The Build Good Fundraising Podcast #17: Sherry Quam Taylor — How to find and secure larger gifts in your existing donor file
The last five months have shown us how volatile revenue streams can be. Almost overnight, nonprofit leaders had to figure out how to become less dependent on event revenue, grants from foundations and government grants.
The best way to protect your organization from future volatility is to build a more resilient fundraising engine — one that focuses on leading individual donors already in your donor base to giving their best gift every year.
On today's episode, we’ll hear from Sherry Quam Taylor. Sherry is a nonprofit fundraising coach who helps organizations of all sizes secure larger individual donations from those already in their existing donor base. She started her own business working with executive directors, development directors, and board members to help them create a funding model so all their hard work would yield the maximum return possible.
Fundraising and donor development takes discipline but can have massive rewards when we focus our energy in the right direction.
Your existing donor file has gold hidden within it. And with the right tools, you’ll be able to mine and uncover all this untapped opportunity.
Sherry will equip you to do this and help you identify donors who can, and want to, give more while taking your relationships with donors from transactional to deep, personal and genuine.
Sherry demonstrates how to have conversations with your donors to inspire and motivate them towards greater passion for your organization's goals and deeper generosity to fulfill those goals.
Today we’ll cover:
- [6:57] - Leading your donors to give their best gift possible
- [10:35] - Strategies and tips to learn what your donor’s best gift is.
- [13:50] - How to find the untapped opportunities amongst your current donor file
- [20:50] - The importance of discipline and rhythms in cultivating your donors best gift
- [25:09] - How to customize and tailor your communication to all your different donors
- [28:08] - Identifying where, how and why donor money is being left on the table
- [32:10] - How to encourage and engage with your mid-level donors
- [35:05] - What a ‘gift chart’ is and why you should be using one
- [37:05] - How to move from a transactional relationship to a deeper, personal relationship with your donors
- [39:53] - Encouragement for fundraisers who feel like now is not the time to pursue donors
Sherry would love to connect with you. You can find her at her website, Her linkedin, and on twitter
Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here.