to bring ‘aha moments’ when in informal meetings or pitches, as well as my advice for how to avoid being accused of gimmickry, this is one of many ‘wow’ tactics we share for growing fundraising income, in the WOW your Supporters course.
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