Thanks for joining today’s webinar. I’m Steven Richardson, State Manager for Victoria and Tasmania for Creative Partnerships Australia. Before we commence the course, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet. Creative Partnerships Australia acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands on which we live, work and learn. We pay our respect to their elders past and present, and to our shared future. 

Today is the third of four sessions in our Knowledge Series, and we’re delighted to have Tom Ahern and Tammy Zonker join us from the United States of America. Before I introduce them and we kick off, there is a little bit of housekeeping I’d like to run through with you all. 

Please remain on mute and have your cameras off throughout. At the end, during our Q&A, I’ll invite people to turn their cameras back on and perhaps we can have a few questions through the Q&A session. Throughout the presentation, please remain on mute and keep your cameras off. 

As I mentioned, there will be a Q&A at the end. If you have any questions, I’ll invite questions at the end on camera. You can also record them in the chat function as we go along, and we’ll get to them directly. If you have any technical issues, put them in the chat box and we will direct them to Matt or Lisa. Just a reminder, we are recording today’s session and a copy will be emailed to you at a later date. 

Without further ado, I would like to introduce Tom Ahern. Tom is coming to us from near Boston. Thank you, Tom, for enduring the time difference. In 2016, the New York Times called Tom Ahern one of America’s most sought-after creators of fundraising messages. In 2021, author and respected legacy expert Richard Radcliffe said Tom Ahern is possibly the greatest not-for-profit copywriter on the planet. No pressure, Tom. 

Tom’s recent cases range from massive campaigns for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University, with a target of $1 billion, to local community chests. He has authored seven highly rated how-to books on donor communications and speaks internationally quite regularly. We are thrilled to invite Tom into the Knowledge Series. 

Tom, over to you if you would like to share your screen. And away we go. 

I’m sharing now. We’re going to go to full screen. There we are. There’s our title slide: Knowledge Series 3, Creating a case for support that will turn doubters into donors. We hope. 

The first time I spoke before an Australian audience was back in the 2000s. It was to universities and colleges. The person who introduced me said, “It’s finally time we’re going to adopt the crass methods of fundraising used in America.” And that was me. So here we are again today, with more crass methods. 

That is me. That is a loner dog, a beagle. And there is Tammy. She’ll be coming in later. 

Here is the first thing we want to look at, which is how things are going where you are. They are not going all that well up here where I live. I live just south of Boston, which is in Massachusetts. You can see this quote here. This is from April of this year. The arts and culture sector has lost $781 million in revenue thanks to COVID. There is some ground to be made up. What we are looking for today is maybe some insights into how to make up that ground. 

My part of this is the 30,000-foot view of cases for support. I’ve written a couple of books about these things because when I first came into the not-for-profit world from the commercial world, I was hired to write a case for support. I started reading all these books, and the chapter would end with, “Now you need a great case for support.” Then you’d flip the page and it would begin, “Now that you have a great case for support...” It was like, wait a minute. We’re missing the part I need here, which is how you actually do this. So it has been a professional hobby since then to figure this out. 

One of the people who hired me as a contract case writer was Marts & Lundy, a big international firm that does fundraising. It has been around since the 1920s, unbelievably enough. They have it melted down into just three questions. You have to answer three questions: why us, what are we doing that is so special? Why now, why is that special thing urgent? And why you, why might the donor care? That is always going to be personal. But those are the three questions you have to answer, and you can do pretty well. 

This is a museum I know. I’ve been to it repeatedly. It’s called the Broad. It looks like Broad, but it’s pronounced Brode Art Museum. It’s in East Lansing, Michigan, on the Michigan State University campus. It’s a fabulous building. I wanted to show you what they say on their website’s giving page to answer the three questions we just talked about: why us, why now, and why you, the donor. 

This was their giving page. I looked at it yesterday and they have changed it up, but basically this is their essential messaging to people coming in and clicking on that donate button. The voice balloons are mine. The red circles are mine. They are not there on the website, but I want to draw your attention to certain things. 

The first thing your attention is drawn to is the cute kids, of course. You have eye contact with the child on the left. They look like they are having a good time. Why us? Why does the Broad Museum matter? Because of these cute kids, and whatever you are doing for the minds in those heads. 

Underneath that, they are talking to me, hoping I will become either a member or maybe just make a donation. They are saying to me, why would I want to do this? Because I can join a community of people who love and support the arts. I am going to be joining a merry bunch of troublemakers. That may be exactly what I want to do. I want to make a connection with other people who share my values and interests. 

Then you look there. Why us? Because Broad supports access to the arts. How do they do that? They keep their museum admission free. I don’t have to pay to go into this museum. I can just go, and these kids can just go. They are answering those three big questions very quickly. 

That is all you really have to do. You do not have to stretch it out and give me a 10-page document. This came up just the other day. Jeff Brooks and I were speaking to Orthodox rabbis in the United States, and the slide that came up said, “It’s not your organisation’s story, it’s the donor’s story.” That is an important insight into how you actually connect with strangers. You need to understand that it is their story, not your story. 

Then Jeff went into this little riff. The donor’s story spans time. It lives in the donor’s heart. When you ask me for a gift, you are asking me to choose my own adventure. Adventure, yes, I go one way. Adventure, no, I go another way. It was a lovely insight on Jeff’s part. I wanted to share that with you because if you were to take the seven how-to books I wrote and distil them down into one idea, it is this idea: it is not your story, it is the donor’s story. 

Here is a charity based in New York City. They make it possible for people to have drinkable water all over the planet. That is what they raise money for. One of the lovely things about charity: water is that they did not know much about fundraising when they got started. So they reinvented the entire business, and they are fabulously successful. 

This is one of their giving pages. This is where you become a monthly giver. Again, we have a child. That is always great because it kicks in what is called in biology the cuteness factor, which is adults take care of the young. 

There are some other things happening on this page. It is very tight and instructive. You have the headline, “Join an unstoppable community of monthly givers.” We all want monthly givers, and you may know why or you may not, but that is the gold standard. You want monthly givers for many reasons, in preference to annual one-time gifts. 

The important word doing the most work in that headline is “unstoppable”, because that is the story I am going to join. I want to be unstoppable. Underneath, it says, “There will be a day in our lifetime when we get to celebrate every person on the planet having access to clean water. We want to celebrate that day with you.” 

That is their “come on in” message. You can take that message. This is charity: water. They are doing one thing. You do the arts. There will be a day when, and then you fill in the blank, putting in a problem that your organisation is going to solve. We want to celebrate that day with you. Anything you see on screen from me and Tammy, feel free to steal it. It is there for you so you do not have to reinvent wheels. 

Let’s continue in this vein. Thanking me is very important. When you thank me, a lot of times this robotic response comes in: “Thank you for your gift of X amount of money.” Do not thank me just for my money. Thank me for who I am. 

When you do that, all sorts of wonderful things happen. For instance, this is from the 2020 United Way. I do not know if that exists where you are, but it is big here in the United States. The executive director there, Julie Capaldi, received a note. In the note, the donor wrote, “Julie, you do the best thank yous of any charitable organisation I’ve been involved with. This is wonderful.” Included with that note, coming out of the blue, was a cheque for $100,000 of additional giving to the United Way of Pickens County. 

When you thank people very well, they are going to come back to you. If you like your donors, they will like you back, and they will express their liking with additional giving. 

I hear this a lot because I present all over the world, and for years there would usually be a hand going up. We would be talking about puppies, kittens and starving kids, and someone from an arts group would say, “But we don’t have puppies, kittens or starving kids.” The underlying conclusion is that they have nothing to sell. That is not true at all. 

In fundraising, you have what John Haydon described as the sad-happy story cycle. He unfortunately passed away in 2020 at the young age of 53 or 54 after massive amounts of cancer. He was a wonderful guy and very helpful to the fundraising world with his book. 

In that book, he described the sad-happy story cycle. You come to your donors or prospects and ask for their help by presenting a problem they can solve. If they make a gift, you thank them and make a big deal out of it. Not a perfunctory, throwaway thank you, but a big deal thank you: joy to the world, we now have you with us working on the same mission. 

The third thing you have to do, and this is donor communications in a nutshell, is remind them of what they have actually accomplished in the world. There you do both happy and sad. The ratio might be four happy stories to one story of need. But you do have to have the need there, because if you do not, I can tell you from experience with clients that giving tends to decrease. 

Now we are going to talk about offers quite a bit. Here is a terrific summary of what goes into an appeal offer. Your problem, the thing you are presenting to your prospect, your hoped-for donor, needs to be easy to understand. The solution needs to be easy to understand. The cost needs to be affordable. You always want to throw the door open: it does not matter what you give us, we need your help. Finally, there is urgency. 

What you are looking at here is a campaign for an endowment for a symphony orchestra. It is not a AAA symphony like the Boston Symphony, but it is a good symphony that feeds musicians up to the Boston Symphony and other places. It is definitely worth listening to, as symphonies go. They are trying to do something very important for all institutions, which is to build an endowment so you have dependable income every year that you can count on. 

Notice how it starts: “A symphony is a tough business.” That is intentional. That statement is very short. It probably scores at the second-grade level. “A symphony is a tough business” is meant to be conversational because I want you to understand it instantly. I do not want you to be figuring out my jargon. A symphony is a tough business. Every time you perform, you lose money if you depend on ticket sales alone. That is a fact of life for every symphony I am aware of in the United States. 

You will notice there is a little box down there in the corner as a cue. There was also a page of Q&A. We anticipated questions that would be coming in from the typical people we might ask for gifts. One question was, “Why not just raise your ticket prices if you need more income?” We had an answer for that. These do not have to be fabulous answers, but they have to make sense. 

Here is another thing I pulled out. This came in recently because I was asked to write a foreword for this book, which is going into its latest reprint: Fundraising Realities Every Board Member Must Face. This is about major gifts and boards. What I pulled out of this book, which I thought was interesting and helpful for you, and certainly helpful for me, is that prospects want to be moved. Moved means they have felt something in their heart. The book goes on to say: hearts beating faster moved, hair standing on end moved. You are not fundraisers as much as hope raisers. 

That gets to the emotional core of what I am trying to talk to you about tonight for me, this morning for you. What you are seeing on screen now came from hiking last weekend with a friend who is in long-term recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous. She was explaining the simple story formula they use when people get up in front of others attending those meetings. 

The formula is simply: what was it like for you? How terrible was it? Then what happened? And what is it like now that you are sober? I thought we need little story formulas we can always dump material into. This is not bad, and it works worldwide through Alcoholics Anonymous. 

I adapted this to fundraising. I am reminding you that it is not your story, it is the donor’s story. What was the work like at our organisation before we had lovely donors? Now, thanks to lovely donors like you, what has happened? And there is a future. We have goals, dreams and visions, thanks to lovely donors like you. 

I am overemphasising “lovely donors” because you really cannot overdo flattery when you are talking to donors. This is not open to debate. You really want to bring some love to me, and if you do, I will love you back. 

Here is John again. He wrote this book, and it came out just a couple of weeks after he passed away. From this book, I have excerpted a little piece: “Ultimately, people act and give money to an organisation because they want to feel a certain way. And when you focus on helping people feel a certain way, you are going to make more money.” 

Here is a giving page from an art centre near me in Massachusetts. It is middle of the road, I suppose. I do not know, but it does its job. First you have the headline, “Be a hero for the arts. Donate today.” There is some feeling there. “Be a hero for the arts.” I could be a hero for the arts. There is a little bit of emotional kick there. 

Then you have your giving string, the amounts you are suggesting people might consider. Then you have a photo of a child, a young girl, who is using the services from this facility. Look at the big smile on her face. She is having a ball. I get two jolts of emotional satisfaction here. I can be a hero for the arts, and look at that smile. That is thanks to me. 

When you are sending out donor communications, there are three things you do. You ask for my help. You thank me for that help. Then you report back to me about what happened with all that philanthropy. What good did it do in the world? 

For all three aspects of donor communications, there is one goal. Your goal is to make me, the recipient, the person reading the material you send me, feel something. The feeling can be that they appreciate me, they like me, they are connecting me with other people with similar interests, they are informing me, or they are entertaining me. 

That is your real goal. A lot of times organisations assume their goal is to push information at me. There is a role for that, but information is not going to get the job done. It is not going to get the gift made. What you have to do is make me feel something. 

Another aspect of this is that you are charities. I know a lot of you would probably say, “We are not a charity.” Yes, you are. If you are asking for money, you are a charity. You need to make that loud and clear for people. If you depend, at any level, to any reasonable degree, on charity, you need to bring that to the surface. Say in some way that you are a charity and donor dependent. 

Now let’s go to every website for not-for-profits on the face of the earth. What you will find is a donate button. I am being a little facetious here, but just know that this will not do the job. This is not enough. 

When chasing new donors, the button is bland, trite, obvious, emotionless and uninspiring. It is also a cliché. Of course, there are some causes where you might say, “We are dealing with pretty serious stuff, like brain cancer.” You are in the arts, so presenting me with a cliché is not what you do. That is like the anti-personality of your cause. 

Here I have taken that donate button and added two bits of phrasing to it. Not that these are great. It probably took me two minutes to write this: “You’re an arts angel. Donate. And thank you.” The thank you is thanking them in advance. They have not made the gift yet. They have not clicked on that button. But when you thank people in advance, that sets up a phenomenon psychologists call reciprocity, which is: you did something for me, therefore I feel I might do something for you. 

All I have done here is what I am calling emotionalise, just to make up a bad word, the donate button. How you do it is your work. Come up with something good. 

More basics. Where does the response come from? Why is money coming in? You have 40% from one thing, 40% from another thing, and 20% from a third thing. The most important 40% is whether you are asking the right people. If you are asking me for money, is that because I have given to some other arts organisation, and therefore you suspect I am an arts lover? 

If you are sending your material through direct mail or email to people who have demonstrated no interest in what you are up to, that is a waste of everybody’s time, theirs and yours. 

The second 40% is the offer. What are you asking the people you are sending to do? The final 20% is whether you are giving me something that is intriguing, interesting, surprising or delightful. Because you are in the arts, that 20% is probably a little more inflated. It might be 30%. 

Again, do not bore me. Doing what everybody else does, or what you did last time when it did not work, is not going to get the job done. 

Here is an example. I loved this one when I first ran across it. This is from an arts group in the middle of Michigan. They are advertising that they are going to create concrete coasters. Ages 14 and above are welcome. What is really important here is that it is going to happen with cats. Cats will be available to sit on projects and get paint everywhere, which is delightful and enchanting. I would think, I have to go. 

We study success. This is a successful direct mail appeal that brought in members. You can see the results there. Membership jumped 20% with just one letter. It is not about the arts, but it does not matter. It is about people. It is an environmental cause. It went to local people who had already shown interest and given to other environmental causes. In your case, that would be people who already give to other arts causes. 

Up top in big type, all it asks is, “Will you be my friend?” That is the Mississippi River talking, or that is a painting talking, or that is the dancing shoes talking, or that is a seat in my theatre talking. Actually, that is the Mississippi pleading for your help. The red arrows are there because I am pointing you to what is happening on this page. 

We start with an unboring offer. It is a question mark because question marks tend to create more attention from the audience. It is involuntary. Then we have urgency, an easy-to-understand problem, an easy-to-understand solution, and affordability. That is all you really have to do here. This letter goes on for four pages, but it basically says the same thing over and over. 

What is an offer? Anything I can respond to, which means everything on your website, in your e-news, in your emails, and anything you send out through social media that I can click on. Any of that is an offer. It is something I can do. I can respond to it. In fact, you use these offers as a way of measuring whether anybody anywhere is paying attention to you. 

I am going to show you some things from my neck of the woods. Where I live, we have really good art, museums, theatre and many other kinds of arts. This is a small theatre group that our household contributes to. The offer is in the subject line: “Our work continues thanks to you.” I should take a look. As I said, this is a cause we donate to. Know that every subject line you put on top of an email is an offer. It is an offer to open that email. If the email does not get opened, nothing else is going to happen. 

When I open this one, I see a button: “Click here to donate.” If I have not recently donated to them, I might take that opportunity. 

These subject lines are an art form. What I have been doing for a number of years is, whenever I find myself opening an email because the subject line has captured me or hooked me, I copy that subject line and put it into a file. Now I have hundreds of subject lines that made me open them. You can see some of these: “May contain cute kittens.” I have to look at that email. “You’re in luck.” I’ll celebrate that pun. “Love is in the slime for banana slugs.” I am going to find out more about that. 

This is what you would call a high-value piece of messaging. If the subject line makes all the difference in terms of your opening rates, then make it an irresistible subject line. 

Here is another offer. This is AS220, which is a large, complex arts activity group. They have restored an old industrial city around the arts and so forth. This was their offer for me to become a monthly donor at the lofty price point of five dollars, which is a lousy cup of coffee. I said yes, and I have now been a monthly donor for years to AS220. 

Some of the things they did here are worth noting. For instance, “Become a fan of AS220.” Not become a donor, not become a sponsor, not become a supporter, not become something emotionally neutral. Become a fan. Fans can go crazy. I already was a fan, so they were connecting with what was already inside me, and it worked. 

Here is another one. A different small theatre group, but wonderful, doing fascinating work. The subject line says, “Two shows in a brand-new class now in the works.” I open that up and they tell me there are two shows opening this week. That is another offer. Then I have a button about the show. That is another offer. I can click on it and learn more. 

There is a face, and I know that face. I have been to a couple of performances by Christopher Johnson, and he is amazing. He is some kind of genius. It is wonderful entertainment. Here, as a man of colour, he is saying he is going to give me an invoice, as a white person, for the emotional labour of him having to grow up as a Black man in a white-majority country. I am laughing. It is not that funny in a way, but he is a very entertaining fellow. It is not painful. It is painful emotionally, but it is mind-blowing. It is wonderful stuff. We gave Wilbury Theatre Group $10,000, which was a major gift for this small group. 

Here is another offer. The subject line is, “Tomorrow, holiday art market at the yard.” The yard is the Steel Yard, which is a wonderful place where you can learn how to weld, make jewellery or pour molten steel. They have a lot of events there, including this holiday art market. Again, we are donors to them. The “RSVP here” button is an offer. Every photo is an offer because they are saying, “You could buy this. Look at how cool this is.” As you know, since you are in the arts, visuals penetrate much faster than words. 

We will let Lisa Sargent close on the subject of offers. She says, “Be clear, get to the point, speak from the heart, and give them something simple to do.” One thing. One thing, not two things. 

Now, getting down to the last few minutes, I think I need to rush a bit. Emotions trigger gifts, and that is really all you have to know. 

What are emotions? What you are looking at here are nine emotional triggers that are taught as baseline emotional triggers in the commercial copywriting world and in the not-for-profit copywriting world. How do they work? Those voice balloons tell you. Am I feeling angry? We do not have enough art. Am I afraid? We do not have enough art. Do I want more art? Greed. Then there is hope. Basically, you take the negative emotional trigger and then you travel toward the positive emotional trigger. 

I like the idea of good greed. It is about what I would like more of in my own world. This is not art, so you will have to stretch a little bit. This is for the forest, Connecticut Forest and Park Association. They are doing a matching fund campaign. If you do matching fund campaigns, you will always bring in more money. They are saying your $1 to $2 will equal $2 for the forest. There will be more forest, more wildlife, and more beautiful blue-spotted salamanders. Substitute the arts, and you can use the same thing. 

Here is the Broad again. This is a case for support they have on their website. It says, “Your support ensures that we can continue to operate a world-class...” There is good greed there, because I do not want a second-class museum. I want a world-class museum on this campus. It will benefit the greater Mid-Michigan community. More good greed, because I am there. It is part of my backyard. Visitors from around the world, too. That is even better. You have all these people coming. 

Good greed is often where you end up for something like the arts. This came out of some recent research from 2020. They were asking people what would make America a better place to live. We are noted for our political hatred of each other. The big answer was that people want America to be more inclusive and community-centred, with greater diversity and a greater focus on local. 

What is local? Local is not just geographical, not just down the street. Local is also whatever really matters to me. It is what is in my heart. This may be your big advantage when you are raising money. 

Here is a letter that raised $100,000 in two weeks from a local audience. I have labelled every aspect of this that was local. You can see how many things are local here: the name of the town, Madison Land Conservation Trust, maybe for you the sounds of summertime, frogs croaking in the swamp, or cicadas singing in the trees. All these things are local. They are also very sensory, and you are the arts. You have plenty of sensory information to pass out. 

One final thing. This is about the identity of donors, their personal identity, and why they give to you. It is because of them, not you. Why does 70% of our estate go to a community foundation and the arts? Let me tell you. We learned about the community foundation because my wife and I were both working in the not-for-profit arts world. We met that way. We fell in love that way. We were married for 37 years because of these identities. 

One other thing: we did not have kids, which is a primary reason why people put gifts in their wills, because they do not have heirs. Childlessness is one of the factors. And there you go. Now we are going to switch to the amazing Tammy Zonker. 

Tom, thank you so much. That was a barrage of information. That was incredibly terrific. I’m sure we’ll have some questions at the end. Please put them in the chat function for the end. 

Now I would like to quickly switch to the wonderful Tammy. Tammy is a fundraising strategist, AFP Master Trainer, and an inspiring international speaker. In the past 20 years, she has coached, trained and led not-for-profit teams to raise more than half a billion dollars, including a single gift of $27.1 million. 

When she is not speaking at conferences, she is training and coaching her online membership community of fundraising transformers, or leading masterclasses, private workshops and retreats through her firm, Fundraising Transformed. Tammy, take us away. 

Thank you, Stephen and Tom. Always a tough act to follow. I am so excited to be back with all my Australian friends, and some new friends. 

The case for support. What is it? I am going to go back up to the high level and then really drill down into some practical detail about how you create your case for support. I will give you some examples. 

My favourite definition comes from Tom, in his book Turning Doubters into Donors: How to Make a Compelling Case for Your Cause. He says, “A case is mostly about your promise. The promise you make to the world through your mission, your accomplishments, and your plans.” 

The reason I love this definition is the word promise. We have missions and we believe in our missions. We have goals and strategies and we want to execute those. We want to achieve things. But a promise is something we do not break. A promise is really from the heart. That is why I love this definition. As we look at our own case-for-support work, I want you to look at it as a promise you are making to your community and to the world. 

Creative Partnerships Australia, as you likely know, did a very large study. I think Matt headed it up. They identified the four biggest challenges facing Australian not-for-profit organisations. I want you to focus on number three: improving the articulation of the case for support and value proposition. 

This is a challenge, and I think it can be especially challenging for arts organisations for the reason Tom mentioned: no animals, no starving children, and so on. But I want you to know you are not alone. 

The Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, co-founded by Dr Adrian Sargeant and Dr Jen Shang, also did a research project. They asked people how they felt about their case for support. 71% said, “We have a strong and compelling case for support.” That is pretty good. 57.9% said they believe their case focuses on why they do this work, one of Tom’s “why” questions. And 55% believe that their case conveys why they are uniquely qualified to do this work, the “why us” question. 

Here is what I would ask you to consider. If we are below 60% on the bottom two points, I wonder how 71% of us who responded to this survey think our case is strong and compelling. If you look at the Australian grading system, which I found through a quick Google search, we are just barely reaching satisfactory. In some cases, we all have a lot of work to do in this space. 

I do not want you to feel like you are alone. It is important, not urgent. I think that is the challenge we have. We know it is important and we want to do it, but it always seems to get pushed to the back burner. That is why so many of us do not have a case for support, or do not have a case for support that we really love and actually use as a powerful tool in our fundraising. 

I want to get a sense of where you feel you are with your case for support. Drop it in the chat. Are you A, our case for support is emotional and compelling, and I am super proud of it? Or B, our case is okay? Or C, we need a major rewrite? Or D, we do not have a case? Or E, I do not know, I am new here? That could be some of us. Drop that in the chat, just so you can see where your colleagues are. I am going to keep moving, but I want you to drop that in. 

Tom’s three questions: why us? Why now? What is compelling? What is urgent? Not desperate, but compelling and urgent. And why you? Why you, the donor? I am looking at those scores, those self-assessments between A and B, C and E, A and B, or E for me personally. That is useful feedback. Thank you for doing that. 

I want to add one more question to Tom’s three big questions. What would happen if you went away? What would be missing if the arts disappeared from your community, your region, or the country? Would there be a loss of joy? Absolutely. Would children, families and couples not have that enriching experience? Would our minds be less expansive? Would we be less creative? Would we be less inspired? Yes, yes and yes. 

I really want you to think and ask yourself the question: what would happen if your organisation went away? What hole would it leave? Because in that answer lies part of your case for support. 

Jerold Panas, a US fundraising legend, did quite a lot of work in Australia. His firm, Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners, had an office in Australia for many years. He said people give to change and save lives. They give to the magic of an idea. They give to audacious dreams. 

When we think about the compelling and urgent case we are putting out there, what we want to bring to this community through the arts and through your important work, we need to ask: how does it change and save lives? Is it magical? Is it audacious? Is it inspiring? Is it something that would inspire someone to give the most generous gift they have ever given, relative to their means? 

If we are just trying to keep the lights on, or if we just want to replace the upholstery on some theatre seats, that is not as inspiring. I want you to think about the big vision. And you have plenty of inspiration all around you. 

I think about the incredible gift, the Lindsay and Paula Fox gift of $100 million to the NGV. Again, you have these great examples of audacious dreams and big goals. I want to share a little bit about what I pulled off their website. They say, “You are crucial to the future growth of the NGV’s collection and programs. Your generosity will enrich the minds and lives in our community today and for generations to come.” 

Those are the payoffs and the identity. I could be important. I could be crucial. That is identity number one. Number two is your generosity. Am I generous? As I think about who I believe myself to be, or who I aspire to be, is generous one of those things? Again, you are connecting me to your organisation and to this growth. Lastly, “in our community”. Do I feel connected to the community? Do I care about the community? Do I care about the arts community specifically? These are all nods to identity. As I read this offer, I am seeing myself in it. I feel like I am part of it. 

I think about the case for support like the Rosetta Stone. I am sure most of you know the story of the Rosetta Stone, but essentially it was a stone that had the same message in three different languages. It had the message in hieroglyphics, Demotic and ancient Greek. Because it was repeated in three different languages, the translation helped to crack the code on hieroglyphics. 

How I apply that to fundraising, and specifically to your case for support, is that I feel the case for support is an internal tool. It can be an internal tool where you have what we do, why it matters, why us, and why you, the donor. It has all those important elements. It has stories. It has quotes from patrons, artists and community partners. 

We go to that case for support, that Rosetta Stone, to inform our donor communications and all our offers. The consistent messaging should show up in your direct mail and digital appeals, on your website, in your social media, and in your proposals, whether those proposals are for foundations, corporations or individual donors. 

Maybe the talking points from the case for support inform how you onboard and equip board members to talk about your work powerfully in the community, with consistent messaging. 

Here is why this is important. Penelope Burk, who was the founder and president of Cygnus Applied Research, retired a couple of years ago. It is a very well-respected research organisation. It did surveys every year with more than 30,000 respondents, so these were massive surveys. The research came back showing that when not-for-profits use consistent messaging, it increases donor trust because of that consistency and congruence. 

They read something, they hear something, and they say, “Yes, I know them.” Versus, “What? That is new. That does not sound right. That conflicts with something else I read about them or from them.” Having your case for support inform all these communication channels is really powerful and will help you raise more money. 

Here is the framework I like to use when I am writing a case for support for a client. I talk about the situation. What is the current situation? Like Tom talked about, how you can adapt the AA storytelling framework. What do we do, and why does it matter? 

Then I like to pull out a quote. Maybe it is a quote from an artist, or from a teacher in a school who has enjoyed some of your arts programs. A story or a quote. 

Then I talk about the problems: the issues at a glance and creating that urgency. Why do we need to solve this problem now? Why do we need to grow now? What is urgent and compelling about it? Then a story or a quote. 

Then we cast that vision, the bigger offer. In that offer, we answer the question, why us? Then a story or a quote. We include an invitation to join, which is Tom’s why you, the donor. Then we ask. We invite them, and then include a story or a quote. 

Number nine is where I add in that question: what would happen if you disappeared, or what would likely happen? What are the consequences if we do nothing? If this issue does not get addressed, if this gap remains, if we do not grow, what happens? Or what do we think will likely happen? 

I am going to walk you through an example of how we answered these questions with an arts organisation in my hometown. Not my birth town, but the town I chose to be my hometown, which of course is Detroit. This is the case for support for the Mosaic Youth Theatre in Detroit. 

When they talk about what they do and why it matters, they say they are a youth development organisation that helps youth grow their skills, their self-image and their commitment to community by focusing on the arts and their expression. Young people have to apply to be part of it. They really need to have some talent. Then Mosaic sets the bar high and expects and fuels them to perform at professional levels. 

They have high expectations for these students, regardless of their circumstances. We are going to talk about some of the challenges these young people encounter. They create an environment that is safe and supportive, emphasising that everyone belongs. They empower the youth through active participation. They need to show up at rehearsals. They need to give 100%. 

One of their taglines is “excellence on stage and in life”. They equip and empower young people to learn and to make good life choices, and they are incredibly talented. 

Why now? When we look at the circumstances for many young people in the city of Detroit, we know that the data says that in Detroit, and in many urban cities, young people are exposed to a lot of adversity. Poverty is directly linked to high school dropout. High school dropout is directly linked to incarceration. Urban youth are at high risk for depression and antisocial behaviours. 

It is tough for them, and there is an impact on our community if we do not lift them up, pour into them, have high expectations, and give them a place to be seen, heard and valued. There is a compelling and urgent case to be made for reaching out and bringing art to the community through these marginalised young people. 

Why us? The case for support for Mosaic is that they believe in excellence on stage and in life. They are a performing arts troupe, but beyond that, they really believe young artists benefit from participation through those three important elements. You can see some of the quotes on the side from alumni. 

97% of alumni agreed that Mosaic improved their ability to make positive decisions in life. One quote says, “I think Mosaic influenced me more than any other experience in my life. I attribute my personal goals of expecting only the best and nothing less out of myself to my Mosaic training.” And 95% of Mosaic youth ensemble members graduate from high school and go to college. 

According to the US Department of Education, only 51% of African-American students graduate from high school, and only 21% leave high school college ready. Again, this is the arts meeting the work of empowering young people to be the amazing people they were born to be. 

If we do not deliver on this mission, this cause, this art expression, and really empower and pour into these young people, it is very likely that there is a trajectory that will result in them living in poverty, and potentially incarceration. 

Again, this is why us. They have a model based on those three core elements that distinguishes them from other organisations or anyone else doing this work. 

Then we get to why you. Mosaic has a nice quote from an alumni: “Mosaic introduced me to the whole idea of peer leadership, which has continued to be one of the most important skill sets I’ve learned in life.” 

The image here is DeLashea. DeLashea is the executive director and creative director at Mosaic, and she is also a Mosaic alumni. She was born and raised in the city of Detroit into circumstances that were quite unfavourable. She went on to college, came back through the program, saw the world, travelled, and is now back pouring into these kids. It is inspiring. 

With support from donors and arts lovers across the city, and frankly now on world stages, Mosaic students and young artists are on international stages. It is because of those supporters and opportunities that these young people’s lives are changed. Donors are helping shine that bright light on young people who, through no fault of their own, have been born into some pretty dark circumstances. 

Again, they are empowering them to break the cycle of generational poverty. Mosaic’s case for support appeals to arts lovers because it is world-class and inspiring. The performances are magnificent. It also speaks to those who are committed to social justice, youth development, leadership, and growing the next generation of leaders. 

This is just giving you the quick essence of this case for support for Mosaic as an example. Then, what would likely happen if we do nothing? For this case, we collected some of the statistics and truths about what happens to young people, especially young people of colour in the United States, if they do not get through high school. 

Less than half of all African-American students in the United States graduate from high school. Only 20% are college ready. Detroit has the highest rate of children and youth living in poverty, at one in five. Half of all US prison inmates did not graduate from high school. Violent crime in Detroit is six times higher than the national average. Quite frankly, that is an improvement from where it was before. If we do nothing, that generational cycle of poverty, crime and inequity will continue. 

Photos, video and pictures are other tools for you in your case for support. Here is the 2022 troupe. They had auditions and have begun performing. This is your Mosaic troupe. Again, look at those faces, the smiles and the possibility. 

Here they are performing. You want to tell stories about each and every one of these young people. Have at least four to six stories available to pull from that case for support and use in different channels. 

As I mentioned, they have been on the world stage. President Bill Clinton recognised Mosaic when they were selected as the US representative to the World Festival of Children’s Theatre in Denmark. He said, “You’ve made Detroit and America proud.” 

Here you see some Mosaic young artists with Allee Willis. Allee is the one in the yellow shirt. If you do not know Allee Willis, she was a Detroit native, an American songwriter, artist, collector and art director. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2019. She co-wrote Earth, Wind & Fire’s September and Boogie Wonderland. Because I love you, I will not sing those to you. 

Again, making your case is a magnet. It is a magnet for supporters. It is a magnet for art lovers. It is a magnet for leaders in the arts space, innovators and creatives to come and pour into you. 

Here is another great example. In the centre is Jeffrey Seller, the producer of Hamilton. He was also born and raised in Detroit. He obviously lives in New York City now, but he has been very involved with the youth. When Hamilton opened in Detroit, the proceeds from that opening night went to Mosaic Youth Theatre. In addition to that, he and his husband granted $1 million from their private foundation. 

Some of these students took a summer internship, went to New York, and worked with Jeffrey and some of his colleagues. Again, if you can answer the questions why us, why now, why you, and what would happen if you went away, magical things will happen. 

As you sit down to work on your case for support, here are some things that will inform it. This comes from Tom’s book, How to Create a Compelling Case for Your Cause. You want to have a couple of years of your fiscal budgets. How much did you spend? Where did most of the unrestricted dollars you spent go? Can we package those things up into offers or investment opportunities? 

A couple of annual reports are also useful. Of all the money we raised from ticket sales, philanthropy, partnerships and all the different sources, what are the percentages? How does that compare to giving in Australia? I know there is a goal to significantly grow individual giving. Where are you now? Where do you want to be this year, in three years, five years or ten years? Start building your case, your big audacious dreams and your awe-inspiring goals around that growth. 

You want to have your mission statement, strategic plan, and any SWOT analysis where you have assessed your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Or you might have a landscape analysis to identify what other arts organisations are doing. 

Tom gave the great example of charity: water. When I work with organisations that are about clean water, we go to charity: water because they are so innovative and brilliant. As Tom said, what they are doing can inspire what you do, and then you will make it your own. 

Have those documents handy when you are getting ready to lean into your case for support. Your organisation’s brochure, website copy and brand guidelines are also useful. As I mentioned, I want you to have at least four stories, probably more like six, and to continually refresh those stories. 

Those stories can be written stories, video stories or audio stories. Of course, your organisation’s strategic plan is essential. Your case for support must support the organisation’s strategic plan, just as the budget must support the strategic plan. Those three documents really interplay. They depend on one another for you to get where you are going and to make those dreams a reality. 

Tom has a free newsletter, so I encourage you to sign up for that. I also have a mentorship program that is free of charge. You can hear live trainings every single month. If you find that interesting, take a picture of that QR code and it will take you to a place where you can sign up for more free material. 

That was a bit of a whirlwind. I think we have time for about 15 minutes of questions. Stephen, if you want to help. 

Lovely. Thank you so much, Tammy. Incredible information, as always. Wonderful. We do have a few questions through the chat, which I will throw to you, but I think this first question is for both you and Tom. Are you seeing any new initiatives or new trends? Is there anything you can point to that people are trying that is a little bit new or different? Further to that, what do you see as the future? What does the future hold in this area? 

I’ll make a pitch that nothing new needs to be figured out. You need to know your basics and start there. 

What I am seeing first of all is a lot of turnover. I do not know how the market is in Australia, but I do know the US market for fundraising. In the US, people coming into the fundraising trade last for about 18 months and then they are gone. There is rapid turnover. A lot of charities have a very difficult time finding anyone qualified to take the job, even if they are paying good money. 

What I am seeing is a split in that career market. There are people who are desperate for training and good information, and there is plenty of that available. Then there are the other people. It is an 80/20 Pareto thing. There is no such thing as a real shiny new thing. Learn your basics, and then add to them what you may have learned from somewhere else. 

For instance, I learned about Facebook fundraising by going to Australia. It was being done at its peak there. I went down and spent a couple of weeks learning about it. There are new things coming about all the time because we have all these other channels. For instance, TikTok is a very interesting channel. It was very interesting for the political scene here in the United States in the last few weeks. 

Those things are great, but one of the things I learned about Facebook fundraising was that any trained copywriter from the 1940s can write an ad for Facebook. The channel was new, but the techniques were not. 

I would add that a lot of organisations recognise they need a case for support if they are planning a capital campaign. The next level, and what people are beginning to realise, is that you really need a case for support for all your fundraising. 

There should be one case for support that is an internal document. This is not something you are going to email to a major donor. This becomes the source, and you pull from it for all those donor communications. People are becoming more aware of that. The smart ones, the ones who are going to raise more money, are beginning to realise it. 

Lovely. Thank you so much, Tom and Tammy. 

A terrific question from my wonderful colleague in Queensland, Zoe Graham. Wave, Zoe. Say hello to everyone. Zoe wants to know, we are commonly asked how much of the case for support an organisation should share with a prospective supporter before their first meeting or first contact. For example, if the arts organisation is trying to secure a first meeting with a prospective donor, are you liaising by email with them? Should you include a PDF of your case for support, build core messaging into your email copy, or wait and share it in person? What is the most effective strategy, in your experience? 

I would not share much ahead of time. The key is that I want to get face to face. If this is a major donor opportunity, I want to be face to face. What I will do is tease it. I will say, “I would like to visit with you. We have something very big and exciting planned,” or, “We are facing a unique challenge now, and I want your point of view on it.” I would connect it back to them. “You are so passionate. You have never led us astray. You always have interesting perspectives on things, and I would really like to talk with you about it.” That would be my take. 

I will just put a cherry on top of that, Tammy, which is from Jerry Panas, who said famously, over and over, “When you ask for money, you get advice, and when you ask for advice, you get money.” 

I have been working with an Indigenous museum here in the US for the last couple of years. They are going to build a whole new facility. What we did was use an evolving case more as a feasibility study. We brought it to the head of one foundation, who was very influential, and said, “What do you think of this?” 

He saw it in very rough form. He saw the sausage being made. He gave us great advice, frankly, and I am sure it is going to pay off in terms of money at some point. He found our blind spots, and then we were able to fill them in and come up with a final case. 

Thank you. A question from Matthew Young for you, Tom. He is wondering if you may be able to share a bit more about signalling to prospects in a verbal or personable context, going beyond campaign writing. The principle around signalling to prospects. 

The context for that was that your donate button is not enough. One of the things I do when I have a new client inquiry come in is look at their financials, the ones they file with the government. I can see what percentage of their budget is coming in through philanthropy. 

In one famous case a few years ago, there was an animal welfare charity, and it turned out that 85% of their budget was thanks to giving. Yet they did not know that internally. Even the chief financial officer did not have that in her grasp. Of course, their website did not reflect it either. 

What you want to do is make sure that within seconds I understand that you need my help and that you are a donor-dependent organisation. 

Another question I have is about fundraising events. We are approached a lot about fundraising events. I reflect on Tom’s question around wanting people to feel something. If we have people in a room and we are building momentum at an event, do you have any strategic tips around how we can enhance those feelings? 

I will share an anecdote from an event. They had a video. The video was professionally produced, looked good, was entertaining and ran for about five minutes. It was about a woman who had escaped domestic violence and started her own business, a florist shop. 

Then the room went dark. This was a big room, with hundreds of people sitting at tables. One light came on and hit the podium, where the same woman who had just been on the film was standing. She was now in front of people live, and she thanked them for making this all possible in her life. The hairs on your head get stiff. Introducing a dramatic moment like that can be amazing at an event. 

Events are not something I do. I am not a huge fan of them because they tend to take up more time than they produce money. But if you use them creatively and dramatically, they can do something amazing. 

Tammy, would you add anything? 

I think that anytime you can incorporate a mission moment, whether it is what Tom described, that can be powerful. I know so many of your supporters love getting close to your creative directors, performers or artists. Having those opportunities really means a lot. 

It goes back to Robert Cialdini’s psychology of influence and the authority principle. Any time you have someone in authority, that could be a board member or Sister Margaret Mary, but in the arts world it can also be one of the creatives or the creative director. It brings the mission front and centre. Anything we can do to make it a great party, but a party with meaning, connects me back to, yes, that is why I support this organisation. 

We are drawing to a close very soon. One last question from the floor. This is in relation to moving a donor from their initial donation through to regular giving, or from a regular giver through to someone who makes a first-time larger donation, and then through to major giving. Are there any nuances around that you could share with us that are handily available? 

I will start, but Tammy, you are the fundraiser, not me. At least in the United States, and I am pretty sure the data is not all that different in other English-speaking countries, you are going to get a lot of first-time donors, but only about 20% of them are going to make a second gift. That is one great reason to do monthly giving right away, because it builds in a second gift. 

From that point on, what is going to matter to those people is the ongoing story you are building around them and their involvement with your charity. That will depend on things like phone calls, good thank yous, newsletters and social media feeds. 

I would add donor surveys, too. If we are talking with a donor who is giving higher gift values, those surveys can be one-on-one conversations. I think surveys help us understand, of the many things you do inside your arts organisation, what most inspires them. Let’s say it is an art museum. Is it the classics? Is it the Indigenous art exhibits? Which part of the museum most inspires them? 

Once we know that, we can make the offer. We can ask for incrementally larger gift values based on their capacity, but most importantly based on their passion. 

One of the pieces of data I use a lot, because it really changed my mind, is that about 60% of tomorrow’s major donors, whatever you call a major donor, come in as normal donors. For a lot of organisations that might be anyone giving $1,000 and above, or $10,000 and above. Those people still come in as smaller donors. About 60% of them come in with $25 initial gifts. 

Years later, as they have come to love you, understand you, believe in you and trust you, they are going to give the bigger gift. 

Lovely, folks. I think we are out of time now. I would once again like to thank Tammy and Tom for enduring the geographical distance and time difference to be with us here today, and everyone joining us from more locally. Thank you so much. 

Watch out for our next Knowledge Series session, and we’ll see you all again very soon. A quick reminder that we will send out a recording of this via email, so you will be able to share this with your colleagues and review it. Thank you so much, and see you all again soon.