Episode 39: Donor Cultivation
The purpose of a Funding Organization is NOT to fund your nonprofit. The purpose of the funding organization is to accomplish their funding goals. They partner with the most qualified nonprofit to help them accomplish their funding goals. That’s why it’s important to cultivate strong relationships with your funders, because only speaking with them when it's time to ask for money is a sure fire way to dry out that funding source. Learn how to cultivate strong relationships that lead to more funding.
LINKS:
NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: Doctors without Borders
Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding, impact, and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning fam, it’s your girl. And I'm so excited to be here. I'm always excited to be with my family, with my community, the most amazing people on the universe. Nonprofit founders and Executive Directors, you know are my why. You are my reason for being. And the other why I just have to keep it real is making sure that your organization is funded. That is my why, because when you have money, you have choices. So today's topic is strengthening your funding strategy. It's important that you understand that money's not gonna just come to you. I'm sure you figured that out by now, right? I have so many people who start nonprofits and say, Well, I got my 501(c)(3). Where are the grants? It doesn't work like that. I'm sorry. It yeah, it doesn’t. It requires a strategy. And so today we're gonna talk about donor cultivation. Donor cultivation as a part of your Funding Strategy. What does donor cultivation mean? It means that you don't just continuously ask the people who support you and your organization for money, that you create a relationship. But we're gonna jump into that a little bit deeper when we get back from this first commercial break. <affirmative> Donor Cultivation.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
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Speaker 3 (02:06):
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Speaker 2 (03:17):
Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn Philanthrepeneur, that would be me. Today we are talking about strengthening your funding strategy through donor cultivation. There's two things that nonprofit Founders and Executive Directors usually don't consider when they're building out their fundraising strategy. One of those is compliance, and the other is donor cultivation. Today we're talking about donor cultivation. So my mama used to say, Money don't grow on trees. It doesn’t. It does not. And that applies for the nonprofit sector. Money's not gonna just be thrown at you. We are going to get you to a place where your nonprofit is a money magnet, meaning Funders are going to love funding you. But until we get there, we need to create the strategy. And I have the roadmap and basically it's two parts, right? First, you wanna get the money and then you wanna keep the money reoccurring. So the donor cultivation part falls into part two, keeping the money coming.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I mentioned before the break that there is a tendency to just go to your Funders and say, Hey, I need money. Hey, I need money. Hey, I need money. I want you to think about, especially if your parent, you'll be able to relate to this. If your kid comes to you and say, Mom, I need a pair of Jordans. Mom, I need equipment for Pop Warner. Mom, I need, after a while, you're gonna start feeling like, What am I just an ATM machine? Funders feel the same way. I'm gonna say it a thousand times. The purpose of funding agencies is not to fund nonprofits. It's not their purpose. Their purpose is to meet their own funding goals. They just happen to partner with qualified nonprofits to get that done. So if you are an organization that only reaches out to your Funders, when it's time for you to ask them for money, you're not cultivating a relationship.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And if your competitor is establishing a relationship, getting them involved, getting them engaged, getting them inspired, they're gonna fund them instead of funding you. And here's the thing, the hardest part is to get that money. Once you get that money, then it should be easy to cultivate that relationship and not only keep them engaged, but then have them give you more money. We're gonna talk about all of that later. But today we wanna talk about donor cultivation, right? Establishing a relationship. You wanna build a solid reputation with your Funder. You want to make sure that when they give you this money, you're turning your reports in on time. You're hitting all of your key deliverables. That's a part of donor cultivation, right? This relationship, if you are a bad grantee, they're not going to grant you another award. They're not going to continue to fund you.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
And then secondly, you wanna make sure that the things that you do are in alignment with what you promise. Sometimes my grantees will get money and then say, Well, I got the money. I'm gonna do whatever I want. That doesn't work, cuz that's not what you agreed to. So when we talk about donor cultivation, or think about cultivating a garden. When you're cultivating a garden, you're putting in fertilizer cuz you wanna give it nutrients. You're pouring in water cuz you wanna hydrate it. Those are the same things you wanna do with your Funder. What types of things? Well, number one, you wanna invite your Funders to your events. You want them to see the impact that their money is making. Grantees typically will invite their Funders to their galas and have them stand up and all that's beautiful. But you want them to be inspired.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So have them come out to your events. Let them meet your clients. Let your clients tell them how amazing your programs are. The difference that they made in your life without your programs, they don't know what they would've done. That's what you want your donors to hear. You also want to put that in newsletters. If it's in a newsletter, you have a success story and you say, thanks to our generous donations by X, Y, and Z, we're able to make this type of impact. That's cultivating your donor. That's letting them know that whatever they're doing is making a difference in your community. Not only that, but once you get your Funder hooked, here's what you do. This funder is giving you money and they're let’s just say they're supporting a robotics program. They support this robotics program for two years at $150,000. In three years you want to either up that to say, Hey, this has been so successful in this area, we wanna move to another area.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Would you consider also funding that? Or would you in consider upping it so that we can have more girls? So donor cultivation is a way for you to increase the amount of money that you're bringing in. You wanna keep it consistent, but you also wanna increase that. Once a donor knows you and feels comfortable with you and know that you're a good grantee, they may wanna fund something else in your organization. We've been funding this robotics program, but we wanted to know if you would consider coding. Yeah, you know, give us the money to hire a person to do that. We'd love to do it. That's what donor cultivation is about. It's about creating relationships. It's about having them feel comfortable with you, having them trust you, having them be being your biggest ambassador. The last thing I'm gonna say about it is when I've told you before that it's a small community, a small community of funders.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So if your Funder is excited and inspired and happy about what you're doing, they're gonna tell other other funders. That's cultivation, right? I've had it done so many times a funder will call you and say, Hey, I sit on the board with so and so. So they said you're doing amazing work in this area. We're interested. Can we meet and talk? That's what you want. You wanna get the money and then you wanna keep the money coming and then you want to grow the money. So donor cultivation should definitely be a huge part of your funding strategy. You wanna figure out which funders align with your mission. You wanna secure that money and then you wanna keep that money. You wanna lock that money in. The way you do it is by making sure you establish this amazing relationship with your donor. So we're gonna pause right now for another commercial, but when we come back, we have a question from Lisa in, I think she's in Long Beach, yeah. So Ask Amber is next. We'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
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Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back. You're On Air with Amber, and today we are talking about donor cultivation. We spent the first half of this episode talking about things that you can do to strengthen your funding strategy. And if you wanna learn more, find out more ideas about what you can be doing to cultivate your relationship with your donors, visit my website www.amberwynn.net, and you'll see there a donor cultivation ebook and it'll give you all types of ideas about what you can do to cultivate your relationship with your donor. But right now it's time for Ask Amber. And we have a question out of Long Beach.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Hi, this is Lisa from Long Beach. My question is about foundations who don't accept unsolicited proposals. There's a foundation that really aligns with my mission that I want to approach to support a program, but they don't accept unsolicited proposals. How do I get them to ask me to submit a proposal? Thanks.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
<laugh> I love that question. How do I get them to ask me to submit? And it's a good question because she clearly believes that there's an alignment. So typically the reason why it's unsolicited is because they don't have a staff. And so they don't want to be inundated with all of these requests or they really just only want to be selective about who they fund. Two things, one, externally, you can create a lot of visibility around your organization. So you can do things like get in your elected official's newsletters or get in an article, a local article in your newspaper, do a press release on the types of things that you're doing, but make sure that you include them. Send something to their email or make sure that it's gonna be in the area that they'll be able to see it. Do things like get awards you wanna just be seen by this foundation.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And if you do that, then that's when they typically extend an offer because they're like, Oh, this organization is doing a lot of work. They need to see you. So get on podcasts and things that's just gonna bring you some visibility. The second thing, internally, partner with some of the organizations that they work with. Go look and see where they fund, what they have funded, collaborate with some of those organizations. Cuz what'll happen is they can make those referrals or make those connections they already feel comfortable with that organization. They're funding them. So they may extend that to you. And then lastly, consider reaching out and speaking with the program officer. If they don't have one because it's a private organization, send an email saying, Hey, is it okay if I send a letter of intent, a letter of interest? So those are some of two of the things that you can do to try and get them to notice you and to extend an offer.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You don't wanna just send them a proposal because that's disrespectful. They told you they only want solicited proposals. All right, so thank you for that question. If you have a question, reach out to me via any of my social media platforms or email me and let me know your question or do like Lisa did and leave me an audio question. You can do that on Anchor. All right, so now it is time for my favorite part of the episode where I get to spotlight nonprofits doing amazing work in the field. Typically, you guys are out there working and I want you to get your flowers now. So today I am focusing on an organization that pretty much most people know about. It's called Doctors Without Borders. Every Day, Doctors Without Borders delivers emergency medical aid to people in crisis. With over 63,000 staff working in more than 70 countries around the world. Their teams of doctors, nurses and other frontline workers are often among the first on the scene when people's lives are upended by conflict, disease, outbreaks, or natural human made disasters. Let's take a look at Doctors Without Borders.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
I'm psychologist,
Speaker 7 (16:13):
Project coordinator,
Speaker 8 (16:14):
Community engagement coordinator.
Speaker 9 (16:16):
I am a medical doctor. I work with Doctors Without Border, which we also call MSF.
Speaker 10 (16:23):
MSF is a humanitarian medical organization, but in my opinion, it's more than that
Speaker 6 (16:28):
To me MSF is an organization that has principles and values that relate with my own.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
Most organizations goes to communities with solutions. MSF tries to get solutions from the people, the patients that they treat.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
We are always the first responders.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Sometimes we go to places where we are the only source of relief available.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
Oh, the patient that comes to our facility is being treated free of charge and we treat them equally no matter where they come from.
Speaker 9 (17:00):
More than hundred trauma patients every day came into our hospital, which was beyond our limit at the time, but we didn't refuse any patient. This is what MSF is.
Speaker 10 (17:12):
It's a group of people who shares the common idea that each human being has the right for medical care.
Speaker 7 (17:19):
It could be due to conflict
Speaker 8 (17:21):
Epidemics like that. Pandemics.
Speaker 7 (17:24):
It could be people that have limited access to
Speaker 8 (17:27):
Care. MSF looks at what is in the best interest of the patients.
Speaker 10 (17:31):
We have the freedom to decide and to respond to the needs wherever they are. As we are not influenced by governments or politics.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
We want to be less and less necessary. We try to develop a work that will continue even when we leave the country.
Speaker 8 (17:45):
MSF goes beyond where everyone else go.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Thank you for your service. And if you'd like to learn more about Doctors Without Borders, check them out at www.doctorswithoutborders.org. And now it's time for my Mindset Minute. That's what I share with you, just some of the thoughts that are just rolling around in this head of mind. And it's really for you just to consider something from a different perspective. Today I'm gonna talk about it's not what you know per se, it's definitely about who you know. So when we talk about strengthening your funding strategy, it's important that you don't just focus on getting grants. That tends to be the tendency of nonprofit leaders. But a funding strategy should only be comprised of 35% of grants. So there's a whole big chunk of money that you want to think about. And what I'd like for you to consider is not focusing on getting grants, but really focusing on creating solid relationships.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Relationships are the same no matter what sector you're in, right? People will tell you if you're looking for a job, reach out to your network because they know somebody who knows somebody. It's the same thing in the nonprofit sector. I say it all the time. Nonprofits that get funded are nonprofits that continue to get funded because the community is so small. So you'll find funders saying, Oh, check out this organization. Check out this organization. So for this mindset minute, I want you to think about what can you do to continuously build up your reputation? What can you do to create more networks? And it's getting out into the community, it's going to those town halls, it's collaborating with other organizations. Put yourself out there. Don't just stay in your silo. Because when you grow your network, when you grow your reputation, when you grow your relationships, now you're putting yourself in places where people can recommend you for more funding.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
People can see what you're doing and what you are about, Know who you are and feel comfortable with then saying, This is an organization that should be getting funded. So it's not necessarily what you know. It is of course, but it's really important about you building out your relationship and who you know. So that's it for my Mindset Minute. And as a matter of fact, that's it for this episode. Today we have been talking about strengthening your funding strategy through donor cultivation. We're gonna talk a little bit more about strengthening your funding strategy, but this is an important aspect of growing your organization. So thank you for joining me. If you like what you heard today, be sure to share. Be sure to subscribe. Be sure to check out my website cuz I have a ton of resources waiting there for you. And until we speak, be sure to take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. See you next time.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
