Episode #272
Do you get donors involved before they make a gift, or afterwards?
Okay, that was a trick question.
As Trip Switzer will share with you, donor involvement before and after the gift has been made is crucial for many donors.
In today’s video, Trip tells you a story about how a major donor to his organization views his “donations”. And because of that view point, Trip has been able to better engage other donors.
Trip, by the way, is the VP of Development for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. If you come out to Seattle for the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, spend an extra day here and visit the museum. You should see how they tell the stories of the airplanes in the Personal Courage Wing of the museum. It’s a truly great museum!
If you have any stories or advice around getting donors more involved, please share it with everyone else. Leave a comment under the video. Thanks.
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If you have any stories or advice around getting donors more involved, please share it with everyone else. Leave a comment. Thanks. 🙂
…and “Yes”, part way through the video you can hear the low rumble of a plane flying by.
Trip Switzer is my hero!! I adore his discussion! He has it right on.
Thank you Chris and Trip. You keep me grounded and learning every Monday.
I really liked the expansion of the “investment” concept, but wonder what Trip means in daily practice by “involvement” of financial donors. We still have too much of a separation between those labelled as “volunteers” and those labelled “donors” when, in fact, they are all donors — some give time, some give money, and often they give both. The man who made that strong investment statement might have been delighted to get involved in a speaker’s bureau for the museum or (depending on his personal background) might like being an on-site tour guide. Here’s the odd thing: too many organizations never even bother to compare the list of active volunteers with the list of financial donors to see how many people appear on both lists (and why more do not) — or perhaps one person in a family writes the check but other family members give their time. Why “typecast” even a wealthy financial donor into a role separated from personal participation as a volunteer? Now that is “involvement” with all sorts of potential.
Love the tern “investment”!
Such great information… we really need to listen to the cues the donor gives when they are showing he or she wants to deepen engagement. Sometimes they are not obvious!
Love the idea of using the word investment – it feels like a game changer. I wish Trip had given some examples of post investment involvement. He implied it might be deeper than it had been previously etc…I don’t doubt him but a story or two would have given it more meaning for me.