The 10 Commandments Of Giving
(And how people give to people)
Fundraising is not about money. It’s about people.
And axiomatically, it’s about understanding the motivations of people and nurturing them as donors.
Amit Chandra, Chairman and Managing Director, Bain Capital India and one of India’s leading philanthropists and my organisation’s (Ashoka University) key Founders and Trustees, put it eloquently over a sip of coffee when he said — ‘people give to people’.
In philanthropy, this truism is as profound as Newton’s Laws of Motion.
Think about it.
We spend a significant portion of our time on our mobile devices and any disruption in services agonises us. The world without a functional telecom service comes to a grinding halt. But we just don’t remember the person who sold us the all-powerful SIM card. And this is symptomatic of the faceless identities of people who sold us a washing machine, a car or even an expensive watch.
But we certainly recall the identity of the person who made a one-off contribution of a modest sum — because philanthropy brings a human face to the act of giving.
Defining philanthropy
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines philanthropy in the following ways:
1. Goodwill to fellow members of the human race
2. An act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes
3. An organisation distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes
The words goodwill, human race, humanitarian and supported reflect yearnings of people in achieving a higher purpose. And it is this empathy that fundraisers need to tap into to achieve success. Add to this high-quality donor stewardship and you have a winning combination on hand.
Nurturing people (aka donors)
In a commercial transaction, transfer of monies for products or services received is the principal consideration. The key motivation is ‘have I received fair value for what I have paid?’
In philanthropic giving, there is no exchange of fair value. Only a grant supporting a worthy cause.
Logically, a question hangs in the air — ‘what do fundraisers need to do to access that grant?’.
The primary reason for nurturing people in philanthropy is singular – donors do not receive anything tangible in return. The emphasis is on the word tangible.
Consequently, the intangible values and emotions that fundraisers and their organisations invest in the relationship with donors assume supreme importance.
Homogeneity of donors
One has been on the road non-stop for 30 years in building organisations, including eight years in my current role at Ashoka University. A large part of my work involves visioning, strategizing followed by evangelising, communicating, selling, cajoling and coaxing folks to part with their monies.
While staking stock during the lockdown, one realised that one had met close to 2,000 people across the world in the journey of building Ashoka. And safe to add another 3,000 in the years prior to that.
That’s a lot of people.
And a here’s a time-worn cliché — people across the world are the same.
They want to be valued. They want us to listen to their stories. They want us to walk with them on their journeys. They want to be inspired. They want their imaginations to be fired up. Importantly, they want to make a difference to this world.
Or like Steve Jobs said, make a dent in this universe.
Unlocking philanthropic capital
The principal responsibility of fundraisers lies in unlocking philanthropic capital.
The smarter the strategy and sharper the focus, the greater is the success. Before we examine the tenets of how we need to focus on people, let’s contrast the macro philanthropy environment between the US, the world’s largest giving economy, and India.
In 2019, the US National Philanthropic Trust estimated that Americans made philanthropic contributions worth US $ 449.64 billion accounting for approximately 2.1% of US GDP. In 2019, giving in India totalled US $ 7.5 billion — not comparable to the US in any measure given that we are at different stages of our economic and social lifecycles. Putting the Indian number in context, just the top 10 US universities raised US $ 8.4 bn in 2019 — in excess of the total Indian raise for that year.
Keeping aside the scale of giving, there is much to learn from the strategy, communication and fundraising best practices from the US.
In my journey as a non-profit fundraiser, I have realised that India is a poor country with wealthy people. Another realisation — India’s philanthropic potential is enormous. The question that stares at us is, how do we unlock the potential of this philanthropic capital for greater social good.
My 10 Commandments
Given the above, what do fundraisers need to bear in mind while engaging with existing and potential donors? Let’s revisit the adage of people giving to people. So, how good are you or your sales force when raising funds? What are the tenets that will serve you well?
Below are my 10 Commandments that have stood the test of time.
1. Build personal relationships: Try this test on yourself — how well do you know your donors and their families? Are you aware of the interest of the spouses? What do their children do? (Fundraising tip: children whose parents give to charity are likely to give when they start earning. Cultivate them.) What are the unique and special interests of the individuals? What books have they read in the last year? The list is endless.
Knowing your donors is critical. It makes them aware that you truly care about them and that in itself is worth a million bucks. The paybacks will certainly materialise in course of time.
2. Do your homework: ‘scientia potentia est’, Latin for ‘knowledge is power’. How often have you walked into a meeting completely ignorant of the donor and being blindsided by the conversation? How aware are you of your donor’s business? How is her or his industry and company performing — and can you speak about it for a few minutes? What causes has the person backed philanthropically in the last few years? How does she or he feel about the outcomes of their personal giving? Being armed with this knowledge is stepping into combat completely armed. That’s half the battle won.
3. Focus on engagement: A new donor conversion takes four times the effort as retaining an existing one. This statistic alone should tell you where the bread is buttered. Write, call and speak with donors, sometimes for no reason at all but to say hello. Nurture and nourish your donors, through thick and thin like marriage vows ‘to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part’. You get the drift.
4. Never ask too soon: Asking prematurely means you have not marinated your idea and the organisation well enough in your donor’s mind. You run the risk of killing the goose with the potential to lay golden eggs. An ideal situation would be for the donor to ask you after the pitch — ‘Hey, what can I do for you, how can I help?’. Five years ago, we asked one the wealthiest Indian’s in the US for US $ 10 mn (too soon) and five years later, we are negotiating a US $ 300k close. I plead guilty.
5. Do not ask only for monies: So, what can donors do for you? Are you in it only for their monies? Or do you engage with donors with a deeper and broader agenda? Do you seek strategic inputs? Are they inspired enough to evangelise your organisation in their ecosystem? Are your donors learning and expanding their knowledge in their association with you? The personal growth of donors in their association with you will determine the success of your organisation’s fundraise.
6. Why should I give?: This question of ‘why?’ is one I have encountered often. I have never heard anyone explicitly say it but they will artfully tread on the question. It is important for fundraisers to address this query head on — wealthy people need to give to invest in structural capacity in the country, expand opportunities for the disenfranchised, create a more equitable and just society — and the reasons are several. Evangelism on giving and philanthropy is as important as making the ask, sometimes a tad bit more important.
7. What’s in it for them?: How does one integrate the non-profit’s mission to the giving objectives of donors? Sometimes, the goals could be divergent (primary versus higher education) and sometimes, at odds with their giving philosophy (bottom-of-the-pyramid versus supporting art or music). Addressing fundamental questions like these require skillful navigation between donor goals and non-profit needs.
8. Persist. Persist. Persist. Albeit, gently: My longest sale lasted five years. And some conversations are still in the pipeline. Safe to say that the five-year record will be broken soon! But there is a lesson here — never be in a hurry to ask with an attempt to close a deal. You may run the risk of shutting the door on the opportunity. Timing of the ask is pure art. There is no pat formula on making an ask post a certain number of meetings. I have closed deals in two meetings and some, am sure, will last a full decade.
9. Do not intimidate. The easiest way to deter a donor is by intimidating him or her with a big number. An assessment of the capability and inclination of donors requires maturity, judgement and patience. Especially when dealing with large sums. Another sure-fire way to discourage a donor is mentioning the quantum of grant made by another donor, especially if the latter is a large one. This singular act has the potential to intimidate and dissuade prospective donors who wish to commence their philanthropic journey.
10. Be well-informed. Read this with Point 1. How well-informed are you as a fundraiser? Do you plough through the New York Times, The Economist and The Fortune? What is the range of your reading? (John Grisham won’t do, Yuval Noah Harari is good, Steven Pinker is even better.) How well-informed are you on global current affairs? If you are raising funds in Hong Kong, how knowledgeable are you about issues concerning the city? What is the political climate of the country? Where is the economy headed? What is the unemployment rate and which sectors are performing well? Change the city to New York and the questions remain the same.
Why is the above important? Because engaging with donors meaningfully entails being well-versed about the world’s they inhabit and building purposeful conversations around them. Donor’s trust fundraisers whose interests extend beyond making an immediate sale and closing a deal. Well-rounded fundraisers enhance the quality of the sale, build deeper bonds with donors and elevate the brand of the organisation they represent.
Question to all fundraisers and organisation heads reading this article — how many of you possess the above talent, attributes and skills? How do you strategize and staff your teams? What kind of training do you bring to the table? What do you actively do to inspire and energise your sales team? Critical questions that require thoughtful responses.
Venkat Eshwara is Vice-President, Development and Alumni Relations, Ashoka University. Venkat has been with Ashoka for eight years and prior to that, spent 21 years in building and growing start-ups in financial services and related sectors.
