Events
Using benefits and other special events to cultivate funder contacts can be difficult. You’ll find that program officers and trustees can be hesitant to accept complimentary tickets for events everyone else is paying for, especially if they’re expensive. They rightly don’t want to send the wrong message to you as a potential grantee by allowing you to think they owe you a favorable review of your proposal.
Instead of depending on fundraising events, or ticketed performances or exhibitions, to acquaint funders with your charity, develop events specifically to cultivate them. This isn’t the place to ask for money. You want to cultivate them before you solicit them—and not all in the same night. Cultivation events should not cost you much money and should require a fraction of the time to produce that a benefit would.
Here are some cultivation events I think you’ll find successful:
• A cocktail party at a trustee’s home. People love to see how others live, and the trustee should foot the bill for the refreshments.
• A talk by a curator about an upcoming exhibition that promises to be controversial. Those who attend can “dine out” on the advance knowledge they receive for weeks. If you can hold it in someone’s home, they’ll have two reasons to attend.
• A preview of the work of regrant recipients, with some in attendance to speak about their work and others represented by slides or reports.
• A simple luncheon that mixes scholarship recipients with current and potential scholarship donors. There’s nothing like a kid’s firsthand testimonial to open those pockets.
• A more formal luncheon at which a prominent person speaks about issues confronting the charity’s sector, but not necessarily about the charity itself. Although this might take your charity out of the spotlight, those who attend will remember that you were the one who provided the insights they gained from the talk.
Basically, any event that provides knowledge not readily available to the public will work. People love to know more than their friends and neighbors. And be sure to give them something to take home with them, whether it’s just a brochure or a complete packet of information on your charity.
WORDS TO THE WISE
Developing and organizing cultivation events lies well outside your responsibilities as a grant writer, but you should encourage the fundraisers at your charity to plan them and be ready to give them names from your prospect list to invite.
Newsletters and events represent the cultivation you do before you apply for a grant. While the grant is under consideration, keep a respectful distance as far as cultivation is concerned and restrict yourself to answering the funder’s questions. In Chapter 20, I discuss what needs to be done after you receive a grant to set the stage for a renewal grant.
The Least You Need to Know
• Client newsletters and donor newsletters provide different means of educating funders about your charity.
• Never put a funder on any newsletter list without first sending an introductory letter.
• Both e-mail and printed newsletters work well to cultivate funders.
• The best newsletters include information on more than your charity.
• Paid, ticketed events are not ideal for funder cultivation.
• Cultivation events that impart inside knowledge or provide contact with clients engage funders best.
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