Advice for charities making pitches to major donors

Most of my working life in the non-profit sector was spent in fundraising and managing donor relations – starting with the big institutional donors such as the Swiss Agency for Development Co-operation, foundations such as the Ford Foundation, major corporates such as Citigroup and finally from major donors. Much of what I learnt about passion, inspiring and communicating with donors, building and managing key relationships and professionalism has formed the bedrock of principles that I apply in the business world.

At Coutts I help families articulate and define their philanthropic vision, understand the causes they are passionate about and choose charities. I am often involved in meetings where charities pitch to our clients. Our clients have usually shortlisted these organisations – either themselves or through intermediaries such as New Philanthropy Capital or the Community Foundation Network.

Here are my top ten tips to consider when pitching to high-net-worth donors.

Listen. Ask questions about what the donor is interested in and what they are passionate about. Remember the old adage, two ears, one mouth. I have been in meetings where a fundraiser has talked solidly for the first 35 minutes about their charity and much of it was repetitive. One half of communication is listening

Get into your donor's world. Maintain a high level of understanding about the industries in which your donors work and the current trends. For instance, at the Prince's Trust our major donor fundraisers were assigned certain industries to raise funds from. Mine was the financial services industry. I made sure I understood what the different hedge fund strategies were, how private equity works and what the major banks focused on. I read the Financial Times every day, as well as the business pages in broadsheets and smaller trade publications. I did this because I was interested in what my donors spent most of their time doing. Changes to business will impact the time and resources donors dedicate to their philanthropy. Understanding donor's triumphs and challenges helped me to be a better fundraiser.

Understand your own world. Your charity, the issue you are trying to solve and trends in the charitable sector.

Be solution focused. Don't spend most of your time in a first meeting focusing on the scale of the problem. Most intelligent donors will understand the issue quickly and will want to hear how your organisation works on solutions.

Articulate clearly how the activities you undertake contribute to meeting needs, what success is for you and how you measure it. Spend a few moments painting a picture of your charity, its leadership, finances, staff and what you are looking for funds for.

Use storytelling to inspire donors. This injects passion, life and connection into the cause you are promoting as well as demonstrating your belief in your charity.

Don't use jargon. Charities that have raised funds mainly from large international aid agencies in the past are particularly susceptible to using jargon, but 'participatory-gender sensitive-sustainable' really doesn't mean much to donors. I remember sitting alongside one of our clients during one such presentation and at the end of a two hour meeting he said he just wasn't sure what the charity actually did.

Take your time and ask at the right time. It can take three or four years before a donor is ready to make a significant financial commitment.

Be professional and tenacious in your follow up and in all interactions with donors and potential donors. Know when to back off when people are busy and do not take that personally. My rule is to follow up within 24 hours, 48 hours by exception. Longer than that is not good enough.

Philanthropy is a very personal matter. Your personal attributes of empathy, intuition and charm are as important as your professionalism.

Maya Prabhu is the executive director of philanthropy services at Coutts

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