One Company’s Fundraising Prescription

Benevon, a fundraising-consulting company, trains staff, board members, and other volunteers from small and medium-size charities to work together to appeal to new donors for multiyear gifts.

Here’s what it recommends:

Get people interested.

Staff members and volunteers are asked to invite any friends, family members, and other associates who might be interested in the charity’s cause to visit the organization for a one-hour tour and presentation about its work.

Seek out their ideas.

Call people who attended the presentation one to three days afterward to find out what they liked and get suggestions for how the event could be improved.

Ask for money.

After nine months to a year of inviting people on tours, ask everyone who visited to a free breakfast or luncheon that features a more in-depth presentation about the charity’s work and needs. At this event, a key leader asks each person to make a donation or pledge to give $1,000 or more in each of the next five years.

Demonstrate results.

Urge people who made donations to attend two free follow-up events each year with their friends, relatives, and colleagues. No one should be asked for money at these events. The purpose is to demonstrate how the charity is putting donors’ contributions to good use.