Major-gift officers rely on face-to-face meetings to forge relationships with wealthy individuals, stay in touch, and land significant donations over time. But it’s tough to snag quality time with key supporters — and keep them engaged — especially during a global pandemic.

To help you cultivate big donors despite the obstacles, I spoke with several veteran fundraisers who are finding creative ways to connect with those supporters from a distance, with encouraging results.

Brief video messages to donors are working well during this time of social distancing, experts say. People enjoy seeing a fundraiser’s face, as well as other “humanizing” elements like pets or kids, says Sunil Oommen, president of Oommen Consulting, a fundraising consultancy in New York.

Jennifer Dow Rowell, head of development and communications at the Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, a domestic-violence charity, is producing 60-second videos that she emails to big donors to thank them and share an update on the group’s work. “It kind of puts the ball in the donor’s court,” she says. “If they want to respond, they can, and very often they do — they think it’s really cute and personalized. And if they don’t want to [respond], there’s no pressure.”

Read the full article for more tips from these and other experts. To go deeper, watch our September webinar, Major-Gift Fundraisers: Learn From Your Peers, and peruse our collection How to Keep Major Donors in the Fold.

To hear directly from a big donor about what motivates her giving, see our recent online briefing, A Giving Pledge Donor Talks About Philanthropy’s Role Right Now.

Take care,
Lisa Schohl
Editor, Online Learning

Tip of the Week

To improve your donor data and manage it well, develop policies and document them. For example, revisit your organization’s policies on data collection. Consider having fundraisers sign confidentiality agreements that outline appropriate use of the donors’ data, suggests Eric Wilson, president of Community Dataroots, a consulting firm focused on data management for nonprofits. There are serious legal consequences for failing to secure certain personally identifiable information common to financial transactions, such as charitable donations, so it’s crucial to make sure fundraisers are safeguarding this data. “That might seem a little onerous, but when we’re dealing with donor information and donations, this is sensitive information,” Wilson says. A confidentiality agreement doesn’t have to be too lengthy, he adds, “but it’s good to have in place.”

Learn more in 5 Ways to Better Manage Your Donor Data and visit our advice section of philanthropy.com for more than 1,150 other advice articles and tools for nonprofits.

New Grant Opportunities

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Justice system. The Public Welfare Foundation supports groups working to transform the criminal and youth justice system in these categories: developing innovative approaches to overhaul youth and adult criminal justice; Black-led movement building focused on dismantling the structures that have caused generations of harm to Black people, building power among local Black community members, and advancing efforts to reinvest in communities; investing in community-based solutions that reduce overreliance on mass incarceration; and reframing the narrative and fostering greater transparency and urgency about the criminal-justice system through storytelling, journalism, etc. Letters of inquiry may be submitted throughout the year.

Racial equity. The Borealis Racial Equity to Accelerate Change Fund is providing grants for people and institutions working closely with nonprofit groups to advance their racial equity work internally and externally, working with Indigenous or rural groups, American territories, or communities in the middle of the nation. Applicants are invited to take a brief survey to be considered for an invitation to submit a proposal in January.