If you asked a group of 20 experienced fundraising leaders what the most important trait for success is among their frontline team, you might get 20 different responses.
They may guess being outgoing or assertive to chase the connection. Being passionate about their work. Being good storytellers to make the pitch. Being coachable and frankly likable.
And we don’t disagree; any manager would be well-equipped to find a fundraiser with those strengths. However, our lived experience fundraising and coaching hundreds of fundraisers showed us there’s one particular trait yet mentioned that continues to rise above the rest:
Curiosity.
We believe a fundamental part of being successful as a fundraiser is predicated on how curious you are. The textbook definition of curiosity is “a strong desire to know or learn something.”
What’s most important is the desire to learn the right things that help you connect with the donor. There are critical insights you need to know about every prospect that equips you to move the conversation forward in a productive way.
An important caveat: it’s tricky to be strategic in a conversation and still sound like a real human being. Leaning into curiosity means asking the questions that make building a relationship feel like genuine rapport rather than closing a sale.
This is where we employ our Prospect2Donor Process (P2D) with our clients. It blends the structure you need to develop a consistent process, while keeping a lens of curiosity to guide all your donor interactions.
Here are three examples:
Are there other organizations that you’ve supported as a donor or volunteer? What compelled you to engage with those organizations?
At a minimum, you learn if they have a history of giving in a much less abrupt way than asking do you give. It’s also likely in their response to your open-ended question you learned insights about the focus areas they lean towards and the motivations behind why they give.
You really lit up when you shared your experience with [XYZ topic]. It sounds like that’s important to you. Is that right?
Show them that you’re listening by doubling down on what you’ve heard. You can further understand what makes them tick, where their priorities for giving lie and even start to learn what you can do to move up in that priority list.
We have supporters that make decisions in a variety of ways: regrouping with members of their families, consulting with third-parties like financial advisors or lawyers, or manage the selection independently. Would you talk to me about your preferred decision-making process?
Framing it in a manner like this gives the prospect space to respond intentionally and still maintain their authority. You’ll learn how many other key stakeholders there may be in the choice, as well as impacts on your timeline to accommodate outside consultation.
So we encourage you to chase the right questions. One often opens the door to another, and informs where you take the conversation next. The above examples showcase how framing your inquiry through the light of genuine curiosity invites the right donor response.
If you’d like to learn more about our Prospect2Donor Process (P2D) and ways to instill more curiosity into your team’s approach, connect with our coaching team today. We guarantee this will create better connections with your prospects and positively impact your ultimate donor response.
