It’s About What You Want FOR the Donor, Not FROM the Donor
In today’s ever-evolving philanthropic landscape, Christian K-12 schools must adopt innovative strategies to secure the financial support necessary to advance their missions. Over the past several decades, philanthropists, donors, churches, and businesses have changed the way they support Christian schools.
So, why is it that so many schools continue to rely on fundraising methods from the 1950s? Donor-driven fundraising reorders, retools, and reimagines fundraising in a way that is empirically sound, donor-driven, and proven to work in the 21st century.
Donor-driven fundraising focuses on building lasting relationships with donors by aligning with their philanthropic goals, personal values, family traditions, or Christian faith. This approach not only enhances donor engagement but also fosters long-term investment in your school.
What Is Donor-Driven Fundraising?
Donor-driven fundraising shifts the focus from transactional, event-based fundraising to relational, donor-driven engagement. It involves understanding and supporting donors’ aspirations, values, and traditions, and demonstrating how an investment in your school can help them achieve their goals. This method represents a significant departure from traditional fundraising, which often emphasizes immediate financial returns over long-term relationship building.
The Benefits of Donor-Driven Fundraising
- Stronger Relationships: By focusing on the donor’s needs and values, schools can build deeper, more meaningful relationships. This approach transforms donors from mere sources of money into passionate advocates for your mission.
As one donor put it: “They treat me like an ATM and just want to stick in their card and have (my) money pop out!”
- Sustainable Support: Long-term relationships foster sustained financial support. Donors who feel personally connected to your school’s mission are more likely to continue giving over time.
- Increased Engagement: Personalized strategies can re-engage lapsed donors and attract new supporters who resonate with your school’s values, mission, and impact.
- Enhanced Donor Experience: By prioritizing the donor’s experience, schools can create a more positive and rewarding giving process, leading to greater donor satisfaction and loyalty.
Steps to Implementing Donor-Driven Fundraising
- Build Capacity
Designing, launching, and sustaining a capital campaign is much like running a marathon. It is crucial that you, your staff, and most importantly, your Board are in shape. Start by determining what knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed for a successful campaign. Next, conduct a realistic inventory of fundraising competency both at the individual and school-wide level, then implement a plan to close the gap.
- Develop a Clear, Compelling Case for Support
Effectively communicate your school’s mission, vision, and needs. Develop a written, digital, and even video Case for Support that outlines how donor investments will make a difference. Ensure this message is consistently conveyed across all communication channels, from newsletters to social media. The Case should include:
- An emotional appeal through faculty, parent, and student stories to grab the reader’s attention
- An overview of your history, mission, leadership, and details of your school’s impact
- A description of the challenge that you want to overcome through the campaign, such as a need for more classrooms, attracting more faculty, or securing a permanent campus
- Details on how reaching your campaign goal allows your school to address these challenges
- Explaining the benefits once the challenge is overcome, such as bringing more students to Christ through high-quality, Christian education
- Summarizing the fundraising campaign goal and timeline
- Concluding with a call to action on how an investor can participate
- Understand Your Donors
Get to know your donors. Conduct surveys, hold focus groups, and have one-on-one conversations, not to ask for money, but to understand their knowledge of your school, its goals, values, impact, and how they feel about your Case for Support. This information will help you tailor your strategies to meet their specific needs as part of your overall campaign design.
- Awareness Event
The uniqueness of a donor-driven campaign is the creative manner in which new individuals can be introduced to your school’s Case for Support and existing supporters can be engaged in a more meaningful way. This involves focused donor cultivation through the planning and hosting of a NON-FUNDRAISING Awareness Event.
In addition, consider establishing a Host Committee comprised of highly visible and credible religious, community, and business leaders from your region. These leaders should be high-profile, trusted, and respected individuals whose names and the organizations they represent add credibility to your school and underscore the importance of the Awareness Event.
Invite a select group of individuals from your community with the affluence and influence to support your school in reaching its campaign goal. Attendees will be introduced to the Case for Support as part of the first step in earning the right to ask them to invest in the future of the school.
The Event itself should be a 60-75 minute fun, fast-paced, informative program that leads attendees through a step-by-step process that explains the school’s “grand vision” and “sound plan” in an engaging and inspiring manner, likely led largely by faculty, parents, and most importantly, students. A successful Event includes the following core elements:
Creatively-themed; Personalized invitation; High-profile Host Committee; Table Sponsor Model; Complimentary food and beverage; Engaging, entertaining, and memorable program; NON-FUNDRAISING.
- Donor Cultivation
Following the Awareness Event, establish individual plans of care for attendees. These plans should include multiple points of contact designed to earn the right to solicit individual, church, community, and business prospects to become investors in your school.
These points of contact are excellent opportunities for existing Board members to do “friend-raising” as champions of the school without asking prospects for money. Immediately following the Event, every attendee should receive a personal phone call thanking them for their attendance. Next, consider inviting them to:
- Tour the campus
- Observe a class
- Have lunch with students or faculty
- View a parent association meeting
- Attend a sporting event or graduation
- Participate in a Board meeting
Also, due to the normal reluctance of Board members to solicit donations or their lack of connections to high-net-worth individuals, this phase could include the establishment of a Campaign Cabinet comprised of existing donors, parents, church leaders, and community champions.
Following the Awareness Event, they can help cultivate new donor prospects, influence their circle of colleagues and friends to donate, and participate during “asks.” They may also build links with church and business contacts, participate in future Awareness Events, secure sponsorships, advise on campaign planning, and potentially make lead gifts.
Conclusion
Donor-driven fundraising is a transformative approach that can help Christian K-12 schools secure sustainable financial support. By focusing on building long-term relationships and aligning with donors’ values and goals, your school can create a loyal base of passionate advocates.
Implementing this strategy requires understanding your donors, communicating your mission effectively, and providing personalized engagement opportunities. With these efforts, your school can thrive, even in challenging times, by fostering a community of dedicated supporters committed to advancing your mission.
John Curtis, Ph.D. is a senior Fundraising Consultant. He firm, IOD, Inc. specializes in providing Board Development, Strategic Planning, and Donor-Driven Fundraising services to Christian K-college schools nationwide. He also teaches on these same topics for the Edyth Bush Institute for Philanthropy at Rollins College in Orlando and the Duke Nonprofit Management Program in North Carolina and Virginia.
