I hear this all the time: we don’t have enough prospects, donors, or volunteers. Why not?
There are two things that are almost unlimited in this world–money and people. One of the most scarce resources we have is time. If you feel you are lacking prospects, connections, donors, volunteers, candidates for positions then you have a time-use problem, not an actual lack of people. Let me explain.
How important is it for you to grow your community of givers and how should this impact your use of time?
Perhaps you are actually lacking a list. You must start there. Do a full accounting of every person that is connected to you and your organization. You will be astonished. I have yet to work with a leader who cannot, with an investment of a little bit of time and effort, build a list of 150–200 people that could make a huge difference, but are simply not being engaged deeply in the work of the vision.
I suspect you already have a list, or maybe even many lists. Perhaps you have a list of past donors that have fallen off the map, or people that have been referred to you by others. Watch out for a trap that I call “death by data.”
Leaders at risk of death by data say things that sound like this: “A list of names does me no good. Names don’t help, I need to know what these people could give, how much their house is worth; we need their phone numbers, or emails, or addresses, or children’s names, or place of business.” You can imagine what actually gets accomplished while people stay busy trying to find more and more data before taking action…NOTHING!”
A name is all you need. And, in today’s world, other than a name, the most valuable piece of actual data you could use (but isn’t essential), is an email address.
How often are you shopping in a store these days and being asked for your email address? All the time. Besides your name, which they can garner from your debit/credit card, businesses across the globe have decided that your name and email address is an extraordinarily valuable piece of information!
Here’s how you avoid the death by data trap. Shift your focus from gathering information, and instead step on the gas pedal and take some action on the names! Here’s a short list of action items. You can do each of these in next 15 minutes, so just pick one and gain some new momentum right NOW.
1. Call as many people on the list that you already know and ask them to help you connect with people that could make a big difference in your organization this year.
2. Call your team together for a brief standup meeting or virtual meeting to review your list and identify specific steps that could be taken for each. Often the team will know people you don’t know.
3. Email your list to your board or close advisors, seeking their input, advice, and introductions to any name on the list.
4. Assign the list of people with no contact information to someone/anyone to hunt down their phone numbers. In today’s world, this information is easy to find. If needed, have them follow up with the person that gave you the name in the first place to find out where to focus their search.
5. Schedule every available face to face meeting slot you have available in the next two weeks with people who are past givers and ask them to give you the names of some people they believe could make a huge difference through their giving or involvement.
I’ll leave you with another action item that you can apply every single day for the rest of your life. Commit to asking every person you meet with, at least once a year, to help you connect new people to your organization and vision.
If you do this, I promise, you’ll never run out of people to engage and develop while challenging them to have a greater impact in advancing your vision.