Ten Lessons Learned from My First Time to Fundraise

1. Articulate Your Why

I am huge fan of Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” – and with fundraising, it’s no different. To be successful, you and your team need to be clear about your why so you can articulate it to your potential donors.

It was not enough to simply state that the funds would provide legal assistance for those who cannot afford it. That’s the “what” the non-profit does – but that’s not the why.

Instead, we took the time to share the stories of specific clients whose lives were forever changed because of our services and prior donors.

We took the time to connect the giving to upholding the shared core values of the community — how $255 was the difference between a family being evicted, between a veteran feeling forgotten, how it was the leg up our neighbor needed, how it was a symbol of our shared belief that justice is for all.

2. Understand Donors’ Why

While this may sound like stating the obvious, I saw this mistake repeated during our campaign — assuming our why is the same as a potential donor’s why. This assumption leads to frustration and volunteer fatigue – when we send the same email over and over and wondering why we aren’t getting a response.

People give for different reasons. Sometimes, it is because of the cause. Other times, it’s because someone with whom they had a relationship, asked them. Sometimes, it’s because the visibility elevates their company or personal branding. Or it could be that they just want to stop the spam emails — or any combination of the above.

To be successful, you have to understand why people give and to tailor your efforts to fulfill that why.

3. Authenticity is key.

Especially in this day and age of personal branding and social media and so much messaging and too much information, I find that having an authentic voice is key to getting through all the noise. Asking for money starts with trust – and the quickest way to lose trust is to be fake about who you are, what you’re doing and why.

Which is why I’d spend some time thinking about and developing your asks.

Yes, I get that time constraints may necessarily lead to template letters and emails – but truth be told, those mostly get ignored. What gets read is a personalized email (see no. 4) that authentically articulates your why (see no. 1) and fulfills the donor’s why (see no. 2).

What can this look like?

For me, informal language. No flowery words – just truth-dropping. And acknowledging that I hate asking for money and that I wouldn’t do it if this weren’t important to me (which is true – I won’t be doing another fundraising campaign for awhile to keep that true). And emphasizing that I’m in it too – I’m not just asking; I’m also donating. Finally, rejection is hard for me to not take personally so I chose not to make a single phone call, which necessarily meant more emails but I was ok with that.

Consider what this looks like for you.

4. Personalization is powerful.

Everyone has a need to be seen, to be acknowledged. And nothing says the opposite more than a dry, cookie-cutter email lacking authenticity that has your preferred pronoun incorrect (I have personally received many an ask addressed to Mr. Meyling) or a copy and paste email that was clearly a copy and paste email.

I know that it is a lot of work to send personal emails or make personal calls – and it is not feasible all the time – but in my experience, it can make a huge difference, especially if you truly have a personal connection.

5. Create a system.

While I can’t speak for others on my committee, having a system was instrumental to my success this year.

Last year, when I was on the committee, but I was not a co-chair, I was given a list of past donors to ask. I didn’t really have a system and just contacted folks whenever I got a reminder email to do so.

This year, I intentionally created a strategy (that changed – see no.7) that included:

• Targeting larger donors first
• Targeting recent donors next
• Moving to personal connections after that
• “Cold-contacting” last
• Emailing 10 potential donors a week – and flagging for follow up every week on those
• While adding 10 more every week (it got rough toward the end!)
• Emailing mostly on Sunday nights because I wanted my asks to be the first emails donors would see on Monday (plus, the kids were asleep)
• Avoiding emails on Fridays
• Scheduling time on my calendar specifically for this work

All these steps in my “system” enabled me to prioritize this commitment without taking away from my work or my family commitments – although it did encroach on my sleep (it had to come from somewhere!)

6. Persistence is everything.

Generally, it took 2-3 emails for people to respond. For some, it took 10 emails. And while some would have given up, the occasional “win” from the 8th email was worth the seconds it took to send another follow up email.

7. Innovate.

The word of the year during the pandemic beyond “unprecedented” was “pivot,” and this definitely applied to our fundraising as we couldn’t 100% rely on all our past donors due to the uncertainty of the economy from the pandemic.

Some examples of our team innovation this year:

• using text to donate function
• leveraging social media and having a social media plan for Facebook & Linked In
• hosting virtual events: a virtual wine tasting, two speed networking opportunities for outside counsel to mingle with in-house counsel and a fashion preview with Neiman Marcus

Personally, I changed my emails to try to address no. 2 and no. 4:

• Started out with a Hamilton-theme – an audacious ask during the pandemic because we were the last shot for those forgotten in our community so I wasn’t going to throw away my shot
• Shared a client story to show our why
• Shared a published news article to show impact of our work
• Emphasized need through creating an infographic
• Emphasized urgency and how much was left to raise as we neared the end of the campaign
• Created a holiday poem
• Had a tongue-in-cheek one, recognizing that the spam would stop once there was a gift

The best innovation of all was learning about “Quick Steps” in Microsoft Outlook, which allowed me to send emails even faster – allowing me to improve my system (sending over 1,000 emails in January 2021 alone).

8. Appreciate.

From informal crowdsourcing, one of the easiest ways to lose donors is to forget to show gratitude. It’s one thing to attract a donor – it’s another to keep one. And thank you goes a long way.

Keeping no. 1 – no. 5 in mind, I did my best to systematically thank donors personally (especially if I had a personal connection), authentically, reaffirming our why and theirs. For donors who donated because of the cause, I emphasized where their dollars were going. For those who gave because of me, I made it a point to remind them to call on me in the future if I could help them. For those who may see visibility as a benefit, we made sure to highlight their generosity on social media so that their clients and community could see.

9. Diversity wins.

For those who may still undervalue the power of diversity, I wholeheartedly believe that this was the key to this year’s record-breaking success. And I don’t mean just our ethnic backgrounds.

Yes, our committee included African-American, Caucasian, Latinx and Asian-American, but it also included women and men, in-house and outside counsel, small firm, communications, real estate, finance, energy, and automotive industry, Boomer, GenX and Millennials.

What was fundamental to our success is that we all had our unique networks and spheres of influence and strengths. One person was social media queen. Another was key to securing our Honorary Chair and getting his and his company’s engagement. Another was our event planner extraordinaire. This was an extraordinary example of where everyone could be their authentic selves and bring their unique talents to the table.

10. Engagement is crucial.

I don’t know about you, but I mostly place lawyering in the individual and not the team sports bucket. Don’t get me wrong – I do believe a team mentality is more helpful but when I look back at my career, it is very individual contributor focused. And I share this because when I was a co-vice-chair, that was the approach taken: here’s your list of folks to call on and all the touch points were about your success with your prospective list. In other words, do your individual part and we will get there.

This year, we were intentional about engaging our team. We discussed our collective why, debated about our strategy, shared successes and challenges and creative asks. Someone’s “win” was our collective “win” – as we realized that it often took a few nudges from different people to secure a donation. Our touch points were less about accountability for your individual list and more about keeping each other inspired and motivated and strategizing together.

Even in the last week of the campaign, we were emailing one another late into the night about what firms we hadn’t touched. There was a feeling that we were all in it together. That’s the power of engagement.

Last, but definitely not least, while this isn’t a really a lesson learned – this endeavor emphasized a fundamental belief I have and that is this:

Mostly – people (including lawyers) are good.

They want to do good – and they want to be better.

And in turn, we can be better by giving people the opportunity to be their best selves.

Hopefully, my lessons learned will help.

Meybe.