Episode 146: Overcoming Obstacles - Getting Time with Donors and Potential Donors

Welcome to another edition of "Around with Randall,"your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

Thank you for joining me on this edition of "Around with Randall." we start a two-part series getting back into the technical side of being a gift officer and building, as Nathan Chappelle and Brian Crimens called, Radical Connections with our donors and prospects around objections. So in this edition we're going to deal with it from the standpoint of qualification. You're trying to get in front of someone. You're trying to figure out how to wide begin the relationship and the objections that you might get on the phone. Or if you're trying to set up a meeting later on it maybe not through the phone, maybe it's at an event or something of that nature. How do you handle these? And we'll kind of break them apart into eight different objections, part two, or objections around the asking and closing of gifts and how you can be ready to help kind of break apart people's process in this kind of world where we're trying to figure out how to build better and more engaged opportunities for conversation.

So let's start here at the qualification piece, just maybe a 15 second review and qualification. We're actually looking for only two things. we're trying to figure out are they interested in what we do as a nonprofit, and number two they have the capacity to make a gift at whatever level we work at. That could be an annual fund gift, so that could be $500 or $1,000. That could be a major gift, $5,000 OR $10,000. That could be a planned gift, I.E., something that comes in their estate. All of these levels of giving or giving opportunities are fraught with objections, and so we have to start with the basic premise of what is it that we need to look like and do to be successful? So the first part is realizing what the goal is, is interesting capacity. The second is to know who we are, and we'll get into the eight objections.

The first, I tell gift officers all the time and if you've heard me say it maybe it's just a reminder, but we really are like the duck or the swan depending on how you look at yourself. Two things come from that. My favorite is that when you watch a duck or a swan glide across the lake or a body of water they're swimming they look so graceful but if you look right under the surface it's chaos. There's paddling like crazy and moving their body to get to the direction they want to go. That's us. On the external side we are graceful and on the internal side we're always a little bit unsure, a little bit chaotic, a little bit crazy, maybe even a little bit insecure.

The second thing about the duck or the swan is that it's water off its back. Ducks and swans don't build houses and go indoors when it rains. They're outdoors and their bodies, and and as Darwin would comment, the kind of the theory of evolution have allowed their bodies to let water flow right off their back, off their feathers. They don't get wet on the inside. And gift officers need to be more like this because don't forget, for every call you make you're going to have two, three, four, five potentially, I'm not interested. They don't call you back. They may even call you a name. We're aiming for those moments when we have an opportunity to get someone to talk with us, and once we do that then we have to overcome their objection. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is that you don't want to spend an immense amount of time prepping for qualification calls. If you're spending 20 minutes per call, you're spending 19 minutes too long. the first thing is is that your organization you should have a process to figure out who are the best people to call in healthcare. That's probably based on some grateful patient process. In higher ed there may be alums. We just don't dial for dollars in the phone book. Most of the time, and for anyone who is involved with nonprofit work, they're usually former donors or they're referred into by a board member. So the key here is to do a number of them in rapid succession, meaning you're not spending 15, 20 minutes per person that you don't know doing an immense amount of research. Your research should encompass two things: number one, look in your CRM to know if they've made a gift, any contact before, any other buddy, anybody other's notes. Number two, do a quick Google search, and I call it the Google trick if you put quotes around what you're looking for in Google it will restrict the findings or the search to look for just those things inside the quotes, and so you can get a lot of information in a minute, 90 seconds. Then you make the call. First like the duck or the swan, we're graceful from the outside. Number two, we have water off our back meaning we're just going to keep doing what we got to do. Number two is that you can't take too much time and prep for these, each call.

Number three is, block your calendar. Block that calendar to make calls. What you'll find is you'll push yourself into it more often. I did a five-part series on the moves management process for metrics all the way to stewardship, maybe about somewhere in the 30s in the podcast as we close in on about 160 of these things, so if you go back and look you can find them.

I want to shift real quick and into the meat of what we want to talk about today about obstacles. How do we overcome them? You've done the research, you have a great deal of grace, you're dialing those numbers, you're getting on the phone, you've blocked your calendar to do so, and all of a sudden you've got someone on the phone and you kind of have it scripted in your mind and they're going to say, yes I'd love to sit down and chat with you so we can figure out if they're qualified, interest and capacity, and something comes up and says X. And you're like now what do I do? I think there are eight major objections that we should pay attention to, and there's verbiage and language that come from each one that I think can be helpful in getting you more time and more opportunities to talk with people.

The first one is the one I see most often, and it's the most prominent. Are you calling me for money? They're trying to figure out what the purpose of the visit is. So depending on where you got their name, depending on what type of sector of the nonprofit world, we'll kind of take these apart. There are various ways of answering it. First thing you should say is I hope, no I'm not asking you for money. The Generosity Crisis book, and I think a lot of the work that my dear friends Nathan and Brian are doing and a lot of us are now kind of getting behind, I think a lot of us were talking about it for, they deserve the credit for bringing it together because they did so brilliantly, is it would become so transactional in our relationships that it's like I get somebody on the phone, I'm just gonna ask him for $10,000, or I'm gonna ask him for $1,000. Well, where's the relationship in that? Where's the transaction or the transformational opportunity? How do you know what they're interested in? Now, if you're calling someone for 25 bucks and it's the annual fund drive for alums it's probably, yes I am calling about money. I'd like to talk to you about how you might continue or support the organization. But as soon as you get above $500 or $1,000 you might want to talk to them. They might find it in engendering quality that allows them to feel good about giving to the institution, of the relationship that you have with them. So first thing, no I'm really not calling about money, this isn't a fundraising call. Now it depends on where you got the name. Dr. Smith, if it's a grateful patient referral, personally asked me to follow up with you to hear about your experience. Tell you a little bit about some of the things going on in the organization. If it's higher ed, it could be we're doing a lot of outreach to our, excuse me, as an example our law school alums to find out about their perspective, you know several decades removed from going and why they think it's a valuable educational experience, and to tell you about some of the things that we're trying to get accomplished. And do, if it's in Social Service, or you're following up on maybe they've made a gift. No, I first and foremost, I'd like to thank you for what you've done for the organization. You looked in the CRM hopefully, you as a donor gave the last three consecutive years and what we're realizing is we don't do a lot of, and enough of thank you's to those that are consistent donors. Your goal is to find out what their pressure point is, and if you used an excuse and it's really nice, it's really a rationale. I'm calling to say thank you. I'm calling to follow up. Somebody asked me to do so eases what you're trying to figure out and you can tell them this in the end. What I do is I am about figuring out how people view US. Why people might support us, and not everybody does, and at the end of the day if you don't want to make a gift that's fine but I'd love to buy you a cup of coffee and hear about why you've either given, why somebody recommended I talk to you, why somebody referred you into this conversation, and tell you a little bit about why we're important to the community because I know the community is important to you. Our goal isn't to ask them for money in that moment, our goal is to start or rebuild a relationship, and this may mean re-qualifying from a stewardship perspective.

If you go back to those five individual podcasts where I break apart the various pieces of the moves management process in stewardship you heard me say or you would hear me say that the most important thing in stewardship is it's re-cultivation. So you've got to re-qualify, and if they're moving up maybe you have to re-qualify them at a higher level meaning you've been at a $2,500 annual donor. We are so appreciative. It makes such a difference. We're spending a little time with people to figure out why they're making those gifts and to tell you about some of the ways in which the money's been used and making a real difference. And what you're then going to try to do is get in and figure out, could you increase that? All of this comes from the biggest one where we spend the most amount of time. Are you calling about money? No. I just would like a chance to meet you and to hear about why you've given, or why you're involved, or what your experience was so we can do our job better.

Number one, we call about money. Number number two, well I don't have the time right now. Easy one, that's great. I know you're probably busy. It, is tomorrow a better time? Could we schedule something next week, or the day after tomorrow? Could I come by your office and make it convenient for you? I do not like the response, well when is it convenient for you? I want to kind of push them. And if you were again reviewing those moves management and cultivation and qualification into yes no moment, I need to know if they're going to sit and chat with me because what I do know is if they're not going to I want to know that so that I can bless and release them and go on to the next person that's potentially interested. Or I'm gonna go meet with them but if I'm in the middle I don't know and if I have an open-ended question when's available for you, well I don't know, let me think about it. I'll get back to you. I don't know what to do with that. I'm available next week. I can come to your office. How does that work? I'm going to give them a couple of options. Yes, no. So how do you deal with time? Let me give you some options that are convenient for me and I'm going to get you to say yes or no.

Number three, oh gosh I know everything about you. You don't need to talk to me long-time donor. Maybe they think they know. Easy response here, that is great. Can I ask you a question? Can you tell me why you are involved or why you've given, and then the follow-up after they say that. I'd like to hear more about that. We have a lot of people like you who are really generous with their time, with their talent, with their energies. whatever. I'd like to know why this is important to you. Could we spend 30 minutes chatting? Remember the goal of qualification is interest to capacity, and the easiest place to do that is eyeball to eyeball. I'm not saying it can't be done on the phone, but I find most times with non-verbal cues and other things the more you're in front of someone for 30 minutes, hopefully in a place that's a little more personal where you can look at the things around them to kind of see their kind of way in which they move and what they say and how what their facial expressions are, the more you do that the more likely they are, you'll know if they're actually qualified, interest capacity. That's really more about interest, so try to uncover something that is of when they say well I already know everything, what is it that and then try to push into what they don't know. That's what we want to talk about.

Number four is, you know you shouldn't spend any time and come and visit me. I consider this the Vicky Hallett answer. This is my mom and in some regards my dad. Mom and dad are these unassuming people who don't anyone ever like anybody talking about them and so if my sisters or my parents, now my mom, listen to this they're going to say oh my gosh you mentioned names but that's who it is. They're like yeah we're just fine don't worry. You'll go deal with somebody more important and your job is to tell them that they are important. Well thanks for telling me. First and foremost you are important. You've given to us a number of years and we have a little something for you. I'm always advocating for like a little something. Nothing big. Nothing that makes it important to say we just don't mail anymore because of mailing costs and I'd love to just stop by and drop it off. I used to use this trick when I traveled, when I had open blocks of time, when I, you know I'd scheduled let's say five days in in Palm Springs and I've got three meetings a day but there's a hole I would take, we had M&Ms that had the logo of the medical center and I would call people and I would take them along and they were all pre-packaged and I'd say hey I've got this gift, free, I'd like to bring it by. I took care of the big ones pre-scheduling but I was trying to find a way to get in front of them so the first thing is, is there a way to kind of say you are important. We'd like to thank you for what you've done. I really would like to spend some time with you, or you can if that doesn't work, well gosh you know we've got a lot of people we communicate with kind of in an informal way. Could I stay in touch with you by phone or email? This was incredibly positive as a obstacle, hurt, getting over that obstacle or over the hurdle during Covid. So there's a couple ways you can handle don't come and see me.

Number five, I'm a private person. Thank you. We value people's privacy. We are incredibly careful as an organization to ensure two things: number one that we share only the information you've used you approve of us, so any gifts that would be made in the future or in the past we, if somebody wants anonymity we we recognize that; number two is that we don't share other information with other people. And so I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about what we do and getting to know you, and I'm not going to share that information with the general public. You have a way of positioning yourself as an advocate for what they believe, but there's a second pivot here to keep in mind that you have to go back to the impact, particularly if they've been a donor. Maybe you're re-qualifying them at a higher level. And yes you want to address the anonymity or the privacy concerns they have because that's important. I want my privacy protected. But you have to pivot back to the impact. Your gifts have made a big difference. We're reaching out to tell people why their gifts changed lives, changed our organization, helped our mission. But I've been tasked with this conversation. It's one that I love and I'd love to spend a little time telling you about it. Privacy is important to people, particularly in the chaos world where we seem to have data breaches every 15 seconds. Address it but pivot back to that impact.

Number six, you're not the one I need to talk to, that's my spouse. Now this is sometimes about gift size. If you come to Randall Hallett and ask me for 25, I feel fairly comfortable I can make that decision. I might let my wife know. As a nonprofit I'm not overly concerned you get to a certain dollar figure I'd like to stay married, I'd like to sleep in the bed with my wife, I'd like to ,you know, have another 25 years with her. I start handing out money without her involvement, that's a problem. Now everybody has different levels of these relationships, and even old school I have a couple of larger donors that I work with, clients who are in their 80s, and to be honest it's a little uncomfortable but it's the male that's making the decisions and I'm always asking do we need to bring in your wife into this conversation, or telling my clients you probably should ask if the wife should be in the conversation. So if that happens, first and foremost say that's great, we have a lot of conversations with both members of the marriage, of the partnership. We'd love to sit down. Let's talk about how I could come and visit you both. It would be easiest at home over a cup of coffee. When's a good time? Tomorrow between one and five? Again creating some boundaries, or next week that maybe I could stop by and we could talk about what we're doing and why this was important to you. If you try to run without the spouse you're going to run into problems, particularly if you get into larger gifts amount. Number two, they've told you what the barrier is. You've got to overcome it, the obstacle, get in front of both of them. How does your wife schedule? How does your husband schedule? Is there someone we can get to help do this? This is really important. I think it would be very valuable to spend 30 minutes with two of you, some language, try to position the two of them together.

I'll let you know if I need anything. I don't need to visit and we don't have to worry about this. Great. Well first and foremost if they were a donor, thanks so much for everything you do. Would it be okay if I called or emailed every once in a while just to check in and see how you're doing and let you know how your giving's making a difference? Or if I need anything I'll let you know or I'll let you know if something comes up. Maybe also a message of when they give, and so they're already trying to say look from a qualification standpoint the timing's bad. I'm one of those people we've shifted, my wife and I are charitable giving from doing a budgetary meaning every month to an end of the year. So if you're asking me in February it's not a good time, so you might want to pause it. Is now the right time for your choices? Could I stay in touch with you? Could I give you some understanding of what your giving does? Could I check back with you in three months and see if hat maybe fits better in terms of your time frame?

The last thing is I'm upset about something. The food in the hospital, the professor who wasn't nice to me, whatever. The first thing is you're going to have to be empathetic, and you're going to have to listen to it, and you're gonna have to fall on the sword. I'm so sorry that happened. I've heard that before. It's really important to our CEO, to our leadership, to our board that we get this addressed. With your permission I'd like to take that concern and make sure that my superiors, our leadership, knows this so we can get it addressed. But what I have found is once you let someone complain, and you accept it, and you say thank you, so much we need to improve on this, and you you really elevate their thought process that you're listening and a willing partner to get things and better to make them better, the next question is critical. If we remove that, can you tell me about the rest of your experience? And what I found is normally it's really good. But if you don't take care of the hurdle, which is that first something to complain about, something went wrong, something didn't work right, then you never get to all the other aspects except it fall on the sword and then say gosh if we take that away how was everything else. Anyone else make a big difference for you?

There are eight hurdles in the qualification process you're trying to get in front of someone, that you can use tactically, to get more conversations going. And that's going to build better relationships for you in the qualification moving toward hopefully more cultivation. Next time we'll deal with the end of cultivation into the ask and some of the objections that come there.

Don't forget the blogs at Hallettphilanthropy.com, two or three a week, all kinds of subjects. I just wrote one on the First Amendment and then yesterday wrote one on the tragedy in Hawaii - both related to kind of nonprofit in various ways. Might give you something to think about how to be interested in. You can get an RSS feed right to your inbox and if you'd like to reach out to me that's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. Can't thank you enough for joining me because what you're doing is making a difference. And I'm hoping this is a kind of a classroom setting to take some things away that makes your job more worthwhile, your career more worthwhile, the work that you do more worthwhile, and your nonprofit's affect on the community more worthwhile. What you're doing is important, sometimes hard, maybe not always fair. But it's critical. Philanthropy and nonprofits fill the holes of our of our society and what we need is more engagement. You do something incredibly valuable some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and then there are those who watch what's happening. I'll see you next time on "Around with Randall."