When done right, your development message is clear.
A development message is structured to answer the questions donors always have but don’t always ask:
Why is this important?
What’s the mission?
What values drive all this?
What’s the history?
How did you get here?
What is the plan?
What are the strategic plan steps?
What are the goals?
Prospective donors must know your vision after hearing your development message.
Your development message is a written document that addresses each of these components. It is a plan with steps, each with a significant goal.
What are your stepping stones?
Oxford defines a stepping stone as “an action or event that helps one to make progress towards a specified goal.”
Intentional planning delivers results as a leader. Leaders need to learn differently to be able to focus on the projects and programs for the current year.
It’s a case of not seeing the forest through the trees.
To avoid this, know specific numbers related to your development plan every week.
Know your Core Four.
- Your Long-Term Goal–What is the long-term in the next three to five years? That’s typically in your development message. To keep momentum going, what’s the goal for this giving year?
- Your Progress to Date–Now that you have your long-term goal, take your pulse regularly. Where are you in relation to where you want to be?
- Your Giving Year Goal–Knowing where you want to be helps guide decisions about what to emphasize with donors. Knowing where you stand helps you make informed decisions.
- Your Near-Term Milestones–Along the way to meeting your long-term goal, there are opportunities to entice and inspire donors by calling out their ability to make a substantial impact by helping meet a near-term goal en route to the grand finale.
Your development message and Core Four ultimately come together in your mind with straightforward talking points.
Knowing your lists can’t be where you stop.
Next-level leaders use them effectively to select strategies.
How will you budget for the highest impact, the greatest return on investment of your time, energy, and money for your organization? Should it be a small group or large group face-to-face meetings? Mailings or social media push?
It is unbelievable the amount of time, energy, and creativity large group events will suck from your team with very, very little impact. The longer-term impact of it is hard even to measure.
Small groups always trump large groups in their effectiveness.
Go long.
Stop looking at your new donor recruiting number as one of your primary ways to evaluate development.
The two most important numbers that tell you if you’re doing development at a higher level are the total giving and long-term commitment numbers.
How many people have committed to give beyond one year?
Total giving doesn’t tend to go up by accident and long-term commitments hardly ever occur by accident.
Get prepared.
Gather your prospect list. It’s time to step out (and up) further.
Strategy is where the action occurs.
You have your next steps, and I look forward to hearing from you during this series as I show you how to turn plans into action. Next, we will dive into strategies. Keep moving forward!