I'm asking all board members to secure personal meetings with two Cedar donors in the next month or so. The following explains what these meetings are for and includes instructions for board members on how to approach these meetings.
(Internal) objectives of these meetings are as follows:
1) To gather feedback about The Cedar’s programming, outreach, role in the community, and vision for the future
2) To learn about our community members and donors
3) To engage our community members and get more Cedar constituents/donors further invested in The Cedar through personal connections
4) To cultivate a group of people that might have the potential to donate at the $1,000 level and/or make a capital campaign donation in several years
Objectives of one-on-one meetings (This is how we’re articulating them to Cedar constituents. These are the answers you can give if/when someone asks you, “Why are you calling me?” or “What’s this about?”)
1) We think it’s important to make an effort to learn more about our audiences, supporters, and community members so we can appropriately respond to their hopes for The Cedar’s role in our community and for The Cedar’s future.
2) We’d like feedback a) about how The Cedar is presenting itself to and communicating with you and the rest of the world. (See attached “donor guide” and accompanying questions) b) about how to reach out to those in the community who aren’t currently served by our work and on how to further engage those audience members who already know about us.
3) The Cedar is in an important place in its development right now. We need to learn more about who is currently invested in our community and who is interested in becoming more involved. We hope to undergo a capital campaign in the near future, but we have to know who is on board to support us in such a venture. So we’re starting that process now.
4) We want to educate as many of our community members as possible about what The Cedar does and the importance of The Cedar in our communities so they can help spread the word about our organization. As a Cedar supporter and advocate, I’m hoping you’ll help spread the word. One way you can do this is by sharing these comp tickets with a neighbor, friend, or co-worker who might not know about The Cedar.
What To Do
Step One: Learn as much as you can about your “assignment.”
I have assigned to each of you four individuals or households with the intention that you will be able to successfully contact and secure meetings with two of them. I have provided you with the information that we know. This may not be very much outside of name and address.
You might be able to find more about your “assignment” by searching their name on google. Although some may find it weird or intrusive if you let on that you know “too much” about them, many appreciate or even expect you to know something about them and their role in the community (for example, it would be reasonable and helpful to know if someone you are calling has been a major supporter of The Walker Art Center).
Step Two: Make the call to set up the meeting
If we do not have a phone number or email for your “assignment,” try looking it up online. I’d suggest “name” and “reverse address” search on whitepages.com. If you can’t find a phone number or email for your person, consider sending them a hand-written note explaining the purpose of your contact and asking them to contact you.
If you do have a correct phone number, your conversation could go something like this:
Hi is _____________ available?
Hi, my name is Rob, and I’m a board member at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Did I reach you at an okay time?
I’m calling to see if you might be willing to meet me for lunch or a cup of coffee. We’re making an effort to reach out to our community members, learn more about our donors and patrons, and build support for The Cedar. So I’m hoping we can get together and talk a little bit about your relationship with and investment in The Cedar, to get an understanding of what kind of role you think The Cedar plays in our community, and to solicit ideas and thoughts about The Cedar’s future. Are you willing to meet me for lunch or coffee in the next few weeks?
Note: If you’re calling a couple, don’t assume that one or the other makes the donation/financial decisions. You can ask something like “Would you, Sherry, or both of you be the best to meet with to discuss your involvement with The Cedar?”
Step Three: Meet your “assignment”
Our best targets at this point for high level donors (right now, we’re trying to grow our “leadership donors” who give $1,000 or more/year) are those donors who are already giving at the $100 plus level. What we want to do with these folks is inform them about current initiatives at The Cedar, thus get them more invested in and excited about our organization, and cultivate them to the point where we can successfully solicit them for $1,000 annually. I’m going to have a cultivation plan for this group of folks, and these meetings are only the first step.
Basically, your job in this meeting is three-fold
1) Share certain pieces of information about The Cedar with the person. You can use your “donor packet” as a guide for the information we’d like to share with them. Make sure you’re familiar with the stuff in this packet before you give it to them. You’ll want to take these items out and explain the information to them in your meeting. Stuff in the packet:
1. 4-color Cedar brochure
2. Pledge form and return envelope
3. Cedar bumper sticker
4. Live at The Cedar CD and accompanying press release
5. Cedar “donor guide” and questions for feedback on these messages
6. Recent article written for the MplsStPaul Magazine about The Cedar (April 2007)
7. October newsletter
8. Envelope with comp tickets and accompanying article about the group
The two things that you should point out are the donor guide and the comp tickets.
-The donor guide has a lot of great information about donating to The Cedar, why it’s important, where the money goes, what we’re doing this year, etc. I’d like feedback from our stakeholders about these messages (see “questions for consideration” attached to the donor guide.) This is a great way to involve our donors and to get them invested in what we’re doing. It would be ideal to discuss this with them a little bit at the meeting and ask them to look at it more closely on their own – they can then call/email you or me (adorn@thecedar.org).
-The idea behind the comp tickets: There’s a little note in the envelope with the comp tickets that explains the reason we’re giving these away. The idea is that they’ll share them with someone who hasn’t been to The Cedar before or who isn’t currently involved with us. The more people who know about us, the more people will buy tickets in the future, and the more people might become donors.
-If they already have a “Live at The Cedar” CD, ask if they’ll give this to a co-worker, friend, or neighbor who hasn’t heard of our organization. This will be a good way to introduce who we are and what we do to more people.
2) Learn about the person with whom you’re meeting This is the most important part of your meeting. People love talking about themselves, and they will feel great about the meeting if you ask a lot of questions and listen to what they have to say. The last four questions are very important from a donor cultivation standpoint.
First, get their updated contact information. As long as you have them sitting in front of you, make sure we have their current email address, postal address, and phone number.
Through your conversation, try to get answers to the following questions.
• Describe this person’s relationship with The Cedar Cultural Center
• What has been this person’s favorite or most outstanding Cedar experience?
• How well do they know what The Cedar is doing today? (Do they know about upcoming shows, website features, annual donor events, Nordic Roots Festival, volunteer opportunities, etc.) How do they get their information about what is happening at The Cedar?
• If they could change one thing about The Cedar what would it be?
• Share a copy of the mission statement. (It’s on the 4 color brochure) Do they think that the mission statement adequately encompasses and reflects what The Cedar does? Do they think The Cedar is fulfilling its mission? Is the Cedar successful at drawing patrons and artists that can benefit the most from the work of The Cedar?
• What is their impression of The Cedar’s reputation in the community? (The West Bank community, the non-profit arts community, the Minneapolis music community)
• What is this person’s current interest in The Cedar? Are they satisfied with their level of involvement with The Cedar? What could be done to enhance or strengthen their tie to the Cedar community? In what ways might they like to be further involved?
• What do you think this person’s financial standing is? Have they made a large financial commitment to one or more other non-profits during the past five years? Do they make regular gifts to other non-profit organizations?
• How have they been asked for donations to the Cedar? Are they happy with the ways in which they’ve been asked to support The Cedar and ways in which they’ve been communicated with about Cedar events?
• What do they believe are important factors in motivating a substantial gift to an organization like The Cedar?
• Where does The Cedar rank among their charitable giving priorities?
• If they were to make a major gift commitment today, what would they like to accomplish with their gift? Are there specific restricted areas that might compel them to give a gift or to give a larger gift?
3) Gauge if they are able and/or willing to donate $1,000 annually to The Cedar in the near future. How near? This year? Next year? You don’t even need to make the hard solicitation – I can follow up with them. But I do want you to communicate something like this, “One of the reasons we’re meeting with donors and community members is to determine who of our supporters are willing and/or able to step up as leadership donors now or in the future. We’re hoping to create a group of donors giving at the $1,000 level. Do you see yourself as possibly being a leadership donor to The Cedar?”
Make sure you actually say, in some way, “one thousand dollars” - even you just mention that we’re hoping to build leadership giving at this level. That way, I’ll know that they have a general idea what we’re thinking when I call them to follow up.
Step Four: Send a thank you note
Step Five: Write a contact report and pass on necessary follow-up information
I can follow up with these folks if they have specific questions you can’t answer, want to get involved by volunteering or serving on a committee, etc. Write up as much as you can about what you’ve learned about this person. Try to answer as many of the questions above as you can. I will follow up with further cultivation and a hard solicitation.
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