February 2023

We know your education foundation needs the money today, but what if you could get a much larger gift by offering donors the option to pledge their gifts over time? An effective strategy to grow your major gift donors, who often become your most loyal donors, is to recognize them for their total gift committed.

“But what if they don’t pay?”

We hear this all the time. Many foundation leaders are hesitant to give recognition until a gift is paid in full. They don’t want to treat a pledge like a gift until the money’s in hand. Some caution is understandable, but why not trust people to do what they say they will? In fact, research shows that less than 10% of pledges to nonprofits go unfilled, and the vast majority of those are low-dollar pledges. Here are a few strategies for an effective, strategic approach to pledge fulfillment:

Establish a donor-centered approach.
Work with donors to ensure a donor-first approach. Listen to your donors, and treat them how you would want to be treated: like a person, not an ATM.

Be flexible with the timeline.
There may extenuating circumstances where donors can’t fulfill the original terms of their commitment. If donors have lost a job or been sick, etc. and gotten behind on payments, offer to pause or extend the pledge period by a year. Assume they want to honor their promise as best they can. Develop the pledge timeline in pencil, not pen.

Communicate regularly.
Don’t be a debt collector and send monthly bills to your donors. A reminder is not a “bill.” One of the most important ways to ensure pledge fulfillment is to communicate regularly with donors. Keep them informed about how their gifts change lives. Thank them often, as if the commitment was already paid in cash.

The most important pledge fulfillment strategy is to treat your foundation donors like people who care, first and foremost.

For many foundations supporting a school district and its never ending “push and pull” of the relationship with the Superintendent feels overwhelming at times.  And over the past several years, with a pandemic and challenging economy, “fundraising” doesn’t even reach the list of priorities for most public-school leaders.  And yet, when looking at other sectors of the nonprofit world, the “CEO” is truly the chief fundraising advocate:

• Higher Education – In today’s world, the President/Chancellor will spend more the 25% of their time on philanthropically related activities
• Healthcare – There is a real “push” to move CEO’s more present into the community to engage with large philanthropists to offset the decreasing operating margins of hospitals
• Associations (Zoo’s, museums, etc.) – To increase size or scope, the CEO leverages philanthropy as the majority mechanism to increasing holdings (art, animals, etc.) and make physical improvements to the facilities
• Social Services – While many years ago the leader might have risen the ranks from the services provided, today the CEO is out in the community developing relationships to ensure philanthropic funding will help keep the doors open, serving the community’s needs

Leadership in our nonprofits is even more needed today when we realize that, in 2002, 66% of the households made some type of philanthropic gift---while today it is less than 50%.  So properly engaging with a smaller population of “prospects” and “donors” is critical to success.

So how do you engage the “CEO” of the district, who is naturally inclined to avoid fundraising engagement?  Five (5) simple steps:

1. Realize Their Deficit – Almost nowhere in their career trajectory is their a “responsibility” where a superintendent practiced the art/science of fundraising.  As a teacher, assistant principal, principal, or assistant superintendent, they were never asked to consider the practice.  In addition, public education does not have a long recent history of including philanthropy.  So, it is natural that their lack of experience, understanding, and the industry’s naiveté lends itself to a combination of concern and insecurity in this new paradigm of revenue generation.
2. Go Back in History – It can be greatly helpful, from a macro perspective, to realize that public primary and secondary education in the United States was started through philanthropic efforts.  In the first decade of the 1800’s, in Boston and New York, charity societies raised money to educate a larger swath of the community.  And while it was done by the rich to find “better workers” for their businesses, the basic premise of the importance of public education started with fundraising.  Just as an FYI, it wasn’t for another two-plus decades until city governments took over the efforts.
3. Encourage Them to Listen to What the Community Wants – One of the challenges is the disconnect that lives between “donors” and district leaders.  The district leaders want to “tell” people what they want/need.  The problem is that donors want to give for their own reasons.  One of my favorite sayings helps to overcome this challenge:
   

   If you want a donor’s advice, ask for money.  If you want their philanthropic money, ask for advice.

   While no one is advocating for donors to take over education (far from it), the decision to make a philanthropic gift is based on “buy in.”  In the end, it is their money.  So ask them what they think is important about public education (leading to what they will give to).  Even take them 30% of a plan and ask their advice (even if 80% of the plan/solution is known). 

   And yes, that means more meetings (1 or 2 a week with possible donors)….but meetings with community leaders who know great public education is critical to the community’s future success. The more you ask for their engagement, the more they will “buy in” to the vision.

4. Basic Education of Philanthropy – Learning is a life-long pursuit of most educators….so help them.  Find different tools, sessions, classrooms, videos, podcasts, articles, reports etc. for them to learn from.  Tap into that educational curiosity.  Maybe it is from another sector of nonprofit work (Association for Fundraising Professionals or Association for Healthcare Philanthropy).  There is so much good data out there that can help us all regarding the best fundraising activities with limited resources (ROI), how to build a board, how to build a case statement, industry-wide (outside of public-school fundraising) best practices, etc.  Get them, and you, out of the vacuum of the same constant information and noise.
   

5. Strategic Planning Alignment – With two active volunteer boards (school and foundation), there are bound to be politics and “misalignment.”  The Superintendent is the conduit for reducing “politics” as he/she most likely serves on both boards.  And while the foundation is “subservient” to the school board, they play a critical role as a lens and outlet to the philanthropic community.  The sooner the chief development officer and key foundation board members are part of strategic conversations (even if confidential---they can keep their mouths closed!), the more philanthropy can support critical needs of the school district.  Time, through lack of alignment, is sometimes the biggest hurdle for fundraising---especially when there isn’t any to create the right type and form of campaign.

It is a challenge---superintendents are busy with so much.  But the community, especially those who have resources and who are philanthropic, want to see, hear, and interact with “the CEO.”   And while much of the work can be done by the staff head and volunteers of the foundation, philanthropists seek to know their “investment” is going to make a difference—and that is best trumpeted by the Superintendent, many times one-on-one with donors. 

Other sectors of the nonprofit world have captured the philanthropic importance of the CEO---it is high time for public and secondary public education to do the same.