Dear Mrao---For the most part, a missed contact with a potential funder is a lost opportunity for you as Director of Development---and certainly for the organization---to develop and to nurture a possible long-term, and fruitful, relationship. As Director of Development, by the very nature of the title, you must be engaged in the process of such donor development. How else can your organization take advantage of those initial meetings if you are not in the position right at the start to later be able to manage additional contact and cultivation, and to ultimately oversee the building of donor loyalty? Board Chairs and Executive Directors simply are not in the position by demands of their basic responsibilities to maintain such critical continuity to donor management, as can, and should, the the Director of Development.
My lead words were “For the most part.” There are the times when the presence of a Director of Development at such meetings might not be appropriate. But, they are few and far between. However, all such proposed meetings must be discussed with the Director of Development to determine well in advance who will comprise the organization’s meeting representatives. There were the times when it was best I did not attend.
Maybe the initial meeting was to be more of a social, and “soft-sell” event, and the staff development and campaign-knowledgeable person was not needed, nor was it appropriate.
Other times, we recognized that the prospective donor was of such a social, business, or civic caliber, that we knew she or he would be more ego-stroked if visited only by our “heavy hitters.” That did not put me a demeaning light, nor did it otherwise slight my pride---it was a fact I recognized and understood, and indeed, something which I actively promoted when I knew it was right.
Case by case, we determined who would be the best and most appropriate members of our meeting team, and for which reasons. Far more often than not, I was there as the fund-raising resource who, when asked, could answer any question regarding the general state of our organization’s fund-raising past, present, and future.
Go get 'em. You should be there. You must be there.
Tony Poderis
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