Back to Basics: What is Cultivation?

What IS cultivation?

When I was thinking of starting this blog, I asked friends and clients for questions that they'd like me to answer - anonymously (for them) so no one would think they were stupid.  This is the second most frequent question I got.  And since I put up some posts describing the very basics of major gift fundraising, I've been getting variations on this theme - now that I've met with a prospective donor, I know that I'm supposed to "cultivate" them and then "solicit" them...but what does cultivation really mean?  What am I supposed to be doing???  How will I know when I'm done cultivating and it's time to solicit?

So let's pick up where we left off: You get a meeting, you psych yourself up, you go, and you rock it out with confidence and good listening skills.  Congrats!  You are now in the cultivation phase.

Before I give tips from my experience on techniques you can try to cultivate folks, let's think about what cultivation needs to do for you.  There are people who don't know your organization, and there are people who give meaningful gifts to your organization.  What lies between those two points is cultivation.

Cultivation is HARD work, and you've got to plant many seeds
if you want to gather enough fruit to feed your family.

Cultivation does the following:

• Turns your prospect into someone who knows enough about your organization.
• Turns your prospect into someone who cares enough about your organization.
• Connects your prospect to your mission and its larger context in new ways.
• Teaches you enough about your prospect.

That word "enough" is a killer though, right?  I'm so sorry - I can give you a framework for thinking about these things, but there's still an element of art to fundraising, a gut sense that you have to develop for yourself.  

Every prospective donor has their own set of criteria for making a donation to an organization.  This is true from your $20 donors on up to your $20 million donors...and it often varies by the size of the gift they're contemplating, and how emotional their tie is to your mission/cause.  Your job is to figure out what they need to know before they're comfortable donating to your organization.  Might be financial assurances, might be strategic planning, might be proof that your programs are having impact...might just be an understanding of what you do and why.  The important thing to remember is that your job is NOT to get them to some basic level of knowledge about your organization.  You don't get points for their being able to pass a pop quiz if you've failed to pay attention to what's relevant to them - and then get them that information, without overkill.

When it comes to what you do and why, that's the key to "caring enough."  When your prospective donor sees beyond the technicalities of your needs (you need money to do X) and starts being truly interested in WHY your organization has made its choices, you're on your way.  Most donors will need to get to the point where they feel that you stand out from the crowd, that your programs are different, in a good way, from what other organizations are doing with similar missions.  You're looking to take up residence in your donors' brains, so that they forward you newspaper articles and funny tweets related to your mission, and so that they talk about you when they're out with friends.

Which brings us to connecting these folks in new ways.  It's not just that they appreciate your programs in a sea of like-minded institutions, it's that they become more connected to the larger mission.  For instance - if you are an organization that provides mentoring for young girls, you want these donors to think of you when related topics come up over drinks with friends - bullying and what to do about it; feminism and equality; lack of women in politics; the impact of intergenerational relationships in society...cultivation is bringing that potential donor to the point where they think of themselves as being involved in good works, being part of the solution to society's Big Problems (even if you're only tackling a small piece of things) because they're connected to you.

And last but not least, cultivation is not purely a process that your donor goes through.  You are cultivating a relationship, and that takes two people.  When you can answer confidently "yes, this person is ready for a solicitation" - which, by the way, also requires you to know what the right solicitation might be - then you know your donor well enough to move to the next level.

Tomorrow: practical tips for doing this kind of work