Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

Every Friday I do an analysis of my teams activity to ensure they are reaching their goals for communicating with major donors.  Each member of the team details in a one page report the number of conversations they’ve had; the number of actual meetings and the number of proposals they’ve discussed with supporters.  I even go to the extreme of counting how many emails were sent and how many times the phone was dialed.

Metrics like this are important if each member of the development team is going to meet their goal of visiting face to face 100 to 150 supporters each calendar year.  However, development professionals have to take precautions to ensure that their activitity is not just about the numbers.  The real question is whether or not they are listening to the needs of their supporters.

Everyweek, after each visit with the friends of our ministry, I take the time to ask myself a few critical questions:

1. What unique thing did I learn about this friend of our organization?

2. What unique fact or message did this supporter try to tell me during our meeting?

3. What needs does this partner have on a personal level for their family, business or future?

4. What unique thing does this sponsor want to do to help our organization?

If you leave every meeting with the answers to these

Roy C. Jones, CFRE

four questions rest assured that you are going to see revenue increase for your nonprofit.  It will happen because you made the visit about meeting the needs of the donor, instead of just meeting the needs of your organization.