We tend to assume that because someone graduated from our institution, we’ve earned the right to ask them for money. Cameron Hall thinks we usually haven’t. Cameron leads annual giving and donor experience at the University of South Carolina, and his whole approach starts from that uncomfortable premise: the right to solicit is something you earn.
He’s a data person, and he splits donors into three groups: the positive ones already giving, the neutral ones who quietly ignore us, and the negative ones we’ve somehow lost. Most shops obsess over the first group. Cameron argues the neutral and lapsed are the most undervalued people on the list, and the reason they’re stuck there is almost always the same, we led with an ask before we’d earned it. Not every message has to be a solicitation. Sometimes, he says, the first email should just tell a story, or carry a little whimsy, a coloring sheet even, and build from there.
Instead of telling donors their story, at USC, they ask for it. Cameron uses himself as the example: fresh out of school he’d have given to his political science department, but a decade later he’s a foodie with 88 houseplants, and the meaningful ask now is food science or plant biology. “We flipped it to where we’re not telling them the story, we’re asking them to tell us their story.” Get that right and people raise their hand, sometimes for gifts far bigger than anyone expected.
Big Themes This Week
Being someone’s alum doesn’t mean you’ve earned the right to ask. Trust comes first, and the ask comes after.
The neutral and lapsed donors are the most undervalued on your list, usually because we solicited before we earned it.
Flip the storytelling. On the cultivation side, stop telling donors their story and start asking them to tell you theirs.
Team Discussion Questions
Where are we asking before we’ve earned the right to ask?
How are we treating our neutral and lapsed donors, and what would it take to re-earn their trust?
Do we know what our donors care about now, or only what they cared about as students?
Faculty-in-Residence
Topic: Faculty-in-Residence Symposium with Mallory Erickson
Date: Wednesday, September 23 from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ET
Speakers: Mallory Erickson, Kristin Hanson, Andrea Devine, Scott Francis
We’ll conclude our first Faculty-in-Residence experience with Mallory Erickson by hosting a round table discussion on the themes from What The Fundraising. The Symposium will be hosted by Contributing Editor, Kristin Hanson, and led by SE Members, Andrea Devine from the University of Virginia and Scott Francis from Auburn University.
