What if Mark Twain was Your Major Gifts Officer? Published in Dimensions Magazine May/June 2011 By Willis Turner willis@huntsinger-jeffer.com

"It ain't what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you do know that ain't so." -- Mark Twain

Great wisdom is always cryptic. Parables, allegories, metaphors - these are the ways great thinkers express great truths. It's up to the rest of us to determine how to apply those insights in ways that make our own lives better and more rewarding.

For example, if Mark Twain was your Major Gifts Officer (MGO), the first thing he'd likely do is amble into your office, lean his surprisingly slight frame against the doorway (you'd be surprised to find he was just 5'8"), brush a fleck of cigar ash from the collar of his rumpled white suit, and drawl,

"A round man cannot be expected to fit into a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape."

What he'd mean is that, as you know, those who contribute to your regular appeals are far and away your best source for major donors. They have loyalty and commitment. They understand and support your mission.

But turning $25 or $50 contributors into major donors rarely happens overnight. It takes time, patience and cultivation.

It starts when you do your homework. From ground-level research like looking at which of your donors is active in civic affairs, to employing wealth overlays on your file, your first step is identifying who has the means to become a major donor.

Then, says Julie Bostick, Major Gifts Officer at The University of Tampa, "Once you're talking to people you know have the capacity to give, it's about connecting to them and finding out if they have the inclination."

The challenge is that their giving habits are already set in place. And they're not likely to change them overnight. As Twain says,

"Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time."

It's going to take time and cultivation and encouragement for them to change the shape of their giving. So be prepared to be patient.

"It's very different from direct mail, for example, where you have one message that you've carefully developed, then sent out to everyone." says Alicia Figueiredo, Director of Major and Planned Gifts at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. "With major gifts your message is tailored specifically for that donor.

"So you start to build a relationship with that donor, to understand their values and what they're trying to accomplish with their philanthropy. Then you're giving them opportunities to act on those values."

That's why, before you ever approach your prospect, you need a well thought out plan of action. You want to know his or her passions. And you want to know what they like. What kind of attention they respond to most positively.

Some people like attending black tie dinners and seeing their name high up on the sponsorship list. Others want you to visit them personally. Still others are anxious for access. They want to be noticed and appreciated by the people at the top of your organization. Or they want to be asked for their input and advice. Every prospect is different. And every one needs his or her own strategy.

"I know one alum who came to the University on a baseball scholarship and ended up majoring in musical theater," Ms. Bostick told me. "So I probably wouldn't talk to him about the business school."

Yes, it does take time, and sometimes it takes investment. But it's well worth it. I knew one MGO who took a key donor on an African safari. It wasn't cheap, but, because the Officer knew her prospect and had cultivated a strong relationship, the ROI was tremendous.

Be perfectly clear though: all this attention can't be faked. People know when they're getting the canned message and when you're being "real." It may sound contradictory, but you have to work at this. Twain understood this implicitly when he said,

"It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

So learn to be real, no matter how much practice it takes. A good way to start is to change your voicemail message. If it says anything remotely like "please leave your name, number and a detailed message and I will contact you upon my return," stop and think about how that sounds. You may have thought, when you recorded that stuffy message that you were putting on your "professional voice." But what sounded high-toned in your head just comes across as high-falutin' to most listeners. Change it to something a lot more conversational like, "I'll be back on Tuesday. Please leave a message and I'll call you then." Do it right now. Before you finish this article. Go ahead. Mark and I will wait.

Now, carry that same authenticity over into every conversation you have with your prospects and donors. Write a script that says everything you want to say, because you need to be prepared. Then memorize it. Then throw it away and speak from your heart, because,

"Any emotion, if it is real, is involuntary."

Occasionally, I run across Fundraisers from local and regional organizations who seem to suffer from a sort of institutional inferiority complex. They never admit it; they aren't even aware of it themselves. But often there is an innate reluctance to go after donors above a certain size, thinking they just won't be interested in an organization so small. That's where Mark would lean over and whisper,

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog."

Yes, size matters, but maybe not in the way you think. Small organizations with a strong focus on a few important programs can give major donors the chance to be the biggest fish in the pond. And that's a motivation you should never underestimate.

Once you've gotten your donor's attention in a positive way, you need to keep him or her focused and emotionally wedded to you and your programs.

That's where one of the fundamental tenets of all fundraising comes into play. As Ms. Bostick says, "Fundraising is about relationships and storytelling." And as Twain says,

"Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream."

The show-don't-tell approach is at the core of good storytelling. And of good fundraising as well. It's a great temptation to recite facts and percentages about the crisis of hunger and homelessness in your community. Or to wow major donors with the success rates of your programs.

But nothing moves people, or convinces them to be generous, like a powerful story of how your organization changed one person's life forever. Remember that giving is seldom a rational act. Ms. Figueiredo points out that, "especially as Catholics, many of us feel called to give." So to a very real degree, your success can depend on how you make them feel about giving. And for as long as mankind has been around, nothing engages people's emotions like a well-told tale.

(Learn everything you'll ever need to know on this topic by Googling, "How to Tell A Story" by Mark Twain and by searching "Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories" on YouTube.)

Of course it goes without saying that your stories need to be 100 percent authentic. That doesn't mean they can't be composite stories, or even parabolic, but in the end, the story must have integrity. It must reveal a powerful truth about your organization, one to which your donor can relate and which will motivate him or her to want to have a significant influence on your work.

At this point, Twain, fearing he's started to become a little too preachy, will turn and saunter out of your office, pausing just long enough to say over his shoulder, "In other words,

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."