Cultivating Major Donors Through Smaller Dinner Events
Personal connections and interactions are essential when soliciting and establishing a
base of donors for your nonprofit. These connections are often fostered through donor
events. With events such as an annual gala to an interactive golf tournament, you are
providing a unique way for donors to learn about your nonprofit and to develop personal
connections with the mission. But these larger events are not required or even the best
route to gain major donors. It is useful to include smaller, more intimate events in the
nonprofit's fundraising strategy as part of developing donor networks, especially with
major donors. This topic of the month will outline the rationale for a smaller event;
provide advice and advantages, and a sample agenda for the evening.
Types of Donors
Major Donors
Major donors are defined as individuals who give over a certain amount of money to the
nonprofit and contribute a majority percentage of the overall funding. The relationships
with these donors are important to cultivate and often the donor has a personal
connection with someone in leadership in the nonprofit. By inviting the donors into your
personal home, you are opening the door for your donors to develop these connections
rather than feeling lost in a crowd in a conference room or banquet hall.
Donor Prospects
The demographics of donors has shifted. Currently, 43% of total giving comes from the
“Baby Boomers” or people ages 49-67.1 These are the people to target for those major
donations that help your nonprofit run. However, these donors are also warier of trusting
people asking for donations, so it is important to develop trust. A great way to develop
trust is to provide a forum such as small dinner where current and potential donors can
ask any questions they have about the organization.
Additionally, according the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University, women
are twice as generous as men. With that fact in mind, it is advantageous for nonprofits
to not neglect including women in donation appeals and especially events. According to
Nonprofit Hub, women donors are more attuned to verbal, and emotional cues and
ultimately give 20% more when words tied to moral qualities are used in fundraising
campaigns. Again, a small donor event is an excellent opportunity for donors like this to
hear first-hand about the organization they are interested in supporting.
Fundraising Through Events
1
The Next Generation of American Giving by Mark Rovner, Sea Change Strategies.
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As there are more nonprofits jostling for people’s attention and funding, the larger
special events are the go-to approach for gaining donors making the market for these
events oversaturated and overwhelming potential donors. Additionally, hosting these
larger events can cost upwards of 30% of the gross proceeds2 and require hours of
effort preparing and advertising for the event. In light of these facts, combined with the
saturation of the event market for donors, Cathedral recommends smaller, dinner-like
events for cultivating major donors.
This event is similar to a regular dinner party, but with the added element of pitching
your organization and asking for donations. The typical format is to have one or two
representatives from the organization in attendance to do an overview of the program
and answer questions. Ideally, the host is the person who asks people to consider
making a donation. As with general rules for hosting a dinner party, do not invite more
people than your meeting or dinner area can seat comfortably. This smaller group of
people will allow you make each donor feel wanted and appreciated.
You should plan these dinner events before you begin your year-end campaigns in
order to differentiate your appeals and standout to your major donors. This also allows
for some creativity when it comes to the menu and theme. As with a dinner party, be
sure to stick with a meal that you have prepared before and does not tax your abilities
and kitchen. And when it comes to the nonprofit element of your dinner, be sure to
recognize that the main goal is to develop relationships with your major donors but you
can set a monetary goal of donations received as well.
Advice, Advantages, and Tips
General advice on hosting these events includes:
• Plan the timeline for the event ahead of time. Know the best timeframes for
meals in your region, and make sure that your event is no longer then three
hours.
• Craft your invitation carefully to make it clear that this is a fundraising event—not
simply a social gathering.
• While it is much easier to send e-mail invites through Paperless Post or similar
vendors, a personalized hand-written invitation can be a powerful statement to
potential donors and can underscore the intimate nature of the event.. Once you
send the physical invitation or email, call to follow up. This will show the
prospective guest that they are valued and wanted at the event.
• Send a thank you note. Yes, this was a dinner that you hosted, but it will remind
the donors of the wonderful evening that they spent, and encourage them to give.
Advantages include:
• A smaller setting for the donors to ask the questions that they normally would not
ask in front of a larger group. It is also an opportunity for committed donors,
board members or volunteers to share why they are invested in the organization.
• The donor can feel like their concerns are being heard.
2
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20111112/ISSUE03/311129993/non-profits-tread-a-line-oncosts-of-fundraising-galas
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•
This type of event requires less to no volunteers as a larger gala or special event
and typically costs much less.
Tips:
• Have literature available on your nonprofit for your guests to peruse. This should
include a short one-page overview of your organization as well as some
opportunities for giving to the larger mission of the organization.
• Be sure to sit back and enjoy the conversation and the dinner. While you may be
representing your organization, it is important to be yourself and get to know your
major donors.
• Questions to ask your donors include: Why do you give? What do wish to change
in the world? What is your favorite memory of our organization?
Agenda – Current Donors
These smaller dinner parties vary on the grounds of whether the invitees are
prospective givers or past donors. Depending on that audience you will either use the
event as a purely social networking event or the event will feature a formal ask. It is
important to think about the specific type of donor you are inviting and plan the agenda
accordingly. Different ages of donors and donors or prospects with different affiliations
will be used to different types of events. Be aware of these differences and plan your
event accordingly.
The following is a suggested agenda that can be modified to fit your event:
1. Greet guests.
2. Have them sign-in and fill out contact information cards.
3. Mix and mingle with appetizers.
4. Transition to dinner.
5. Use dinner to connect with your donors.
6. After dinner and before dessert:
a. Overview the organization that casts a vision for the future.
b. Key data points: Number served, program areas, etc.
c. Story of program participant who was affected positively by the program.
d. Formal Ask.
7. Dessert.
8. Have forms available for people to make a donation. The form should also
include a response envelope so that individuals/couples can take the form home
and send in their donation after the event.
Agenda – Prospective Donors
If your group of attendees have not previously given to the organization, you will want to
structure the dinner as an overview event. Since this may be one of the first times that
an individual is learning about your organization, consider this event to be the very
beginning of a cultivation process, and do not plan on asking for a donation at the event.
A sample agenda is outlined below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Greet guests.
Have them sign-in and fill out contact information cards.
Mix and mingle with appetizers.
Transition to dinner.
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5. Use dinner to connect with your donors.
6. After dinner and before dessert:
a. Overview the organization that casts a vision for the future.
b. Key data points: Number served, program areas, etc.
c. Story of program participant who was affected positively by the program.
d. Share opportunities to get more involved.
7. Dessert.
8. Have forms to request more information.
Conclusion
It is important you are offering to satisfy their appetite for having their philanthropy make
an impact in a satisfying way. Sharing stories of success and your passion will feed their
excitement and invite them to be insiders. Be honest about your specific need, but don’t
make giving the whole focus of the evening, rather work on developing relationships
with your donors so focus your conversation around that. Donors are giving of their
money, and they want to explain to you what drives them to do that—what they think,
what they believe and what they want to see in the world.
According to Susan McLaughlin, a consultant at Blackbaud, a Charleston, S.C.-based
nonprofit software and research company, “Special events are one of the least efficient
way to raise money.”3 While this may be true, there is still a market for special events
and small dinner parties are a way to host your major donors without investing a lot of
your organization’s limited funds.
Articles for Further Reading
1. Additional statistics on the industry standards for donor retention
http://www.npengage.com/acquisition/acquisition-trends-and-new-donorstewardship/#sthash.CawIssSE.dpuf
2. On Best Practices For Fundraising Success:
https://www.blackbaud.com/files/resources/7-12.desktop.book.web.pdf
3. General advice on Special Events:
http://www.afpnet.org/files/ContentDocuments/MakingtheMostofYourSpecialEven
t_ENGLISH_STUBHUBVERSION.pdf
Kimberly Reeve is a Managing Director and Jessie Schnoebelen is an Intern in the New
York office of Cathedral Consulting Group, LLC. This article was written for our Topic of
the Month for July 2015 as part of our General Executive Counsel program. For more
information, please visit Cathedral Consulting Group LLC online at
www.cathedralconsulting.com or contact us at info@cathedralconsulting.com.
3
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/print-edition/2013/04/12/beyond-black-tie-fundraisers.html
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