Building relationships with donors and potential donors is a key element to successful fundraising. This relationship can be initiated with a simple phone call to a constituent. Picking up the phone and engaging in a conversation with a constituent requires strategy, planning, practice and courage.
The discovery call is an essential tool used by development professionals to connect with constituents who have never given, have given but have not been appropriately stewarded for the donor’s prior giving, or whose donations have stopped. This conversation will lead to a greater understanding of each individual’s story – in his or her own words.
When conducted successfully, discovery calls provide valuable information for future work with prospective donors and help determine ways to engage them in your organization, known as cultivation. Further, these conversations will ultimately help you determine when to ask the constituent for a gift as well as the amount, known as solicitation. The relationships you establish will increase the support potential for your program. This white paper outlines the importance and objectives of the discovery call.
The Discovery Call
A discovery call initiates or reinitiates the relationship and involvement of a constituent with your organization. The strategy behind making discovery calls is to learn more about the prospect and explore ways to best develop a relationship between the potential donor and your organization. This process is used to reach out to both individuals who have not yet made a gift to your organization, as well as past donors with whom your organization has lost touch. A discovery call is the first step in engaging potential donors and developing a tailored cultivation plan.
To successfully conduct a discovery call, your conversation should include the following:
Listening and Engaging
Listening is an important aspect of a discovery call. The purpose is to not only tell the donor about what is going on at your organization, but to engage in a conversation. Don’t make the mistake of talking too much – allow the constituent to give his or her story. The call needs to “discover” the interests of the constituent so that your organization can incorporate those interests into your cultivation plan for this donor. If you show interest in the donor, they will be more inclined to open up to you, become more involved in your organization, and ultimately make a gift.
Remember, the purpose of this conversation is to “discover” them – their personality, their interests, their opinions, their “story” as well as their philanthropy. In order to engage them, have a prepared list of open-ended questions. The more you ask, the more you learn. The more you are engaged and interested, the more engaged they will be. Whatever happens, you have initiated a relationship with this person. The objective is to establish the kind of relationship that can be enhanced over time.
Developing a Philanthropic Profile
A philanthropic profile helps you understand a potential donor’s priorities and motives. Start with personal information gleaned from the database. This information may have been garnered through previous contact with your organization or through their giving history (if they have one). If you have conducted a database screening, use this information as additional insight to develop questions to incorporate into your call. Both of these sources could include likes, dislikes, hobbies, activities and other organizations with which s/he is involved. Ask the donor to share their story of involvement or connection to your organization, as well as their experiences with other organizations. This identifies the interests and activities that motivate their involvement, helping you understand how to leverage your organization.
Training and Connecting
An organization’s volunteers play a big role in the cultivation process. An organization, especially in the nonprofit sector, works better with a team approach. The metaphor to describe why a team approach works better is to think of a hand. A development officer is only one person – one finger. It takes more than a finger to pick something up. Involving volunteers and donors in the cultivation process adds more fingers to the hand – with two fingers and a thumb, you can pick things up. Together with the development officer, volunteers and donors; your organization can successfully receive donations, achieve goals and flourish.
Often volunteers and program-related staff members are a development officer’s best resource. These individuals are able to connect with potential donors as peers or as individuals with shared interests and can enhance the success of development employees. Volunteers are involved with an organization because they want to, not because they are paid and the simple part of sharing why they volunteer with an organization makes the conversation personal. Program staff can share specific knowledge and enthusiastic on-the-ground insight to areas of shared interest with a prospect. While making discovery calls, volunteers can also tell the story of their own involvement and connection to the organization. The intrinsic motivation combined with asking leading questions about the interests of the potential donor will often allow for a desirable conversation, ultimately leading to that constituent’s involvement in your organization.
When working with any volunteer undertaking discovery calls, it is important for the development professional to provide call goals as well as sample questions to the volunteer to aid their work. Sample questions include:
- Tell me about your experience with our organization?
- Tell me what inspired your previous gifts our organization?
- I noticed while going through our records that you have been a consistent donor to our organization – Thanks! – tell me what makes you continue to make gifts to us?
- I noticed you used to give pretty regularly and in (year) that stopped. What changed for you that impacted your decision to discontinue your giving?
- What should or could our organization do to reengage you?
- What was your first philanthropic gift that meant the most?
- In what organizations are you involved?
- Are there organizations to which you contribute to regularly?
Follow-Up Discovery calls do not guarantee a gift once you hang up the phone (after all, you haven’t asked for one). They initiate the relationship which, in time, may result in either a first or next gift. Until then, donors want to feel involved with the organization. Use the information from discovery calls to form a cultivation plan that will allow the donor to feel like an active part of the organization, beyond monetary participation. Remember, discovery calls should remain conversational and focus on building a relationship and ascertaining interest and giving potential. Once you have the information, be sure to transcribe it and update the prospect’s file.
Conclusion The increased focus on annual, major and planned giving initiated by fundraising campaigns creates a greater need for the implementation of discovery calls. The relationships you establish from discovery calls will increase support for your programs and welcome more constituents to your organization’s efforts.
When the discovery call objectives are implemented correctly, the call should lead to the donor’s cultivation in your organization. Cultivating donors provides the opportunity to engage volunteers in meaningful work. This develops relationships with supporters allowing your goals to be achieved in an easy and timely manner.
