Fundraising Buzzwords: Integrated Ask

Trinity Knot

Fundraising has a lexicon all its own.  Each year, there are a few new buzzwords that become the focus of fundraising professionals and we like to use and abuse those words.  Fundraising became development and now development professionals want to be called Advancement professionals.  One of the hottest terms right now is "Integrated Ask."

An integrated ask is when you ask your donor to support multiple opportunities at once, whether it be annual, capital, endowment or other, you are asking the donor to support multiple projects while sustaining their already existing level support.  If you have a donor that has traditionally made a gift of $3,600 annually the last thing you would want to do is ask for an additional gift that might make them reduce their annual support to fund an additional endeavor.  Even worse would be to secure their gift and then a few weeks or months later, ask them for an additional gift which makes them feel like their $3,600 was not good enough.

Peek-A-Boo Knot

During the 2015-2016 fiscal year, Temple Beth Am will have a $1M Annual Giving Goal, we are still in the midst of our $20+M Campus Expansion and Renovation Project and we will officially launch our Endowment: $20'20 Vision ($20M in cash in pledges by December 31, 2020).  We will still have needs for scholarship directed gifts as well as some other funds.  With this many needs to be addressed, the best way to avoid donor fatigue is to approach them with an integrated ask, however to do this correctly it takes time, it takes education, it takes understanding the donor's passions, interests and what opportunities will resonate with them.   Often the integrated ask will be the best way to go - you can share your hopes of their support for the next few years so they will not be surprised.  They can also plan their giving over a few years and how they best can structure their giving to balance their needs with institutional needs.  Who knows, they may even commit to a multi-year annual pledge, which means a thank you meeting in the future instead of yet another solicitation meeting. 

Cape Knot

It is possible that an integrated ask may not resonate with the donor, however I have found that when you present how all the gifts fit together, the donor appreciates the longer term vision rather than just the donation by donation approach.   We have even found that we received higher gifts from an integrated ask than if had done each ask separately.

While I am a big fan of the integrated ask and have many hopes for the potential enhanced successes as we do more integrated asks, priority number one is always keeping the donors' interests in mind.

Integrated Knot - which includes aspects of the Trinity, Cape and Peek-A-Boo knots.  While the other three might be easier to do alone, I personally like the Integrated Knot more, however others might like one of the others, or a different combination more (while the knot looks complex, it is relatively simple to complete - much like an intergrated ask)