Presentation by Jenny Harrow, Tobias Jung, Hannah Pavey, Jeanie Scott as part of CGAP and Arts and Business Scotland's masterclass series.

1. Donor
cultivation in
theory and
practice
Jenny Harrow, Tobias Jung,
Hannah Pavey, Jeanie Scott

2. Aim
To identify the existing levels and nature of donor cultivation
practices within the Scottish arts sector and to explore the
challenges Scottish arts organisations face at a time of
mounting resource pressures.

3. Method
 Co-production approach
 Exploratory review of academic and non-academic literature
 Online survey
 Telephone interviews
 Focus groups

4. Practice Findings
Five clusters
 Organisational factors
 Contexts and relationships
 Donors
 Approaches
 Success

5. Organisational factors – the internal organisational
characteristics of individual organisations;
‘Even though everyone understands the need for funds,
fundraising is perhaps not as valued as other parts of the
organisation’

6. Contexts and relationships – the socio-political, cultural and
economic environment as well as stakeholders, partners and
competitors within the sector;
‘You need to focus on who you’re targeting There is a lot of
diversity in the market. The donor isn’t going to be interested
in ALL arts’

7. Donors – the knowledge and understanding of existing and
potential donors;

8. Approaches – the extent and nature of approaching and
interacting with donors;

9. Success – the understanding, assessment and use of
‘effectiveness’ within donor cultivation and fundraising more
widely
‘I have no background in this—there is no precedent—have
tried to be modest in how much we can raise in a year…but it
is difficult to calculate’.

10. Findings from the literature
Three clusters
Donor engagement
Donor education
Donor control

11. Donor engagement – interactive relationships
Transactional relationship perspective
Relationship fundraising perspective

12. Donor education – instructive relationships
‘the formal learning opportunities that engage and
enable individuals to make wise decisions about their giving
to achieve impact and change’ (Siegel and Yancey 2002: 8).

13. Donor control – directive relationships
Non-profit directed relationship
Donor directed relationship

14. Fundraising models and
perspectives
• Steps and cycles, pyramids, and social
interaction models
• Donor motivations: ‘there is urgent need to
invest in research that clarifies donors’
motivations, needs, and decision-making
criteria’ William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
and McKinsey & Company (2008: 4)
• Targeting

15. Donor cultivation as an umbrella concept

16. ThinKit! Steering Wheel Organisation
A reflective framework to al factors
donor cultivation
Context and
Success
relationships
Approach Donors

17. Organisational factors
What are the internal challenges and opportunities for donor
cultivation within your organisation? How do different
organisational responsibilities relate to each other?

18. Contexts and relationships
What challenges and opportunities does the socio-political
and economic environment offer? What are your existing
relationships with other organisations and how could these
be used? Are there opportunities for networking or
collaboration and how can these be developed?

19. Donors
Who are your existing and potential donors? What do you
know about them? How can you learn more about them ?

20. Approaches
How will you go about approaching, engaging and managing
existing and new donors?

21. Success
How do you define success for your donor cultivation
strategy? Where do you want to be? How do you know that
you are there? How are you going to communicate/use your
successes?

22. ThinKit! Steering Wheel Organisation
A reflective framework to al factors
donor cultivation
Context and
Success
relationships
Approach Donors