Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

In the first part of this series on Chris Matthews’ book “Life’s a Campaign”, I wrote about how President Kennedy was masterful at developing an army of volunteers who helped in very small, but useful ways.

With this post, I am still in the chapter called “Ask!”, which gives insights into how large-scale campaigns raise so much money. This time however, I want to focus on Matthews’ story about how Republican fundraiser Ed Gillespie goes about this task.

“I always try to get people to buy into the vision, how what we’re doing with the money is important to the country”. He then gives his potential donor the inside perspective. “We need another two million to get up with television in Ohio. I’d like you to help there,“ he’ll say. Revealing such a shortfall or weak spot is a bonding tactic.

“You’ve got to give them something tangible, show them that you’re not going to piss it away somewhere,” he said. “Sometimes, I’ll lay out a program for direct mail and say how it will get turnout up two percent – but we’ve got to pay for it! A lot of people have the money to give. They’re successful people. But they want to see results.”

We’ve all had that one big donor who is very special to us. He or she is the one who has not only given us the most money, but has also mentored us. At least in my case, that relationship became very important to me in a personal way.

Once, during a capital campaign for our private elementary school, I had an experience that instantly came to mind when I read the above passage from Matthews’ book.

This capital campaign also had a significant matching component to it. The deadline for the match was 5:00pm. Of course, our office was humming. The phone was ringing with pledges, people were stopping by our office to drop off checks, I was doing radio interviews, the works. The mood was very upbeat and electric.

Right in the middle of the day, this particular donor stopped by. He had an open invitation to spend time at our school and hang out in my office. He taught me more than anyone else about fundraising, so I was thrilled to have him on hand.

But on this day, this donor wasn’t there to teach me something or somehow officiate the process. Rather, he was there to just enjoy. He knew that we’d be having an exciting last day of the campaign. He wanted to see the faces of the people who dropped off checks. He wanted to hear me take phone calls from people making pledges. He wanted to see the teachers poke their heads in the office to get a status update.

Even though this man had been a part of literally hundreds of such fundraising campaigns, he still loved being part of the action. He got juiced on the spirit of giving. The amount of the gift was never important to him. Instead, he just wanted people to get involved.

But, I would have never developed this kind of close relationship with this donor if I hadn’t sincerely and genuinely opened myself up to him early on. With his experience, he knew the challenges our school was facing. I didn’t have to spell them out for him, but I did. I gave him an honest assessment of our situation, from my perspective, and I shared my entire plan with him. We talked about how he could specifically play a part in our growth, and because of this openness, we bonded in a real kind of way, just like Gillespie talks about above.

This donor had the financial resources to help our school, but he wanted to see results. He wanted to know that I, as the school’s leader, wasn’t going to waste the money we raised. Once he was convinced this was the case, he felt comfortable to help us and to help me.

If you are in a position where you have significant donors at your school, but you haven’t yet developed a real and personal relationship with them, I suggest you do so. The rewards you will reap will not only benefit the school, but could also be life-changing for you.

Link to Part One in this Chris Matthews’ Series

Link to Part Three in this Chris Matthews’ Series

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