Podcast: Crisis, Clarity, and Capital Campaign Leadership: How Smart Donor Engagement Strengthens Decisions

Season 5, Episode 27

A snowstorm shuts down a city, a systems failure brings operations to a halt, or a major campaign gift suddenly falls apart. Moments like these reveal how strong a nonprofit’s donor relationships really are.

In this episode, Amy Eisenstein and Andrea Kihlstedt explore how nonprofit leaders can engage donors as true partners during moments of uncertainty, urgency, and high stakes decision making.

This episode offers nonprofit executives, development professionals, and campaign leaders practical insight into building donor relationships that hold steady when plans change and decisions carry real weight.

Listen Now:

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Amy Eisenstein:
There’s a blizzard today. Have you called your donors?

Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein. I’m here with my colleague and co-founder, Andrea Kihlstedt, and we are hunkering down today because it is blizzarding all across the country, certainly along the South and in the Northeast. Here we’re getting in New York and New Jersey, inches and inches and inches of snow today. So we’ve got a great topic. We’re going to be talking about how to engage donors and how to think about your donors really in partnership when there’s something, decisions to be made, crisis, non-crisis, planning for a crisis.

External Crises vs. Internal Crises

All right, Andrea, this is a great topic. I’m really interested in drawing donors in to help your organization think through scenarios and make decisions.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah, I’m excited to talk about this also, Amy.

There are, I think, two ways to think about it. There are external crises like the snowfall we’re seeing, and there are internal crises when something really goes awry in your organization, which these things do happen. And in each of these situations, you have amazing opportunities to reach out to your donors, to some of your most important donors, and draw them closer. Now, let’s break them down into those two categories. Let’s start, Amy, by talking about external crises that are happening.

And I know of two immediate ones for us. One is that really by the end of the day today, sitting here in New York, we will probably have 15 inches of snow on the ground, and that’s going to cause challenges for most everybody over some significant period of time. That’s one crisis. The other crisis that I want to talk about is what’s currently happening with ICE and what’s happening, particularly in Minnesota and Portland, Maine. We happen to have clients in both of those areas, and they’re really horrendous crises, things that are going on on the ground there that are just horrendous.

Now, how can we think about those and how would an organization think to use those or to reach out to their donors in those circumstances?

Amy Eisenstein:
All right. So first of all, I just have to say, so today we’re talking about snow and ICE. Okay. It had to be done. It had to be done.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yes, I love it. Snow and ICE.

Amy Eisenstein:
Snow and ICE. Okay.

Exernal Crises: Invite in Donors as Partners

So I mean, I think that the gist of the idea is that there are external crises happening around the country. Natural disasters and manmade disasters, let’s call it, that organizations have to make decisions around. And the question is, how do they make those decisions and how do they use it as an opportunity to engage their biggest potential donors, their biggest donors, so that those donors are really partners in their work. I mean, that’s the goal. That’s the idea is that you’re not just going to donors even around campaign issues. This is an opportunity to go to donors around other issues facing your organization.

A Real-World Example

So okay, let’s take the snow example. And I just heard from a soup kitchen that I support that they made the decision to close today for the safety of their employees, their staff, and their clients. And what they did was that yesterday they sent home take home meals. They provided additional food, but there were lots of decisions to be made.

I know lots of soup kitchens that are open 365, that’s their goal. No matter what, they’re open every single day. And bringing your biggest donors into those decisions and discussions, those are not easy decisions to make. It’s not always cut and dry. It may seem like it in this particular circumstance, but a lot of thought and preparation had to go into making that decision. And so whether you call and consult with a few donors and just think through, not that they’re going to make the ultimate decision, but just say, “This is something that we wrestle with here.”

How do you think through making these decisions when it comes to policies or procedures or safety of our both staff and clients? So that’s one example.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah. Let me take that a little farther, Amy, because that’s one possibility is that there may be some of your donors who you think would be really helpful in that conversation and you might invite them into it. There may be donors that you don’t want anywhere near that conversation.

You want to make a decision. Your executive director wants to make that decision. It is the director, is probably the director’s decision to make or the program director’s decision to make. But you could identify your top 10 or 20 donors and decide that you’re going to call each of them, you and your staff are going to call each of them and say:

“I just thought you’d like to know that here’s the decision we made, and here’s how we’re dealing with it to make sure everyone is taken care of. And we want you to be among the first to know about why we did this.”

Even that, even informing people ahead of everybody else, not just sending out an email to everybody, but actually informing them and saying, “Here’s what we’ve decided to do. And if there are ways in which you would like to help going forward, here are some ways that you might help.” But just a phone call, an update phone call in difficult times is powerful.

If you are in a community that, for example, is really affected by the snowfall, you should look through your donor list and think about whether there are people there who might need help, who might need support, who might need someone to stop by, who might… There’s nothing wrong with calling people and saying:

“Hey, Sarah or Mrs. Jones, I realize that the snow is difficult for you. Do you have someone to shovel your walk? Can we help with that? Is there something you need that we could help with? We just wanted to touch base with you and make sure you were okay.”

That’s easy to do.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. So I just want to take that a little farther. I mean, organizations probably aren’t mostly in a position to go send shovelers, but they could brainstorm and they could check in and they could help them make a plan. And I think all of that is right. So, yeah, okay.

Reaching Out to Donors During a Crisis

Andrea Kihlstedt:
And the important part really is just reaching out to say, “Just making sure you’re okay. I know the snow is probably difficult for you. If there’s something we can help you with or put you in touch with someone else to help you with, we’d be happy to do it.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. “We’re thinking about you.”

Andrea Kihlstedt:
“We’re thinking about you and want to make sure you get through this okay.” That’s easy to do and goes a long way.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. It would be shocking, I think to any donor to have an organization call them and say:

“We recognize that this is a difficult time in the city and we’re thinking about you. We want to make sure that you’re okay.”

Great. I love it.

Another Example: ICE Chaos

Now, another example is ICE descending on our cities. And the reality is that they’re causing chaos in Minneapolis and in Portland, Maine, and in cities throughout the country right now. And so the question is, how are you as organizations reacting to, dealing with, how is it impacting? And that is really an amazing opportunity to reach out to donors and engage them in thinking through how are you going to react, respond, what is their experience? How are they experiencing shutdowns in the city? How should you be thinking about staff and clients and donors and engaging people in those decisions and in the moment, even as it’s happening.

You can schedule a call for tomorrow, for tonight, get people on Zoom, say:

“We’re trying to figure out what our next move is, and we’re looking for ideas and we’re asking you to help us think this through and brainstorm as we make decisions.”

So as these things come up, engaging, reaching out to donors is one of the ways to keep your best donors informed and updated and really as a partner in your process as your organization faces various things externally we’re talking about now. What do you want to add to that before we move on to internally?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Well, again, Amy, you’ve started with the possibility of inviting donors in to be planning partners. And I think that’s a good idea for some donors and there are others you probably wouldn’t want to do that with.

So I think it needs to be on everybody’s list who could help us, who is appropriate, who helps think things through like this well. But the thing that I come to is that there may well be people, many donors who are looking for ways to help more generally, to help the situation more generally. And you, as a nonprofit leader, may be in a position to help them figure that out.

So you may, for example, put together a list of things people could do to help on the ground. You may put together a webinar where you have an expert from a local organization that is organizing helping possibilities and say, “We’d be happy to invite you to this.” So on one hand, you invite them, say, “Would you help us figure out a plan?” On the other hand, you say, “We have many contacts in the nonprofit world who know what’s going on on the ground and we are organizing a webinar or a Zoom for our donors to help inform them. Here’s what it is. Join us if you can.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, excellent. I think that’s a great suggestion. Okay. Sometimes this topic feels overwhelming, but I think that providing ideas and having this brainstorm and this discussion even between us is going to be helpful for people. So I’m glad we’re doing it.

Internal Crises: An Opportunity to Connect with Donors

All right. What about some internal things? What are some internal things that might be opportunities to engage donors?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Well, we just had one the other day, Capital Campaign Pro had one the other day. When for the first time in the years we’ve been in existence, our website went down for a significant period of time. And eight hours, something like that. I mean, it was –

Amy Eisenstein:
It wasn’t just the website. It was our Online Toolkit. It was access to records. Everything went down. Our systems went down for 24 hours. For 24 hours. It was —

Andrea Kihlstedt:
So it was pretty extreme. It was pretty extreme. And that had never happened to us before. And we found that we were ill-prepared for it because we didn’t have a plan. We didn’t have a contingency plan. So lo and behold, it was like after we had a whole bunch of wrenching conversations about, “Okay, what happened? Why did it happen? How did it happen?”

We realized that it was a wonderful opportunity for us to actually do some scenario planning and put some contingency plans in place. Now, that turns lemons into lemonade for us going forward because when we have those plans, everyone will know what to do when something like that happens again. It doesn’t quite address the question of, is there a way we might involve, one might involve donors in that process.

And what I would say about that is that if something like that happens to you and you need advice, look through your list of donors and say, “Who do you know? Who is on your donor list who has expertise in that area?” You might ask for help rather than trying to hide it. The immediate response is, “Oh, let’s not tell anybody.” And that’s honestly what happened to us. There were some people who said, “Well, it’s going to be better in a minute. Let’s not tell anybody.” Well, it wasn’t better in a minute and we needed to tell everybody. When this happens to your nonprofit, the immediate response is, okay, we don’t want everybody to know that we messed up —

Amy Eisenstein:
Messed up. Yes, yes.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
“So let’s not tell anybody.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Circle the wagons. Circle the wagons.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yes, it’s so tempting.

Amy Eisenstein:
Well, it can be anything, a data breach.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yes, yeah. All kinds of stuff can happen.

Amy Eisenstein:
Oh, your CEO gets arrested, circle the wagons, circle the wagons or whatever happens.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah. So instead of, I mean, everybody needs to go through the circle the wagon mentality. It’s perfectly natural and normal, but then you need to be prepared to say, all right, circling the wagons probably isn’t the best thing to do. We should be sure that we have protocols in place if we don’t so that next time when this happens, we know what to do.

And let’s look at the people who are closest to us. Let’s look at our donors. Let’s look at other people and say, “Well, who would be most helpful in this? And let’s reach out to them.” And third, reach out to the people who are most important and tell them what’s going on. Don’t leave them in the dark.

Amy Eisenstein:
I mean, I think that the openness, the transparency, the honesty is going to serve you well in the long run rather than them finding out a different way or when it hits the papers or when they see it in their social media feed, you taking the time to reach out and say:

“Listen, we’re going through this crisis and we want you to know.”

Sometimes you’re looking for advice and sometimes you’re just informing early, but treating them again as partners in your process. Now, this raises two things for me. One is, what are you going to do when a crisis hits and how are you going to react and respond? But I think that this brings up a real opportunity for people to do some scenario planning and to put some policies and procedures in place. We were caught without the proper policies and procedures, but we’ve learned a big lesson and now that’s what we’re doing.

So I think it’s an opportunity to reach out to some of your donors and say, okay, what are the scenarios that could happen and how might we plan for them? So there’s a disgruntled employee that posts on social media or… There’s lots of scenarios. And I think that bringing some of your donors in to have a discussion and a brainstorm to think through, you’re not going to be prepared for everything, but this can work both before and after and during a crisis.

Handling Crises During a Capital Campaign

Andrea Kihlstedt:
You know, Amy, let’s wind up by bringing this back to the capital campaign field. And one thing that happens sometimes, we don’t wish it to happen, but it does happen, is that an organization has a campaign and they are quite sure of their lead gift. They have talked to the donor, they’ve got a good indication that the lead gift is going to be there, that they’ve done their homework, but it’s not signed and sealed yet.

And somewhere down the road, something happens that undermines that lead gift and then the donor gets a terminal illness and is no longer able to function. The donor changes his or her mind for some reason that —

Amy Eisenstein:
The donor dies. We’ve had that happen.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
The donor dies. I mean, that happens.

Amy Eisenstein:
We’ve seen that happen, yeah.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
It happens. It happens.

Amy Eisenstein:
Sure.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
So here we are with an immediate crisis. Now, in the context of this conversation, who do you inform? Who do you call? Who do you talk to? Do you hide that information from your other large donors? Do you bring it up?

Amy Eisenstein:
Well, I mean, presumably in many cases, that is very difficult for the campaign. So then it raises all sorts of questions about, can we do this and does it scale back the project or what happens? So going to your donors and saying:

“Look, we thought we had this lead gift and these are the potential implications. These are the three or four scenarios. What do you think we should do? How might you help? What do you recommend?”

Those types of things. Now, interesting, I thought you were going to say, so we can talk about one more scenario, is that the project falls apart.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
That too. That also happens.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, that too. So that you’re about to buy a building and it falls through or whatever happens that the project falls apart. And how do you go to your donors? So both the lead donor can fall through and the project can fall through. And how do you engage your donors so that they really help you think your way and get out of whatever the situation or the best scenario planning?

More minds are better than one, and they often, these donors, this circle of insiders is in a position to help in ways that you might not be aware of or ways that you didn’t expect. And so going to them really is the best thing to do in a crisis, before, during, and after a crisis. Let’s say that.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
I think that’s right. And it all has the side effect of strengthening your relationship with your large donors, which of course, is critical for the best of fundraising.

Amy Eisenstein:
Excellent. I love it.

Final Thoughts

So don’t hide from your donors. Don’t keep it a secret, but go to them strategically, thoughtfully, early, and really whether you’re informing them or engaging them or asking for their advice, all things, it’s good to have your list right in front of you, posted analog, not digitally.

If your systems go down, can you reach out to your donors? Who are your top 20 or 30 calls that you’re going to make in a crisis? So great topic, Andrea.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Good topic, Amy. So I want to end it this way as I sit here looking out my window and the snow is coming down like mad and that may create a crisis for many people, but for me, I’m eager to put on my boots and get my hiking poles and go out and enjoy the city for a minute while it’s quiet and clean and beautiful.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. Enjoy the snow. All right. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time. Bye for now.