← What the Fundraising
What the Fundraising
275: The Heart Behind the Ask: Authentic Donor Stewardship with Hilary Dana Smiley
00:27:43
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- [00:00]
Hilary Smiley
Foreign.
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Mallory Erickson
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Zefy. I have been excited to learn about Zefy and what a game changer it has been for so many organizations. Plus, the platform is 100% free. They even cover credit card and transaction fees. You can set up donations, sell tickets, and manage your donors all in one place. And it only takes 15 minutes to get started. Start fundraising today at Mallorykson.com backslash zeffy that's Mallorykson.com z e f F Y.
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Hilary Smiley
Our job is not just about the money that's coming through the door today. And if you focus only on this fill the bucket, empty the bucket mentality, we can acquire donors. I mean, I could throw any dollar out there to acquire a donor, but the question is, will they stick? And so not all acquisition is created equal, right? I mean, again, I could do premium. We don't do premium based acquisition at Children's any longer because we were seeing that those donors were just signing up to get the tote bag or get the decal for their car. So we pulled back from that. We saw a dip in acquisition. But what we're seeing is we're bringing on donors that are much more mission aligned.
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Mallory Erickson
Hey, my name is Mallory and I'm.
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Obsessed with helping leaders in the nonprofit space raise money and run their organizations differently.
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What the Fundraising is a space for.
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Real and raw conversations to both challenge and inspire you. Not too long ago, I was in your shoes, uncomfortable with fundraising and unsure of my place in this sector. It wasn't until I started to listen to other experts outside of the fundraising space that I was able to shift my mindset and ultimately shift the way I show up as a leader. This podcast is my my way of blending professional and personal development so we, as a collective inside the nonprofit sector can feel good about the work we are doing. Join me every week as I interview some of the brightest minds in the personal and professional development space to help you fundamentally change the way you lead and fundraise. I hope you enjoy this episode. So let's dive in.
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Welcome everyone. I'm so excited to be here today with Hilary Smiley. Hilary, welcome to what? The fundraising.
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Hilary Smiley
Thank you. Thrilled to be here.
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Mallory Erickson
So, Hillary, I have to say this before, before I'm going to have Hillary introduce herself, but we met, or like sort of met years ago at a conference where we were both being interviewed back to back and I had the privilege of being after Hillary and the pressure, honestly, of being after Hillary. And I remember just standing in the room, didn't know who you were and was just like, who is this? Why woman? Just like, your energy is so beautiful and connected. And we didn't have a lot of time to connect then in that moment. But I just remember there are very few experiences in life that are that quick that you, I feel like, remember in that way. So I'm just so excited for everybody to get to know you. So tell them a little bit about you and what brings you to our conversation.
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Hilary Smiley
Sure. And I have to say, I mean, as evidenced by the fact that I hugged you on our second meeting, that. That quick meeting was. It left a mark on the both of us. But thanks so much for having me. I am Hilary Smiley. I am the assistant Vice President of Leadership Gifts at Boston Children's Hospital. I do love what I do. Every day I keep that sign in my office as a reminder that we bring our personal passion to what it is we do. It can only make the work stronger. And in my role here at the Trust, I basically, the easiest way that I explain it is that I oversee all giving from individuals up to $100,000. So it's about a 60,000 person file, and it's everything from $1 to $100,000, mostly annual in nature. So all of our direct response channels, face to face fundraising, portfolio management, a couple volunteer boards. I like to keep it a little mixed up, a little bit of everything.
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Mallory Erickson
Okay. So that I can only imagine what it takes to sort of ensure quality and connected touch points with that many people. And I know that you care so much about real relationship building and not falling into some of these transactional methodologies that have plagued the sector in different ways. And so I'm curious, like, first of all, for folks who are like, I'm having trouble thinking through how we handle 100 donors in front of me right now, what are some like, just kind of high level ways that you think about nurturing and stewarding and cultivating that type of portfolio?
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Hilary Smiley
I think, well, first of all, it's a great team. So, you know, making sure that you're hiring people that work with you and carry kind of that same ethos into the work. I always like to admit it's 60,000. That feels like a huge number. I think to some organizations, that's small and to others that's gigantic, as you said. I think about what I would need, what I need as a donor, and I am one of the donors. I'm not giving more than $100,000. I'm lucky if I'm giving more than a couple hundred dollars to any organization. In a given year. And they are. Those are personal gifts that I'm making. I'm making them because I believe in that organization. And not that I need any sort of personal recognition, but I think about what do I need to hear from the organization? How do I know that my dollars are being put to good use and that the organization knows who I, I am? And so I've kind of taken that mindset into our work here at the Trust to really think about how do we allow 60,000 people to feel like we know who they are, their donation makes a difference, and we would be hard pressed to do the work that we do without them. And that comes in a variety of ways. It's everything from technology enabling us to get to larger groups of donors in really personal ways. But it's also not forgetting that we really should put people at the front of this, that it's people giving to people at the end of the day. And yes, it signals a belief in mission, but if what that person is met with when they make a gift is a very kind of cold, formulaic form of stewardship, then the donor's probably not going to want to give again. And to me, I am more interested in us keeping our donors than I am even in us acquiring new ones. What's it going to take for us to keep as many of the donors that we have and then hopefully get them to increase their engagement and give more over time? And so it's a methodical looking at what are all the channels that we're in, how are we talking to our donors across those channels and how can we achieve a level of personalization in that work? Whether it's a person picking up the telephone or a piece of direct response mail or email that at least has content in it that allows the donor to be seen, that we know that it's their first gift or a recurring gift that we know that they've been giving for a period of time or they live in a particular community. Just things that signal to the donor that we're paying attention.
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Mallory Erickson
Yeah.
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Okay. So I'm curious. I also know that you are an incredible team leader and people manager. And, and I love that you started that even saying, like, it's an incredible team. Right. Which maybe you're not going to give yourself all the accolades you deserve for that. But I. So I think I'm curious about kind of the relationship. I'm curious about the data and analytics, like something that has frustrated me in our sector for a long time. And some of the inspiration, honestly, behind like building practivated was that we say, you know, build transformative relationships, but we only track the money. And so I'm curious, as you think about wanting to build more transformative relationships, like retaining people over time, like what are some of the ways that you're looking at data or what are some of the things that you're tracking both on the donor kind of participation side, but also on your team's behavior side that you feel like are really leading towards the outcomes that you want there?
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Hilary Smiley
It's interesting. I think a piece of it is I'm going to speak first to the donor, or it's actually both. They're completely blended together from a staff perspective, I think an untraditional fundraiser. I've been in positions where there are fundraising metrics and it's very easy to go after your bigger gifts if you have metrics to raise a million dollars a year. So I'm going to focus on all my $10,000 donors, my $25,000, my $50,000 donors, because they're going to be the ones that are going to get me closer to that goal. And those thousand dollar donors are going to fall to the bottom of the list. So instead of saying, here's your monetary goal for the year, I focus on donor contact, significant contacts between donor and gift offices. And we really look at that, and we look at that on a monthly basis and we charge our fundraisers at least on the face to face fundraising side or the portfolio management side of being in front of each of their prospects at a personal way that creates a reciprocal relationship, whether that's email, written phone calls, voicemails, something that gets the donor to respond on a quarterly basis. And we try to make those highly personal. All donors in portfolio need to receive a personalized touch in those three months. It doesn't mean that they're not receiving other things from the institution during that time. But the emphasis really is on that relationship building and making sure that we're varying our content and our approach enough so the donor is receiving that personalized outreach. And that extends even to things like we call any donor, we try to call any donor, and this is the by use of volunteers in some way that give $100 or more. For an institution of our size with 60,000 donors that we're trying to steward, it's quite a big list. But it's important to say thank you. And I say to the team all the time, we should be saying thank you more than please. So that really is the emphasis on donor stewardship. And for the gift officer. I think it takes the weight off. I think the gifts will come. That's. That's just my mentality. And they are, they do. The gifts come. If we are doing these kind of personalized interventions along the way and making sure that we're reaching out to our donors. Now, you can't reach out to 60,000 donors in a highly personalized way, but we can hone the list to focus at least on, you know, our $500 plus file to say those are the ones that really deserve that kind of personalized outreach. Everybody deserves it. I just wish we had the time to do it all. I think that also from a fundraising perspective, I'm not a metrics driven fundraiser. Again, truly believe that it is that personal relationship and I'm screwing this one up, but it is.
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Mallory Erickson
I'm with you.
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Hilary Smiley
Yes, I knew you would be, you know, but we see that and it's interesting. I was talking to my boss this morning about trends in our industry. Right now. It's October 2nd of the. One of the most unpredictable years any of us have ever been in this industry. And when I look across the industry and at my peers, most are struggling to do what they did last year and many are falling behind somehow. I'm a million dollars ahead of goal. We just closed our fiscal year at the end of September. But when I dig into our numbers, what I see is we're retaining more donors and those donors are growing up that pipeline. And I truly believe the reason for that is because we are putting this kind of personalized mindset and this donor contact mindset in place so that we are top of mind. We're not just another email that's coming through. It is a person that is sending that email from that. And we're doubling down on stewardship, really thinking about recent stewardship. This is a world that changes every moment. When we open up our phones, there's a different news story that's. And so how do we remain committed to telling the story of our institution in the midst of all that change in a consistent, positive, mission affirming way so that our donors want to come along with us? And when I look at that, it's not an anomaly. I mean, I hope I don't say that and everything blows up in the next fiscal year. But again, what we're seeing is that all our retention numbers and the long term value of our donors is only growing. Having applied this mindset to the work over the last several.
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Mallory Erickson
Have you all heard about Zefie? I've been excited to learn about this new platform and all they're doing to support fundraisers like you. I recently heard about a fundraiser who used Zefy for an event where normally fees had eaten up hundreds of dollars. Instead, they kept it all. That's because Zefy always covers credit card and transaction fees.
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Practivated Announcer
So.
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Mallory Erickson
So 100% of what you raise goes to your mission setup. Takes less than 15 minutes. If you want to be like the 50,000 nonprofits already using Zefie and have more of what you raise, go straight to your cause. Start fundraising today@mallorykson.com Zefie that's malloryerickson.com Z, E, F, F Y.
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Okay, I love what you're talking about here because there's this piece around. I would love to see organizations track more of the behaviors, right? The things that. To try to sort of hack that motivational loop. Because what you're talking about for organizations that haven't seen results there yet, there's a lot of discomfort in the, okay, we're investing here. We're not going to know if it quote unquote, works for a long time. And we're actually never going to be able to like, one of the things.
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Things.
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And I'd be curious what you think about this. One of the reasons why I feel like we over prioritize acquisition is because it is just easier to track and it sort of like fills our normal psychological motivation loop. Right? We want that quick feedback loop. We want that dopamine hip. We don't get it from retention activities and stewardship because it just isn't so cause and effect and it isn't so instantaneous. And we're like, well, I'd rather like blast out this thing so I can like feel like I did something good and then. But you get to get to the end of the year and be like, here's what, here's what really makes a difference. And I have to believe that, like, that meant that there were times where you were sort of like sticking to your like, intuition or gut or knowing really about what builds connected relationships despite not having ways of tracking it in the moment. How did you like, do that as a leader? Like, talk to me about that Because I think that ability to sit in that discomfort is going to make the difference between whether or between how people's, how people retain donors over time.
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Hilary Smiley
I wish I could say that it was one versus the other, but I think it sadly has to be both. Right? How do you do both at the same time? Because if we're not doing donor acquisition, then the Files can describe. So you put that over there. And yes, that's easier for me to get investment around. I sell it up the line. I think from the perspective of our job is not just about the money that's coming through the door today. And if you focus only on this fill the bucket, empty the bucket mentality, we can acquire donors. I mean, I could throw any dollar out there to acquire a donor, but the question is, will they stick? And so not all acquisition is created equal. Right. I mean, again, I can do premium. We don't do premium based acquisition at Children's any longer because we were seeing that those donors were just signing up to get the tote bag or get the decal for their car. So we pulled back from that. We saw a dip in acquisition. But what we're seeing is we're bringing on donors that are much more mission aligned. And then I built the case for what would happen if we budged retention by 1%, 2%, 3. 3%. What will it take us to get there? And really, with the right technology and the right staff, it really isn't that costly to work on retention. It's much more costly to work on acquisition. And so it was a bit of a leap of faith as well as just forward thinking. What are the kinds of donors we want on the file? Which are the ones we want to stay and which are the ones we have the capability to grow? And in donor acquisition, those are needles in the haystack. But if you can get a donor to make that second, we know that their long term value to the institution only grows. And so I talk about things like future planned giving potential, future pipeline building and major gift potential, as well as, you know, in this day and age for all our organizations, and it can't not be under or overstated enough is the need for unrestricted philanthropy and keeping those unrestricted donors giving and giving again. And so it's a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B. We have to do them both at the same time. And one can't really sacrifice the other.
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Mallory Erickson
Okay, yeah, let's talk about unrestricted funding a little bit. That's where I wanted to go next. Because I know, I think this is a particular superpower of yours. And especially when you think about the gift sizes that you focus on and really being able to inspire around like mission and purpose and intentionality while keeping the gift unrestricted. Like, talk to me about that.
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Hilary Smiley
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. It's. I think if I ever look back on my career I hope this is something that I look at and say that I raised hundreds of millions of unrestricted dollars for an institution like Boston Children's, and it has been the nut to crack. And I think, you know, we get back to personalized fundraising. You know, when I started in fundraising, when you gave an unrestricted gift, people would. It was like going into a big black hole. I don't want to keep the lights on. That's not why I'm giving you my money. You know, I'm not paying for the people to clean the rooms or whatever they thought that unrestricted giving did. And I think it was really on us. And I can speak to, you know, my experience in the 12 years that I've been at Boston Children's to think about, well, truly, what does unrestricted do? And how do we translate that to our donors in a way that feels impactful? And so here we partnered with hospital administration to really look at what are the things that our hospital budget truly funds outside of reimbursements from insurance. And we're able to really hone in on the message that the core of what we do, child life services, innovative research, training of the next generation, community health programs here in Boston, and some of our community health programs that we run across the state, those are the things that are really receiving the benefit of the unrestricted philanthropy and being able to talk to donors about concrete examples and not just making it a big black hole. And I think the second piece to that, and I keep saying to my team and we keep talking about is recency. If there was a story out today on cuts to NIH funding, now we don't want to be. The sky is falling every single time. Time there is a piece of news that affects our mission, because quite honestly, that would be daily. We would constantly be in a crisis communication standpoint. But instead, what we say is this is our commitment as an institution and that unrestricted dollars are fueling these key things. But it's not just the fundraiser that's saying it. You know, we've gotten. And you can see Dr. Churchwell behind me. He is our CEO, and this is about most importance to him. So using his genuine, authentic, transparent, recent voice to speak to any number of. So that donors understand what's happening today at Boston Children's Hospital, how is this affecting X, Y and Z at the hospital? And then in turn, is my giving helping you move the needle on these things? And for us, it's a recommitment to mission around equity, inclusion and diverse diversity. Innovative research, you know, all the things, unfortunately, that are hot topics in this day and age, but to be able to show donors, you know, you're not just funding this institution, you're funding our ability to innovate for years to come and to continue to do the work that we are known for. And so, luckily, all of our leadership are speaking about the importance of unrestricted giving and how that's enabling our institutions to continue to move forward. In a day and age like this, many of our dollars really are going to get diverted to research. There's just. There's. Whatever happens, we know that we're receiving less money than we have before. And so being able to concretely talk to donors about, you are giving this to the institution freely, but this is what it's going to enable us to do. It's just bridging that gap. So, no, they're not restricted gifts. Research is just one piece of the mission that's going to be fed by unrestricted. But these are the things that are of utmost importance to our leadership, and we know that these are how the dollars are going to be directed. So. So it's really just drawing that line between institutional mission and our ability to pursue that mission through philanthropy.
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Mallory Erickson
I love that. And it sounds like one of the things, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but something that I'm hearing in there is, like, that part of what makes or, like, allows that to be a powerful motivator is that sort of future visioning state, like, painting the picture of what that future at Boston Children's looks like with their participation. And instead of necessarily saying, like, this specific thing will now exist, like, you will buy this machine. Right. Which at the end of the day, like, how inspiring does that even really get to be for a long, Like, I wonder. I've never actually thought about this before, but I wonder if, like, sometimes with restricted giving, the imagination is gone a little bit and the carryover in terms of how they continue to give in transformative ways. You're always trying to, like, think through your next, like, thing that they could potentially support. And you're kind of like, having to revision with them each time. Versus when I hear what you're talking about, I'm like, wow, you're attaching their desire to the vision of the institution in a way that doesn't. You don't have to, like, make up some new thing they should care about.
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Hilary Smiley
Each time a thousand percent. And if they care about that particular thing, they can give to that too. Yeah, but it doesn't. Unrestricted is. And that's been actually the game changer for us because so much of our giving is restricted, and it's typically restricted to research in a clinical area. But that clinical area wouldn't exist without the hospital support of all the infrastructure, the child life programs, the wraparound services for our families. Our families come to us and they say, I want to support this thing, but this thing wouldn't be happening without the institution. And so it's a little bit of education. It's education with our clinical leaders. It's education with our gift offers to really put the mission first. We're putting the mission in the institution first. And unrestricted support supporting that entirety. Right? And so the hope is that many of our prospects do grow to do both. And if they want to do that restricted thing, you know, fantastic. We couldn't run without it. But again, just a reminder that it is their belief in our leadership's ability to put the funds where they're needed the most, and that it's. It's meeting those kind of core values and the core belief in the institution by making those unrestricted gifts in that way. Otherwise, it is just a thing, right? It's this thing in this tiny little part of, like, such a huge institution that's helping people with multiple complexities and multiple clinical areas. It's very rare for somebody to come to us for just one. One little thing. So how do we show them that that translates to how they can support us as well?
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Mallory Erickson
Oh, I love that. Okay, that's such a good note to. To end on. Before we tell everyone where they can find you and connect with you and learn more from you, is there anything else? Is there any question? I didn't ask you that. I should have asked you about all of this.
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Hilary Smiley
I mean, no, I think. And this is who I am. I'll always stand on a soapbox if I can. But I think we are so lucky to be doing this work right now. For those of us, you know, and no matter where you work, whether you are a consultant or you're working in house at a nonprofit that's doing good in this world, you know, to just remember that when things feel hard, I'm reminding myself of that, I'm reminding my team of that, that it's just a real privilege for us to be one of the helpers in this time. And you and I have spoken about that for Mallory. But this work is exhausting. And, you know, we ended our fiscal year on Monday and on Tuesday, you know, or Tuesday, sorry. And we flipped the page on Wednesday. And I have 13,000 in the bank against a goal of 16 million this year, you know, and that can feel daunting. And then pull back and remember, you know, why you work where you do and why we're not salespeople. And take that into the work, you know, and take that into how you get people to buy into your organization. Because it's our own beliefs, our own passion that's going to inspire others to give. When I started in this industry, it was always, well, the fundraiser doesn't matter. It doesn't matter about the fundraiser. It's about the institution. But I don't believe that to be true. Of course it's about the institution. But if that fundraiser isn't authentic and transparent and passionate, you are going to lose the don't. And so just to remember to try and, like, pump yourself up each day because we're all making a difference right now and in whatever way that we can. And I for one, feel lucky that I get to do that in my day job. So just my two cents as we close out.
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Mallory Erickson
Likewise. Yeah, I love that. Tell everyone where they should go to connect with you and yeah, learn more from you.
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Hilary Smiley
I mean, really, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best place to find me and I'd be happy to connect with anyone around any of these topics. Would love to hear from you.
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Mallory Erickson
Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today and for all your wisdom. I'm so grateful.
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Hilary Smiley
Absolutely.
- [26:29]
Mallory Erickson
I hope today's episode inspired or challenged you to think differently. For additional takeaways, tips, show notes, and more about our amazing guest and sponsors and head on over to Mallorykson.com podcast and if you didn't know, hosting this podcast isn't the only thing I do every day. I coach, guide and help fundraisers and leaders just like you. Inside of my program, the Power Partners Formula Collective. Inside the program, I share my methods, tools and experiences that have helped me fundraise millions of dollars and feel good about myself in the process. To learn more about how I can help you, visit MalloryErickson.com PowerPartners Last but not least, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love to encourage you to share it with a friend you know would benefit or leave a review. I'm so grateful for all of you and the good, hard work you're doing to make our world a better place. I can't wait to see you in the next episode.
- [27:29]
Practivated Announcer
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