Q: After using the Benevon Model for a year and a half, we have toured hundreds of people, held many Free Feel-Good Cultivation Events^™, hosted two Ask Events^™, and entered a lot of data about our donors into our database. Our next challenge is this: How do we maintain and grow our donors? Anything we can think of either costs money (which is in short supply) or would take an inordinate amount of time. What can we offer our 200+ donors who support our cause but may not stay connected? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Jeanne in Ohio

A: In our model, maintaining donors and cultivating new ones doesn't require spending money on them to win their loyalty or affection. Instead, you can keep your donors connected to your organization and its mission through personalized individual contacts with them, based on their particular interests and preferences.

If you are concerned about the time it will take to customize your cultivation contacts with individual donors, keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to do this for every single person you come into contact with. This model will help you to focus your efforts on deeper cultivation with your Multiple-Year Giving Society Donors. This will mean that you are "working smarter, not harder."

If the number of donors you have to cultivate still intimidates you, consider segmenting your donors into groups and trying the individualized cultivation approach on your higher-level groups. To determine which donors would appreciate the customized approach, I recommend that you do a Know-Thy-Donor Program^™ to get to know the donors you already have and to find out which of them would be interested in further involvement. Click here to learn more about the Know-Thy-Donor Program.

Terry