Use Personality Types to Connect with Donors

Use Personality Types to Connect with Donors

Article posted in General on 21 January 2014| comments
audience: National Publication | last updated: 22 January 2014
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By Joel M. Breitstein and Michael Lillibridge

It seems like every other article written on fundraising these days speaks to raising money via the Internet. Search using the phrase “online fundraising” and you can pull up more sites than you will have time to review. The bottom line is that today seems to be all about raising money using a website, Facebook, or any number of online fundraising platforms. Is this to be the new paradigm for building relationships with donors?

We understand the value of online fundraising. We live in a world that is dominated by social media; a world where getting out your organization’s message to a large number of people can only be done by utilizing the power of the “net.” No longer is it viable to do a mass mailing using snail mail alone.

New donors, as well as repeat donors, can be reached more strategically using online methods that may be combined with other important modalities. But if you are going to move a donor from an annual giver to becoming a major gift philanthropist to your organization — where the key is building a long-term relationship — we suggest that the relationship will not take root, blossom, and flourish through his or her computer, no matter how interactive your site might be.

Personal Relationships

One of our concerns is that as new development professionals enter the field of nonprofit fundraising, they will be trained to tap the Internet for all of its positive benefits in raising needed charitable resources. However, the art of building real personal relationships may wither and atrophy with disuse. We suggest that the skill of interpersonal relationship building leads to an opportunity to secure quality gifts at different stages of a major donor’s giving cycle. This can only be honed through training and education related to understanding your own personality type, and how you can identify and better relate to a donor who may have a different personality type than you. Being tuned into personality types will enable you to speak the donor’s language and deliver your institution’s message in a way that makes sense to him or her, not just to you as the organization’s professional advocate.

Much time and energy has been spent by charities creating the methodology to develop extensive donor profiles. These profiles include almost anything one can think of that will give the development professional clues as to whether the prospect might be a good candidate for a major gift. Profiles include such things as estimated net worth, giving history to the institution, giving to other nonprofit organizations, business interests, family history — and the list goes on.

However, one thing not usually included in these profiles is any indication as to the personality type of the individual. Why is knowing one’s personality type important? How might it serve as an enhancement to the information that can aid a major gift officer in creating deeper, more meaningful relationships with donors?

Personality Typology

Although there are many varied definitions, personality-typing refers to a process of classifying different types of individuals based on how they view the world, how they interact with others, and what issues and perspectives drive their thoughts and behavior. Depending on the testing mechanism, there can be as many as 16 or as few as four different personality types, with many variations and combinations in between.

What all have in common is that effective personality typologies reveal and increase the knowledge about and understanding of individuals. The increased ability to predict clinically relevant information or personality tendencies about people may help to develop strategies around that information. This leads to more positive interaction and communication among peers, co-workers, and donors. One example of a simple mechanism to identify personality types and use that information to its best advantage in the nonprofit arena is the PeopleMap Personality System.

This approach measures four basic personality types, labeled Leader, People, Free Spirit, and Task. If a development professional understands his or her own personality type and is trained in assessing the personality type of a donor, the ability to build stronger personal relationships (and thereby close more meaningful gifts) should be greatly increased.

Basic Personality Types

The Leader type is a big-picture person, future oriented, and always focused like a laser on results. Time efficiency is important to them with the end-game always in mind. The Leader always operates on being logical, weighs pros and cons, and then quickly makes a decision.

A few hints help us relate to a Leader.

  • Forget idle chitchat — get down to business.
  • Make a presentation with the end-game in mind — focus on the end result of the gift.
  • Make a logical appeal, not an emotional one.
  • Be an expert — be knowledgeable about what you are presenting.
  • Be prepared to debate and answer lots of questions — don’t be confrontational, but hold your ground and you have a good chance of getting the Leader type’s respect and a meaningful gift.

The People type is the opposite of the Leader. People types are driven to develop, build, and maintain close, caring, and meaningful relationships. Harmony with others in personal and professional relationships is all important to People types. They are characteristically empathetic, warm, sharing, flexible, compromising, and considerate. A development officer should consider some of these things when meeting with a People type.

  • Take time to build a relationship — bonding will help bring in the gift.
  • Find out what is important to them on a personal level — values, hopes, dreams, and philanthropic interests.
  • Be open to sharing things about yourself — there is a need for mutual disclosure.
  • Their gifts will usually be based on two important variables: a relationship of trust and mutual respect with the gift officer, and knowledge that the gift will be helping other people.

The Free Spirit type likes a great deal of personal and professional freedom. These people want freedom to create, innovate, and learn. Often they are out-of-the-box thinkers and doers. They do not like being hemmed in by rules, and often choose careers where they are troubleshooters and have a great deal of variety and flexibility in their work. Gift-planners should think about these things when meeting with a Free Spirit type.

  • Do not offer a long, pro-forma presentation.
  • Stay loose and do not stick to a script — a conversation with Free Spirits rarely goes as planned. Listen to what is on their mind and share your own thoughts and feelings.
  • Do not look for quick decisions. Free Spirits will often have lots of questions that may not follow a logical train of thought. Take time to answer their questions, even if it means researching the answers.
  • Tailor your eventual proposal so that it appeals to their “wild side.” The gift is likely if the end result is something unique or cutting edge.

The Task type likes order, structure, and predictability and will be focused on detail. They need proven systems that consistently work. The Task type likes things that have a beginning, middle, and an end, or a set of logical steps going in order from A to Z. If you are meeting with a Task type, remember these things.

  • A proposal must make sense, starting with the first step — and each step will build on the previous one.
  • Similar to meeting with a Leader, you will need to be an expert in what you are proposing. This means having all the data, facts, figures, and printed information at your fingertips or readily available so that it can be supplied in follow-up meetings.
  • Task types will want to proceed slowly, and with detailed answers to all of their questions before making a decision. Be prepared to make multiple presentations usually with refinements to the previous presentation.
  • Task types want to know in very specific terms what their philanthropic gift will achieve. Be patient, provide the needed detail, and you will have a successful solicitation.

Relationships and Trust

None of us fit one personality type alone. We are usually a combination that will depend on the personality testing mechanism that has been chosen. However, one thing is certain, understanding our own personality tendencies and the type that most closely describes us and being trained to hone in on the type of the person we are trying to engage is of the utmost importance.

Good relationships are built on a foundation of trust, and trust can only be achieved when the interaction between individuals is meaningful and relevant to the sensitivities of each. If the development professional can begin to build relationships with donors taking into consideration their personality types, development officers have the best opportunity to ensure that those relationships will be meaningful and will produce significant philanthropic gifts.

Fundraising through creative use of the Internet and other online vehicles is critical in this fast-paced world. But at the end of the day, it is only by developing meaningful interactive and personal relationships that we can create transformative philanthropic giving.

Planned Giving Today is the premier monthly resource serving the planned giving community and connecting readers to leading professionals in the field since 1990. Click here to read the entire newsletter.

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