Looking Toward the Future: A Presentation about Relationship Based

Fundraising and Instituting a Comprehensive Planned Giving Program

Presenters Herb Tobin, Consultant, PEJE

Barbara Shapiro, Director of Development, Solomon Schechter School of Westchester

June 10, 2009 at 1:00 pmThis presentation includes information written by Kim Hirsh, Development Officer, The Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, coordinator of a $50 million endowment

campaign for affordability and academic excellence in day school education.

Development Strategies for Today

• A crisis is a terrible thing to waste• Keep your friends close and your best friends

closer• Treat the donor like an investor, not an ATM

machine.• Tell your story

Salient Points from first Schechter Association call, May 26

Taking a longer-term view of the current economic challenges:

Building relationships and creating a legacy and planned giving program

Three Interrelated Keys to Fundraising Success

1. Development efforts must be based on strategic, not tactical / transactional considerations

2. The key to undertaking a development program based on strategic considerations is relationship building

3. Keep your message simple

Strategic Fundraising

• Who do you spend time with and why?

• Engage in high level relationship building vs. perfunctory interactions

• Allocate your time strategically: Spend the most time on the people /activities who are likely to produce the biggest gifts

• Relationship based fundraising = major gifts

Guide PointsStrategic Fundraising

• How do you reduce and / or rationalize the number of events and activities?

• Events are also friend-raisers and thank yous, as well as fundraisers

• Community wide events

• Elite giving groups

Guide PointsRelationship Building

• Create major donors, not major donations

• People give to people not to causes

• Create “Organic Relationships,” built on a shared interests, not contrived, not mercenary

• Be mindful of boundaries

Guide PointsRelationship Building

• What can you give the donor?

• Listen to your donors. They should do MOST of the talking.

• Giving follows involvement; are you engaging donors in pleasing, edifying activities that meet their interests?

• Take advantage of serendipitous opportunities to interact with people

Four simple rules

1. Relationship… Relationship… Relationship…2. Know your facts and present them in a

concise way3. The more the family connects to your school,

the more they give.4. Thank you… Thank you… Thank you…

Guide Points forBuilding an Endowment Program

• Think long-term

• Create relationships for today and tomorrow

• Thing about today’s gifts and future gifts

• Incorporate new kind of fundraising: To succeed, schools must adapt relationship-based fundraising (in addition to transactional) to build a comprehensive development program.

• Build a strong endowment committee with strong vibrant, well known chairs – make this the place people want to be.

Guide Points forBuilding an Endowment Program

• Look to existing donors—current and past, annual/ capital

• Not all endowment donors are the “usual suspects”; surprises can and do happen

• Tracking prospects: incorporate endowment asks/future asks into your plans

• Ownership: need professional and lay person (“the gray eminence”) who own this and will not let it go

• Foundations: search those that give to Jewish day schools

Creating a Planned Giving ProgramBuilding a Culture of Generosity

• Planned Giving– Think big and long term: transformative change

over years and decades– Endowment fundraising is forever– It is a complement to the annual campaign– Keep the message simple; this is overwhelming

and uncomfortable for many.

Incorporating Endowment Fundraising Into Your Development Plans: “It’s all about relationships…”

• Endowment donors are usually those you know—and should know well

• Major gifts can take years to develop• Day Schools build connections on multiple levels

and in multiple generations• Current Parents• Parents of alumni• Grandparents• Alumni• Community members committed to a vibrant Jewish

future

Why Endowment for Jewish Day Schools?“How Can We Even Think About this NOW?”

• Traditional three-legged revenue structure for Jewish Day schools: tuition, Federation allocations, fundraising

• Inadequate; each area stretched to max• How will day schools grow and thrive, and

welcome all Jewish families, particularly middle income?

Why Now?“There is no bailout for day school education”

• Coming of age for day schools– Maturity of the Schechter movement: some of natural constituents

(founders, early board members) at ideal age for legacy giving – Growing stability and sophistication in fundraising operations– Day schools build community/connections across generations– Significant potential donor pools

• Largest transfer of wealth in Jewish community- historic generation

• If only we had started when each school was founded…

Getting Started—Don’t Go It Alone (Part I) Leveraging Support from Federations on Local Level

• Planned Giving & Endowment: highly successful area for Federations

• Expertise available for the taking within your community • Win-Win-Win for federations, day schools, and donors

Day schools: utilize Federation expertise in gift planning (legal and financial), endowment development, investment management

Donors: trusted, central resource Federations:

• Securing beneficiary agencies• Building future of Jewish community• Building assets of federation• Building stronger ties with donors: symmetry with UJC shift

toward ”donor-centered” fundraising

Getting Started—Don’t go it alone (Part II) Leveraging support & guidance on National Level

• PEJE – Legacy Pilot Program with four day schools, including

Yeshiva of Flatbush• Update by Dan Rosenstein, Director of Development, Yeshiva of

Flatbush– National day school endowment conference, 12/08, co-

sponsored by PEJE-UJC, 25 communities participated– Assistance

• Will help day schools/communities with “case management” and help coalesce knowledge and resources

• contacts:– Herb Tobin, Consultant, Financial Resource Development– Sheila Alexander, Program Officer, Financial Resource Development