This post is less about the "doing" of major gifts, and more about the essential "being" of major gifts fundraising professionals. I'm talking about qualities that you can cultivate and strengthen through deliberate practice.
The first two of these are listening and intuition. Good fundraisers develop and hone listening skills over time. Great fundraisers listen at multiple levels and can tap into their intuition.
Listening. Transactional fundraisers typically only listen at Level I, or what I will call "the voice in their head." This is not a bad thing, and it comes in especially handy for telethon annual giving type work. The Level I voice in the head something like this: "I need to make this call and ask this donor to renew his annual $250 commitment." Done. Move onto the next call.
While Level I listening has its place, it will only take fundraising so far. This is why more mature fundraising professionals that engage in major gifts work learn to cultivate listening at Level II. Level II listing is when 80% to 90% of your attention is on the donor and what s/he is saying. It typically consists of a hard focus on the words coming out of the donor's mouth. During the 10% or 20% of the time you are speaking you might say something like this: "Donor what I hear you saying is...," or "Donor, what I notice is...." We call this "articulating" or reflecting back what the donor is saying for clarification and understanding.
Fundraisers who strengthen the ability to listen at Level II often (although not always) become very good major gifts fundraisers. Those that master Level III listening are nearly without exception the top fundraisers in our field. Level III listening involves panoramic awareness. It requires that you take in the entire environment. What is the donor's body language? How does the donor's facial expression change as s/he discusses his or her life and the impact s/he wants to have through philanthropy. How does the donor react to your open ended questions? How does the donor dress? What kinds of items in the home or office does the donor cherish? What emotion is coming through as the donor speaks with you (sadness, anger, joy, etc.)? Level III listening requires that you remain present, open, flexible, and non-judgmental as you engage with the donor. AND, it requires that you tap into your intuition.
Intuition. Intuition is the innate human ability to understand something (or somebody) immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning or data. Thomas Edison honed this ability. He claimed that his invention of the phonograph was an act of pure intuition. Great fundraisers regularly tap into their intuition and express their "intuitive hits" with donors. The expression may take this form: "My sense is that you're interested in....," or "I have a feeling that you'd really love..."
While we all have this ability, we often fail to use it. For me, intuition sometimes manifests as a visual image in my mind, a metaphor, a feeling, or just a word that pops into my head. In my coaching work, I've noticed that successful fundraising leaders often listen to these intuitive "feelings," while struggling leaders do not. Steve Jobs famously followed his own iconoclastic decision-making impulses. He implored his colleagues at Apple to "have the courage to follow [their] intuition."
If you are relatively new to the fundraising path (or just want to go from good to great), and are interested in strengthening the your ability to listen and use your intuition, then I encourage you to join me for the affordable Abundant Fundraising Webinar Series. The first installment of the series focuses on these two essential qualities of listening and intuition, both of which major gifts fundraisers must cultivate to be successful.
