Cynthia Krause has brought in some big gifts to the Baylor Health Care System Foundation through the connections she’s fostered with wealth advisers and their clients.
The donations usually don’t come in quickly, she says. But when they do, they make a difference.
“It’s not uncommon to get a first gift of $25,000 or $50,000" from an adviser’s client — much larger than your average gift, she says.
As vice president for gift planning, Ms. Krause lets advisers know she can give them and their clients tours of system’s facilities and provide information about specialists and services.
Here are some other ways fundraisers can build ties with financial advisers:
Make it worth the adviser’s while.
Ms. Krause says she tries to facilitate “three wins” in her relationships with advisers: The client gets access to information about the health system, the adviser builds a stronger tie to the client by providing a valuable resource, and the foundation gets access to a wealthy individual who may one day donate.
Ms. Krause says she works with more than 20 advisers in this fashion on regular basis, and her pitch works because many advisers help their clients with a range of issues beyond money and investments, including offering help with accessing health care and finding specialists.
“It’s a holistic practice,” says Dodee Frost Crockett, a wealth adviser for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Dallas, who has introduced Ms. Krause to several clients who have made big gifts. “I want to help them manage the things that are important to them.”
Ms. Krause tells financial professionals that she will asks clients to make a donation only if they express an interest first. That’s important because most advisers don’t want their clients to be badgered, she says: “They trust me that I’m not going to go in there and say, ‘Oh, can you give me money?’ "
Reach out to advisers you know.
Ms. Krause says that even if your organization doesn’t have services that wealthy donors would likely use, like a hospital or college might, it’s worth seeking out financial professionals who already a have connection to your nonprofit — perhaps those who have helped clients structure gifts for your organization or who are involved in some other way. “Be strategic and find those advisers that might already be interested in what you do,” she says.
Invite them to events.
Even if your nonprofit doesn’t provide such services, many experts advise inviting financial professionals to events in which they can mingle with your donors and potentially find new clients.
Ms. Krause says she sometimes invites financial professionals to presentations about new health-system programs and suggests they bring clients. She frames the invitations as a way for advisers to build stronger relationships with those they serve.
“If they can’t bring a client, how does that help them?” she says.
Show them your appreciation.
Baylor Health System holds an occasional Philanthropic Leadership Award Dinner to honor financial professionals — most of whom have helped their clients make large gifts. Ms. Crockett, the Merrill Lynch adviser, was honored at last year’s dinner in part for introducing Ms. Krause to a donor who made a $1 million contribution benefiting the health system’s music-therapy program.
Baylor also promotes advisers online, in newsletters, and in its magazine, The Torch, through things like Q&As and short features about how the professionals have assisted their clients in making gifts to Baylor.
Not all advisers will be responsive, but keep trying.
Some advisers are receptive to Ms. Krause’s pitch, but she knows that most won’t be.
“There are some [advisers] who see their clients in a more holistic way — including philanthropically,” she says. “And they tend to be those who build deeper relationships with their clients.” However, she says, with “80 percent of advisers, it’s probably not going to work.” Many prefer to focus solely on investment strategies rather than philanthropy, she notes.
But that doesn’t mean you should be deterred from trying to build relationships, she says, because they can be very lucrative.
