Marketing Impact Chart (MIC) STUDY GUIDE This study guide is created to support your free 4 part Training Series and the White Paper entitled Creating Strategic Plans and Goals for Every Major Donor. Our goal here is to break down the steps to building a MIC, so that you don t feel overwhelmed by the whole process. For some fundraisers, opening the MIC for the first time is like finding the best present ever, because you love spreadsheets and detailed plans. But for most fundraisers we have worked with, the MIC can at first be pretty overwhelming. So we want to break this down and make it easy for you, because we have seen over and over again how once you build your MIC, your connection to donors improve, and you actually feel more at peace because you know which donors to focus on and what to do each week. Building Your MIC Before you start building your MIC, make sure you have first read through the White Paper, Creating Strategic Plans and Goals for Every Major Donor. To build your MIC, you may want to start with just your top two donors. The important thing is that you go through the whole process so you know how to do this with the rest of your caseload. For this exercise, choose top donors that are qualified. Qualified means that you know that they do want a more personal connection to your organization. Do not choose a top donor that you do not have any connection with at this time. Choose donors with different giving cycles as well. For example, one may give only in November each year, and the other gives repeatedly. Having this variety will help you play with the various elements of the MIC. 1
Purple Section of MIC Open up the MIC document in Excel or another spreadsheet program. Don t worry, we will break this down step by step. The purple section is all your identification information. Most of it is self explanatory, except maybe a few columns we have described below. 1. Tier (Column A): If you were creating a MIC for a whole caseload, you would tier them A, B, and C, so you know that the A donors are your top donors needing the most attention and individualization. In choosing only a few of your top donors you will put an A in this section for your donors. 2. Type (Column C): If you have a caseload with different types of donors (individual, corporation, foundation, etc.) this is the spot to indicate their type. The purpose of this is so you can sort your whole caseload according to type when sending touch points or reaching out to invite to a special event. 3. What can you add: Some MGOs like to add in phone and email columns so that everything they need is in one place. That is what is great about the MIC you can personalize this to make it work for you. Blue Section of the MIC This is very important information that will inform your FY16 goal, as well as solicitation strategies throughout your MIC. 1. Lifetime Giving (Column K) This is the total that a donor has given in their lifetime of giving to your organization. This gives you the bigger picture beyond the last four years of giving. 2. Fill in the total FY giving from each donor for each year starting in FY13. Note you will fill in the FY 2016 as a year to date number. 3. Goal FY16 (Column P) If you do not have a goal for each donor, this is a good time to start. We do not recommend simply giving every donor an 8 12% increase for their goal each year. You want to look back over the last four years and notice the trend; ask what is this donor s potential, what do I know about this donor, where are we in the moves management process; then make a decision about what increase is appropriate for each donor. We want a goal to go up, and sometimes go up a great deal, depending on what you have planned for each donor. But sometimes a goal may even go down if you learn that donor is having a bad year for their business, or some other challenge. 4. Goal/Actual Difference (Column Q) This is a nice little column that will automatically track how far you are between FY16 giving to date and your goal. This is a great tool to use to sort your caseload to see which donors are behind and need your attention. 5. 2015/2016 Variance (Column R) This will automatically compare total giving in FY15 to giving year to date in FY16. This is another way for you to see how your donors are doing. 2
Aqua Section of the MIC This section is a quick way to track some of the research you will be doing on each donor to help inform your strategies and touch points throughout the year. 1. Largest Gift (Column S): This can be very helpful when you are deciding how much to ask for from donor. 2. Typical Giving Month (Column T): As a Major Gift Officer, it is important that we are clear about when each of the donors on our caseload typically gives. Why? Because that informs when we ask them for a gift, as well as the cultivation and stewardship touches that need to happen prior to and after that month. If we simply allow our donors to give when they typically give, on his or her own initiative, we miss opportunities to retain, upgrade and connect more meaningfully with that donor. In this column, note the typical month(s) and amount(s) a donor gives throughout the year. 3. Wealth Rating (Column U): Just having a wealth rating doesn t tell you what your goal should be for each donor. However, it can be informative. For example, as you are getting to know a donor who has given you 5K a year, and you see a growing interest and passion for one of your programs, seeing they have a 100K potential through Wealth Engine tells you to think bigger about this donor and impacts your planning. If you don t have access to Wealth Engine or something similar, just remove this column. 4. Donor Interest (Column V): So many times, when we ask a Major Gift Officer about the passions and interests of an individual donor, the MGO shares that they have asked their donor, and they just said they love and trust our organization. So when we dig into this, we learn that many MGOs really don t know the specific interests and passions of their donor in relation to their organization. It is important to ask more questions, take donors on tours, and find ways to connect more with what touches their hearts. In this column you may put an actual interest, or maybe a note that you don t know, and need to find that out. 5. Communication Preference (Column W): MGOs often feel pressure that we must communicate with donors via phone or meet with them in person to be doing an effective job. But what if a donor is a top executive who prefers to have a conversation, and receive materials, from us via email? What if they would actually get back to us more if we emailed them rather than called them? Finding out how your donors prefer to communicate with you is respectful of them and their time; it builds trust, and the result is more communication! And many times that can then lead to a call or visit down the road, because a donor that prefers email communication hasn t felt pressure to call you. If you don t know what this is for each of your donors, put in a note to ask. 6. Highest Level of Contact (Column X) It is important to be clear about the level of contact you have had with each donor, so you can take steps to connect him or her more with your organization. This is a great place to note 3
if you have visited in person, taken them on a tour, talked on the phone, emailed, etc. It is also good to note if a donor has specifically shared a preference, like they don t want you to ask them to go on a tour. It informs your strategies and plans for each donor. 7. Notes, Background research (Column Y) As you are researching each donor, this is a great place to put things you want to remember to inform your planning. Blue & Green Planning Columns This is where you want to go back to the White Paper and follow the instruction, to fill in your touch points. The blue column is for your monthly touch point, and the green column is your spot to track if you got that task completed. Remember the MIC isn t where you track your work with each donor that should be in your database. The purpose of the MIC is for planning. Use the MIC to create plans, and then put those into your database with reminders, if that works well for you. You may wonder then why you need the MIC and a database system? What we have found over and over again is that the MIC helps you look ahead, in one place, at what you have planned for the year with each donor. It helps you very easily see the moves management cycle and make adjustments where needed. The MIC also helps you see what touch points you need to accomplish with every donor on your caseload, each month. For example, you may have an update from one program going out to a group of donors who have shown interest in that program, a cultivation piece leading up to an ask about another program for another group, and then individual calls, visits, tours, etc. for other donors. This helps you plan each week and ensure you are reaching out and connecting with every donor on your caseload in a consistent and individualized way. Orange and Green Section This is where you cash flow your donor giving according to what month and what ask you will be making. This may seem like overkill for you when you first look at it. But it actually helps you keep on track with what you want to accomplish each month, and know if you are behind. If you know that in May you are expecting approximately 50K from donors, and on May 20 th you only have a total giving of 5K, you know you need to check and make sure all proposals have gone out, calls have been made, etc. Just having a plan to cultivate and solicit donors who typically give in a month doesn t ensure they actually do give. This helps you see where you are behind in donor giving, so you can act quickly. 4
Conclusion We hope that you have been able to walk through the whole MIC process and can see some of the benefits. It may have taken some time; but as you can see, once you have invested the time up front, you have planned your year, and you can easily adapt it when changes occur. If you are interested in have more in depth explanations of the MIC, additional tools and strategies from Veritus Group, we welcome you to join us for Major Gift Academy beginning June 6, 2016. This free training was simply a taste of what is included in the 8 module academy which guides you from learning to action through video, podcast, webinar, extensive reading materials, assessments, live conversations, Facebook discussions, and more. To learn more about MGA reach out to info@majorgiftacademy.com. * * * Veritus Group is a full service mid and major gift consulting agency serving nonprofits all over the world. Through our Major Gift Academy, we strengthen development professionals and non profit major gift programs with a donor centered philosophy that is focused on accountability. You can reach us on the Web at www.majorgiftacademy.com and www.veritusgroup.com. 5