No industry is exempt from reworking plans amid COVID-19. Success in the philanthropy world is driven by building relationships, making meaningful contacts, analyzing data, and helping supporters and potential supporters match their interests with organizational needs. What do we do for this undetermined amount of time?
People are homebound – working at home, taking care of children or grandchildren, checking in on elderly neighbors or parents, etc. While I always cater my counsel to individual client needs, here are some general thoughts that may be helpful:
Rethink meaningful contacts
With board members: they are leaders and key decisionmakers. Respect their time as they deal with COVID-19 in their own realms but ask for their expertise. What are their suggestions for operations? What is working in their world? Ask their opinions – but only if you are willing to listen and put some into action.
With major donors and prospects: Contact them by phone to check in. Convey how their gifts are impacting your ability to continue do work in this crisis. Remind them about online offerings such as podcasts, webinars, videos, reading material, research databases, etc. catered to their specific interests. Is someone expecting an ask or proposal? Proceed. Just find out from them the best way to reach them.
With annual supporters: email them about services they may not know about, such as the online offerings listed above. Consider lifting a paywall for a time to permit access to subscription materials as your budget allows.
Rethink planning
Travel schedule: During the time you planned to be in a specific city, set up appointments instead via Facetime, Zoom, Skype, or another web conferencing platform and hold your meeting there. Follow up with notes, calls, internal contacts, etc., as you would under normal circumstances. Talk to a digital gift officer. This is their domain. Find out how they operate in their virtual territory.
Annual giving calendar: look closely at your remaining appeal schedule for this fiscal year. Because of social distancing or closures, you are operating with no volunteers or students to assist with efforts. Should you remove certain segments from your appeals for now? How can you shift messaging to convey need while remaining mindful the demands and burdens facing supporters? Could written appeals change to eblasts or social media efforts? Could you retool your phonathon script to an email with a distinct subject line?
Rethink goals
With staff: How will this unprecedented situation affect goals for number of contacts, personal visits, asks, or dollars raised? Listen to your staff. Be a leader. Be inspirational. Be understanding. Be empathetic. Be encouraging. Involve your staff in solutions.
With finance office: what flexibility do you have with fundraising goals and expectations? No one has a crystal ball to gauge the impact of COVID-19. Keep a conversation going with them.
This is by no means exhaustive, but it at least gets us started. What is working for you? How can I help?