Faithful Activity

In times when I’ve lost sight of why doing the small things—the “faithful activity” of fundraising—is important, one story from my experience has served as an encouraging prod.

I was the vice president of advancement at a Christian school, and one of the things I was working hard to do was grow the donor base. In trying to reach out to as many people as I could, I thanked each person when they made a gift.

One day, a $500 gift came in from a family that I hadn’t met and who had never given before. I looked them up and found out they had a child enrolled in the high school. When I called just to thank them, I talked to the mother. I thanked her, asked a little bit about their family and connection to the school, and added, “If you’re ever open to it, I’d love to meet your family. I could come by your office, or me, you, and your husband could get coffee or lunch or something.”

She worked for an investment firm and invited me to her office. We had a great visit just getting to know each other, but before I left, she said, “Hey, if you’ve got a few more minutes, I’d like to introduce you to my colleague in the office next door. He happens to sit on the board of a nearby foundation.”

That foundation was known for giving to private school capital campaigns—particularly Christian school campaigns. As I talked with this gentleman, he offered, “If I can ever be helpful with the foundation, let me know. We’d love to help the school.”

Not long after this meeting, I was able to introduce both of them to the head of school over lunch. Even after I left my position at the school, this relationship continued to develop, ultimately resulting in a gift of over $1 million from the foundation to the school’s campaign.

This all started with being faithful to the next thing—the next thing being saying thank you for a gift, then asking to meet them, then meeting her colleague, then connecting them with the head of school. This is a good example for us fundraisers to remember: Even these small things that we do in the daily work of development can lead to big things. It was about three or four years before that large gift materialized, but it all started by saying thank you to a donor family.

Another little lesson from this story is that the key to getting a gift from a foundation is knowing somebody with a connection to the foundation. I can already hear you asking, “Well how do you find somebody with a connection?” Chances are, you probably already know somebody who knows somebody, but you just don’t know it yet. Again, you discover those sorts of things through faithful activity, through talking with donors and friends of your organization about their lives, their passions, their circles.

Remembering this example pushes me when I need pushing to take the next little step and do the next right thing.