How I Raised $15K in 15 Minutes with Fundraising Anchoring
No, this is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme.
It's an actual example of how a 15-minute reply to an email may have resulted in a $15K larger gift from a foundation using fundraising anchoring.
Let me tell you a story about a donor I had been cultivating for 2+ years to support an organization I care about.
After a few rounds of conversation and the submission of a proposal, this donor came back with a question, "How would your organization use a gift of $35K to $50K?"
The donor needed my response soon so I replied to the email quickly by writing: "Well, with $50K our organization could do X, Y, and Z," and I repeated the $50K number with five or six examples of how we could spend $50K.
The donor came back and said, "Congrats, we funded you at $50K!"
[HAPPY FACES ALL AROUND :)]
I'll never know if they were already planning to give $50K, but they said they were considering a range. So I responded by only speaking about the higher donation level. This is the key.
What Is Fundraising Anchoring?
What I did is called fundraising anchoring. Anchoring is a device you can use to focus attention from something broad to something narrow. In this case, fundraising anchoring allowed the donor to focus on one number, not a range.
By anchoring on one amount, I focused the conversation on the top of the funding range and explained what that amount could mean for our organization.
How to Use Fundraising Anchoring
I have used fundraising anchoring numerous times with donors and program officers at foundations. Once, I had a program officer at a huge global foundation say to me in a meeting, "We may have an extra $40K-$60K for capacity building to give your organization if you need it."
I immediately responded with, "We could definitely use $60K, and here's how." She went right over to her computer and selected our allocation at $60K. Bingo. The magic of fundraising anchoring.
I have known about anchoring for a while, but I want to give a shout-out to Jack Chapman who wrote one of my favorite books on salary negotiation: "Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute."
Sometimes fundraising is about quick thinking, but it pays to know about basic human psychology. I go more into that in my full course for fundraisers, Major Gifts MasterClass: 16 Advanced Tactics to Supercharge Your Fundraising.
Let me know if you use a similar tool or mine!
