News from the Institute for Leaders in Development

Meet Cheryl Haggstrom, chair of the Institute for Leaders in Development's steering committee. Cheryl serves as executive vice president for Community First Foundation, where she has been since 2007. Her prior experience is in the area of quality improvement and risk management at Lutheran Medical Center, where she was employed for 15 years.

What is single best piece of advice you can give to a fundraiser?

Follow up!  I’m not talking about general stewardship or your annual check-in. I’m talking about promises to get back to someone about a question, a vow that you will call or any other mechanical commitment one makes during a casual conversation. If you meet with a prospect or donor and you promise to do something, do it! If you don’t, you will lose a person’s trust and confidence in you. If you do it, they will feel valued and connected. Once this happens, your donor will open up to you and they will follow up with you. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to learn this lesson. Use whatever works for you to remember to follow up! 
 

What’s the one book (it can be about fundraising or not!) and the one fundraising blog/periodical that you recommend to fundraisers?  And why?

The one book that always comes to mind is The Cathedral Within by Bill Shore. This book feeds the soul, inspires and requires you to be introspective. I think you need to understand yourself and your own values before you can truly connect with others about theirs. Books like this one are not technical. You won’t learn how to execute on a CRUT or a CRAT, but you will learn what stirs your emotions. Maybe, after reading this book, you will learn to connect with your donor on an emotional level.  Maya Angelou said: “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

The blog I check the most is The Non Profit Times. Check it out. 

What’s your favorite donor story?

My favorite donor story is the one where you answer the phone and the caller says they would like to make a gift. You frantically put down your coffee to find a pencil and clear your throat while you introduce yourself. Then the donor tells you what they want to give and how. You wait for the money to arrive and when it does, you tell your colleagues about the major donor gift you just closed. How’s that for a story?

What inspires you most as a fundraiser?

Connecting donors with causes they care about is what inspires me. Don’t shy away from tooting your horn. Tell stories about your amazing work and when donors connect you will have them for life. If you don’t know your donor; listen and learn. Ask them about their life, their journey, their joys and their sorrows. You will discover what turns them on. Making that connection is what inspires me.
 

What have you found to be most effective to stay energized in your work and to avoid burn-out?

Accomplishments! Setting goals big and small. I like annual goals. I like daily goals. Making a to-do list and checking things off! Have you ever had that dream where you are forever trying to get somewhere and you just never get there? Well, I have, and I wake up feeling terrible! I like to make a reasonable list of things to do every day and stick to it. Check them off. It feels great! Sometimes I take the worst job on my list and find a day or an hour and commit to getting it done. It may be the only thing I absolutely commit to that day. When I get that one thing done I feel so accomplished, and then everything else I do that day is like icing on the cake. And then I say, it was a good day. Today my goal was to send you the answers to these questions!

What is the single best piece of advice you can give to a fundraiser?

I think one of the hardest things for fundraisers is prioritizing their time. The most important thing is to stay focused on your donors and doing what is necessary and sometimes not necessary, to cultivate the donor and the gift. It is so common to get pulled into numerous projects and meetings and asked to prepare reports few of which have a positive impact on moving your donors forward in the cultivation process. Stay focused!

What’s the one book you would recommend to a fundraiser and why?

For anyone interested in learning about gift planning or in just having a reference book on the subject, I strongly recommend “The Complete Guide to Planned Giving” by Debra Ashton

What’s the one fundraising blog or periodical you recommend fundraisers subscribing to?

I find it really important to stay up with tax law and legislative changes. I follow several sources and frankly don’t feel that any are great. “Planned Giving Today” sure tries however.

What’s your favorite donor story?

I have been fortunate over my career to have many wonderful donors and could tell several stories. The one I would like to share now is of a woman from very modest means who suffered most of her life with asthma. She gave small gifts to National Jewish but they were consistently given year after year. We learned that she had included National Jewish in her estate plan through a mailing and I tried to contact her to thank her and set a visit. She was happy to speak with me by phone but not comfortable having me visit. I said I would keep in touch and did.

Over the course of several calls I learned she was leaving her home to National Jewish. When she moved into a nursing home we received her home, which was worth about $110,000. I came to learn that her estate was only about $150,000. She was giving us almost all of her modest estate even though she had family. After she moved into the nursing home she was willing to have me visit. I learned that the reason she didn’t want me to come to her home was that she was uncomfortable being alone in her home with a man. It was a perspective that I hadn’t heard and was glad to become sensitive to.

We became very close over the following 2-3 years before she died and I visited her whenever I could. We prepared a testimonial article highlighting her gift and she was so proud. While the gift wasn’t huge in many of our eyes, it was huge to her and I was especially pleased to honor her for her wonderful gift.

What is single best advice you can give to a fundraiser?

Listen to your donors. Get really good at recognizing donor needs and motivation. So often we feel we need to “sell” our organizations and projects and talk too much. We should be listening intently to what our donors are telling us. Better listening leads to philanthropy which rewards the donor as much as the organization.

What’s the one book you would recommend to a fundraiser and why? (It can be about fundraising or not!)

Some of my favorite authors are Kay Sprinkel Grace and Penelope Burk. They write a lot about donor-centered fundraising. I found learning about marketing was very relevant to development work. Marketing focuses on studying target markets, packaging products, and the use of a variety of communication vehicles. Similarly, as fundraisers ascend to leadership in organizations, learning about finance and strategic planning become important.

What’s the one fundraising blog or periodical you recommend fundraisers subscribing to?

I was a faithful reader of Chronicle of Philanthropy for a quarter of a century. I clipped it, wrote all over it, circulated it to staff with notes, and prodded when back issues piled up on someone’s desk.

What’s your favorite donor story?

“The Unexpected Second Gift” -- The Marsico family was an early and generous investor in the “Space Odyssey” exhibit at the Museum of Nature & Science. Wanting to be good donor stewards, we arranged for Cindy Schulz, program officer for the Marsico Foundation, to come for a site visit. We wanted her to see the theater area we created with the family’s grant. After our tour and profuse thanks for their gift, Cindy announced that the Marsicos wanted to make a second gift of $500,000. We were speechless!