How High Will You Go? Train Your Board to Think Bigger About Campaign Gifts

Most people give out of habit. They have a few, perhaps six or eight, organizations they give to and they have an amount they are comfortable giving.

For some people $100 is a comfortable gift. Others may comfortably give $500 or $1000 or more. And for the most part they stick with that amount unless something nudges them to give more (or less).

But when a capital campaign comes down the road, the expectation for giving will be higher.

Capital Campaigns Require Higher Giving Expectations for Donors

Campaigns have higher goals. And donors who give habitually to an annual fund year after year will be encouraged to give more to the campaign than they normally give.

The first people who will have to come to grips with the higher expectations are your board members. And today, I’m sharing with you a great exercise you can use to help them reset their thinking and to understand what it will take to get others to make bigger gifts, too.

This exercise comes from Train Your Board (And Everyone Else) to Raise Money. Andy Robinson and I wrote this book to provide useful participatory exercises that will help people develop their fundraising skills.

Of the 53 exercises in the book, the one I will share with you here is one of my personal favorites.

Training Exercise: Help Board Members Think Bigger About Their Gifts

In this exercise, people will have a chance to think about what it would take to make a gift that is bigger than the gifts they usually make. People will not have to state their giving levels, so you can work with a group of mixed financial capacity without embarrassing anyone.

NOTE: You can do this exercise with a small group of three or four, or a big group of 50 or more. It works the same way, though with more than eight people, you’ll want to debrief it differently.

Step-by-Step Instructions to Think Bigger

Here are step-by-step instructions for how this training exercise works.

1. Introduce the theme — Tell everyone that you’d like to help them think about how donors make giving decisions and that the more they understand about how donors make giving decisions, the more effective their fundraising will be.
2. Reassure them about their privacy — Assure them that they will NOT be asked to reveal their own giving, and that most of the work of the exercise will be done quietly in their own minds. Tell them that they might find it easier to focus during the exercise if they close their eyes.
3. Determine their giving baseline — When everyone is settled, ask them to think of the giving amount that is habitual or standard for them.
4. Double it and give it a think — Ask them to double that amount and think about what might motivate and enable them to give the higher amount.
5. Double it again and think some more — Ask them to double the new, higher amount and think about what it would take for them to give the higher amount. What might motivate them?
6. Encourage them to consider key motivators — Then ask them to add the original amount. The resulting amount will be five times the original number. Once again, ask them to think about what it would take to motivate them to give at that level. (You can lighten the atmosphere by telling them that robbing a bank or winning the lottery are not viable options!)
7. Give adequate time at each step — Give people minute or two each time they increase the amount to think seriously.

When you have the sense that people are ready — they will probably open their eyes — then ask them to write down three things that would encourage them to give the higher amount. Then, ask people to share what they have written.

Potential Results: Why Might People Give Bigger Gifts?

Here are just a few of the things you might hear:

• Knowing the difference a larger gift would make.
• Being asked in person by someone I know and respect.
• Knowing the goal I am giving toward.
• Knowing that others in the organization are also stretching.
• Feeling a strong connection to the organization.
• Having an extended pledge period.

Debriefing for Smaller and Larger Groups

If you’re working with a smaller group of eight or less, write the ideas down on a shared chart or page.

On the other hand, if you’re working with a larger group and people are sitting around tables, ask each table to discuss their answers and come up with a list at their table. Then debrief by going around the room asking for one idea from each table. Keep going around until all of the ideas have been listed.

Conclude the Exercise with a Discussion

Conclude the exercise by asking everyone to look at the list and discuss how the organization might use those ideas to encourage people to give at a higher level.

This exercise will take between 20 and 30 minutes. And while the exercise ends with a group discussion, most of the heavy lifting of this exercise will have been done quietly as each person thinks about their own giving.

When to Use this Exercise

You can use this exercise with your board, campaign committees, or even your staff. I’ve always found it to be effective. It’s easy to set up and it gets people thinking and talking about a key topic in any fundraising — what motivates people to give more!

Try it out with your board members. If you do, check back and share your experience in the comments below. And feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about this exercise.