The Missing $1,000

We came across two separate cases of missing money last week.

Actually, it wasn’t really missing money – it was a $1,000 donor that’d been overlooked.

Even worse.

In both cases, a harried end-of-year campaign with too few resources allocated to it (and who didn’t have too-few-resources allocated to development in the past year?)…a charismatic executive director who inspired confidence in potential contributors…and a turnover in development staff – all combined to create a scenario in which money came in but records were not kept as carefully as they ought to have been.

Ergo, a $1,000 donation that went unheralded.

And not just a donation that remained unseen, but a donor – who could potentially repeat their gift in years to come, possibly increase the amount, and maybe even bring in others at that level.

Oops.

In both cases, a new development director was meeting with Cause Effective to look over the organization’s individual donor base and cull out who might be asked to upgrade or to become an asker (a conversation we’ve been having often these days, with nonprofits re-assessing their private donor base with an eye toward growth).

But while we can usually find a number of leads through these brainstorming sessions, especially when board members are included in the conversation – we don’t usually find as dramatic a case of missing money as we did in these two cases.

The answer, in both instances, was to have the executive director and/or a board member give the forgotten donor a call, and, with a rueful tone, apologize and give a heartfelt thanks along with an update of what their contribution had made possible.

WITHOUT another ask – yet.

There’s some fence-mending to be done before they’ll be properly ready for the next ask...but better a fence to be mended than none at all!