Nonprofit Hub Radio
Whether starting a nonprofit or taking an existing cause to the next level, The Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast is about breaking down how nonprofits can grow. Each episode features an interview with a sector star with insight, stories, or ideas that can take your nonprofit from good to excellence. Join host Meghan Speer every week to make your good go further!
Nonprofit Hub Radio
Major Gifts Without The Gimmicks
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If your calendar is packed with galas, auctions, golf outings, and “one more event” that still doesn’t fix your budget, this conversation is for you. We sit down with Sherry Quam Taylor, CEO of Quam Taylor, to talk about the simplest and hardest shift in nonprofit fundraising: getting out from behind the tactics and back into real human donor relationships.
We dig into why so many mid-level and major donors are not giving their best gift each year and how well-meaning fundraising events can quietly cap generosity. Sherry shares a clear principle we can use right away: our job is to lead every donor to their best gift, not just the easiest gift. From there, we unpack how to move from “fun project” storytelling to confident, business-minded conversations about strategic plans, growth, and the true need for general operating support so you can fund salaries, benefits, and infrastructure without feeling awkward.
Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org
Donor Trends Report Mention
Speaker 2If a donor asks an AI assistant about where they can make a difference, would AI name your organization? Get your AI Visibility Assessment at FundraiseUp.com/AgenticGiving.
Speaker 2
Welcome And Fundraising Can Be Simpler
Speaker 2Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, joined today by Sherry Quam Taylor, who is the CEO of Quam Taylor. And we are going to be digging into a couple different fundraising topics overall. But I think something that's going to be a super encouragement to those of us who have fundraising responsibilities, whether that is as an executive director or as director of development or as some of the boots on the ground fundraising folks, about the fact that it is not as hard as we make it. It's just not. And here's some options and some things to think about as the scape of or of scope of fundraising is really kind of changing. So I'm excited to dig in with Sherry today. Welcome and thanks for being here.
SpeakerHi Megan, how are you today?
Speaker 2Oh, so good. So excited for this conversation.
SpeakerMe too.
Speaker 2Sherry, tell the audience a little bit about yourself and kind of your background and journey that brought us to the conversation today.
Sherry’s Fundraising Origin Story
SpeakerOh my goodness. Well, I recently did the math on this. And so I can officially say I've been fundraising for 20 years. Yeah. I started as a child, I guess. But of course. Um, so I and that journey actually is pretty wide-ranging. I was working corporate at a, you know, an agency and was one of those Uber volunteers for a nonprofit that like a lot of my clients have, where frankly, I was single and I was working like an extra 40-hour a week job for a nonprofit that I had done some work with and hadn't traveled internationally with, and just became super passionate and really obviously just a believer in the work. And so I was, I started fundraising when I'm like, I don't even know what this is, but I know they need help and I really know that they need money. And so I did that for a number of years, and there was always an open door for me to join them from a staff standpoint. And I was like, no, no, I'm over here climbing corporate ladder. I don't need to do that. And then long story short, they wore me down, and you know, the economy was in a little bit of a slump. And I thought, yeah, I will. I'll actually go and join the organization for a bit. And I really didn't think it would be long term. But long story short, I ended up working with them or for them for about four years, and we tripled the revenue in 18 months. And so, and I was like, ooh, this is fun. This is this is just like, it wasn't easy. I will not say that it was easy, but there's just some things that clicked about fundraising for me. And I'm from agency life where I build on a six-minute increment. I'm like, my hours better be aligned with dollars. And I joke that even today, like I'll look at my my watch, I'll be like, okay, it's 106, it's 112, it's 124. I'm thinking in six-minute increment. And I bring that up because I was like, that's kind of how my like mentality shifted into fundraising, or really what I I used, where I was like, so if I only have this many hours in a week and I'm doing 62 other things, gosh, I really got to make sure that when I am doing fundraising activities, they have to yield the most possible. And it's got to be the most flexible gift too. So, like, I need big general operating gifts. Let's just cut to the chase. So, anyhow, I did that, and then I thought, I think I could help other leaders do this. I was just connecting with amazing leaders, you know, that inspire all of us in this sector. And um, they were saying, How are you doing this? What are you doing? You know, we're doing casino night, we're doing golf outings. And I was like, we don't have time for that because we're we're having one-on-one conversations with investment-level donors. And so I started my business to do just that. Um, I'm on year 13 of my business. And um, it really has been so fun to help organizations see that there really is a way to fully fund your organization if we do align our hours with dollars. And so today I have my business, I coach leaders all over the country to really move into those investment level conversations so that they can have all the flexible funding they need to scale and grow.
Why Humans Still Win Giving
Speaker 2Yeah. Oh, that's so good. So, along those lines, I was at a conference just last week with one of our partners. It was their user conference for their platform. Um, and I got to hear Nathan Chappelle, who is with Virtuous and like Mr. AI fundraising man, right? Writing the book, literally writing the book on AI. And one of the things that he in every session I heard him do, both at the partner day and in workshops and on the main stage, was talking about this idea of humans and how everyone wants to talk about the AI and how AI can help us scale. But what you're talking about is not an AI job, right? It has to be human. And I think sometimes it's easy to get stuck in the cycle of like this is our gala and this is our golf outing, and now we have to do an auction and a bingo night. When really we're doing all of that hustle because we're scared to have one-on-one conversations, they can feel intimidating. They're, you know, they're a lot. But that that human element is so critical. So let's start with maybe somebody who's in the events rat race. Yes. And who is looking to mama, looking for a better way? Yeah. Right. What are some steps that they can take? Understanding, you know, your strategy is not gonna whole shift overnight. But what are some steps or some strategies that somebody could take to start to feel more comfortable with that idea of the one-on-one human conversation?
Stop Blocking Best Gifts With Events
SpeakerYes. Okay, such a good question. Here's one where I want to start with like the root of that. So the root of well, so like everything I teach is really based on this principle. We really have the opportunity to lead every donor to give their best gift every year. This is a principle I learned early on in fundraising. Yeah. And I just owned it because if we like, okay, you might still do an event. I'm I'm I don't tell people to end their events, and well, sometimes I do, but not all the time. Point being, if we have an event, if we have a golf audience, if we have casino night, I would just flip and ask, so do you think your mid and major level donors are giving their best gift through casino night, through the golf auditing? I'm telling you, 999 out of a thousand times, no, I don't think so. I think they could give more. I think uh we've Googled them, or well, actually, they gave really generously one year, but then they were on vacation the following year at the galaxy, so they didn't give at all. And so sometimes I say, okay, first we have to say, are we really committed to leading all donors, even if $50 is their best gift? Are we committed to leading them on that journey so that eventually we are sitting down and asking them to invest that into this incredible mission? And so so often these I call them like games and tricks and prizes that we do in fundraising are actually the thing that's preventing the donor from giving their best gift. And so I have so many examples where um it's like, well, we've had the gala for 10 years, and this one donor's been coming for five, and they they do a paddle, or then maybe they buy a trip. And then eventually we we go sit down with them and we say, Hey, here's what your gift has been doing over the past few years. Could we walk you through our growth plans, all this stuff? And they're like, wait, oh, so you like need more money? Like you need you actually need me to give more? Oh, you you didn't ask me to do that. Yeah. And so I think like it's it's uh there's just there's all this first, like there's this clutching of like, but what else would we do? And we'd lose those dollars. Sure. Hold on. What if we release a little bit and the all the half of those gifts triple because you've removed the event? So it always pays off to move into those relational things. And so I think it's just like my advice is like, don't hold these things so tightly that like we can't change because we won't hit a goal. Like, maybe believe that there's actually more money on the other side if we do get to know people and like you said, be human and have relationships with them, and then actually ask them what they give their best gift. The money's always there.
How To Ask For Operating Support
Speaker 2Okay, so I want to there was so much gold in that whole sentence, but there was there's a couple things that I want to like, yeah. Oh so much gold. But there's some that I just want to to touch back to. So one of the things that I heard you say in there was that when we do start to be able to ask for those best gifts and get into those conversations, it increases our operating revenue. And I think that sometimes there's such a tendency to go to folks with like, here's this one special project that we need you to help with, or our at our golf outing, we're only telling this one story of this one program that we're doing. And then we wonder why we don't have money to like pay our people, right? Or raise salaries or all of raise salaries or do all of the things that we should be doing as employers. So let's start with that idea, right? Of because those are not necessarily sexy items, right? We need to do some facilities upgrades, or we need to raise salaries, or we want to provide better benefits packages. Those are not necessarily the things that people go like goony-eyed about, right? Yes. So it can be very intimidating to bring up that side of the house. Yes. Instead of just focusing on the program and what we're doing. Tell me how you approach those conversations.
SpeakerYes. Okay. I wish I could draw something right now on this podcast, but people will have to be creative in their thinking. So I love this analogy. One of my friends said this. She's like, so we're in the jar and we're looking through the label. Let's come outside of the jar and read the label from the other direction. I let I love that like visual. Okay, let's look at this problem from another angle. Because the whole like people, you know, only want fun projects or the non-sexy things, like that is a that is just a um a gap in a fundraiser's skill set, if I can be so direct here on this podcast. Super blunt. I like it. Because it's like, well, when we have investment level conversations with donors, yeah, we are actually walking them through the whole and true and honest need of the organization. Not the like we'll squeak by and like we don't have the salary raises in the budget, but we really like to budget. We're walking them through the our financial need of our organization. So what does that look like? Okay. I use big round numbers on podcasts. So if we said we have a new three-year strategic plan, we're really excited about it. Um, and so this year we have a $2 million need. Uh, and within the following three years, we're gonna be, we're probably looking at being about a $4 million organization so that these things can be accomplished. So it's like we have a strategic plan, it's telling us where we want to go or where our compass is set for the next three years. And I would flip back to the organization and say, well, financially, then what do you need every year? And how do you how do you actually have that conversation with investment level donors as opposed to uh, well, you know, we'd love to grow this program, we're hoping to, and maybe we could hire another staff member for that county and like we'll see, but if we don't have the money, that's not an investment level conversation. No investment level conversation is you know, part of our plan is to grow regionally, and so that looks, you know, having more feet on the ground and that looks like being able to help more students or whatever that looks like. We aren't talking about, of course, there's staff in those numbers, but so often we're feeling like we have to go ask for the staff member versus knowing how to root that in more of like a business conversation. And and I just find that, like sadly, a lot of times the fundraising team isn't super involved in the budgeting or the strategic planning, and they should be. Um, they're the one selling it. And so a lot of my work is really like how do fundraisers have business conversations so that like those questions actually aren't a thing anymore. Like, there's buy-in at the top level to where they're like, we're on board with you, we're on mission with you. What do you need? What whatever you need. And so I just want people to hear like your peers are sitting in meetings with funders who have given restricted project-based gifts for 10 years in a row and shifting the conversation and having the funder say, Oh, so did you need general operating? Because we can totally shift the gift to that. Like big gifts, Megan. Yeah, and I just want them people to believe this. Yeah. It's a skill set issue.
Confidence And Training For Major Gifts
Speaker 2I think I it absolutely is a skill set issue, and I wonder how much of it is rooted in confidence. If I could have a magic wand and just like shake it, it's little glitter dust all over the nonprofit industry. It would be my wish would be to erase this idea that you as a professional are somehow less than because you're working in a nonprofit as opposed to a for-profit. Yes. That would be my little magic. Yes, my little magic pixie dust all over there. Because they're the level of professionalism is there. Yes. You also have the right to sit in these rooms and have professional conversations with folks who are business minded. There is nothing less than about the work that you're doing. And yet somehow there's this myth that we've bought into that I hate.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Because I do not own a magic wand or any sort of thing. And I live, yeah, I live here in the real world and not in the unicorns and fairies and rainbows worlds. What are the are there practical steps that someone can do in if that's the position in which they find themselves right now, right? If they're second guessing their skills, maybe they have bought into that myth that they're somehow less because they're in a different tax status of organization, which is really all it is, is a different tax status.
SpeakerTotally.
Speaker 2What are some things that they could do to either practice that mindset shift, create that skill for themselves? Are there ways to practice that or like that? Things to work on?
SpeakerSo this is what's kind of funny. So I find that so few fundraisers are actually having one-on-one conversations with donors.
Speaker 1Okay, so we gotta start there. You actually have to do it.
SpeakerYou gotta say, could I meet with you? You know, and I hear people going, Well, they don't want to meet with me. Hold on. Well, let's work on that email. So, first of all, we have to say, we actually gotta go be a human and meet with someone. And even if it's a 20-minute conversation, or even if it's picking up the phone, and I love just like I'm just like, I don't pick up the phone because I just want to dispel the myth that it has to be that we need to put on some big professional fundraising mask and we gotta wear our extra fancy suit and we gotta go, we gotta go talk in a different way or be a different person. When I literally just want you to show up and be your authentic self.
unknownYeah.
SpeakerAnd I literally said the other day, or I was like, what was that? Last month, I was at a conference and I was like, so if you have like a snort laugh or a belly laugh, like I need you to bring that to the meeting. I need you to bring like your silly thing that just be yourself. Yeah. And so part of it is just like if you're gonna connect with a donor and start having those one-on-one conversations, you actually have to leave your desk, you know, get out behind the computer and go have a conversation with people. Now, on the flip side of that, I will say, like, and I'm kind of maybe I'm talking to executive directors and leaders, fundraising as a profession, especially top of the pyramid work, which is where I stay, where I hang with individuals, family foundations, and corporations. We're a sector that, like, you know, the for-profit sector, like we have a sales team, we're gonna get them sales training, and they have a quota to reach and a retention rate to reach, and sales, and it's it's the expectations, yeah, goals, good, like all of it. And they but they get training that we're not like, hey, that person was nice in you know, over in IT, and so we should have them be sales and good luck. And so I just find that there's we're expecting a lot of fundraisers to do this kind of thing because they have a heart for it, or they were really good at it at grant writing, but like we're not giving them sales training, how enterprise-level sales training. And so, like, even me as a business owner, I said I was like, I have a third child, it's called coaches I've invested in, of like a college tuition worth of coaches of like, how do I sell? How do I hold a discovery call? How do I speak confidently? How do I like all of these skills? How do I email somebody, not sound desperate? Like all of these skills need fundraisers need these skills. And so this goes way beyond an executive director saying, Oh, I'll give a thousand dollars of professional development for my fundraisers. No, no, if we want to raise 75% of our $3 million budget through major gifts or large gifts, general operating, uh, we better be spending some money on equipping our team to learn how to do this and be confident in the skills that they've learned. So I'm just like I'm up on the soapbox right now to say we need to equip our fundraisers with the skill sets to fundraise in this way because that's a completely different skill set than casino night or grant writing.
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Can Major Gift Skills Be Learned
Speaker 2And I I even hesitate to ask this, but I'm just curious.
SpeakerLet's go.
Speaker 2Do you think that is an innate skill or one that can be learned? And I ask because I think you know, there are certain personality types that were born to be in sales.
SpeakerYeah.
Speaker 2And there are certain personality types that were born to be mathematicians, right? That second kind is not me. We don't let me do the math. But I will happily sit down and talk with anyone because I have that kind of personality. Is that something that you think is like you have the personality that's cut out to be a major gift fundraiser? Or is that a skill that someone who has been living in the annual fund event trenches can work on and develop and become?
SpeakerOkay. I don't know why you hesitated asking that because that's a that's such a good question. And I actually was pausing as you're asking that. I'm like, okay, I think it can be learned. Okay. Now, does it take a curious person? Yes. Does it take a person who's willing to, oh my gosh, I'm pulling my hair out. You want me to go do what? You want me to go sit with this person who actually sent me kind of a snarky email back last time? Yeah, I do. So I think it's like, are you a learner? Are you passionate about the work? And are you able to kind of learn these skills on how do I lead a donor? And my how do I listen and talk at the same time and pause and these types of things and these types of things? And I think I'm leaning on the yeah, it's learned, it's learned because 99% of my clients don't have degrees in sales or fundraising. They're social workers, doctors, lawyers, pastors, engineers who want to learn, are passionate about what they do, and they're they've learned how to be how to have great investment level conversations. And so I'm gonna say it's learning. Now, is there a handful of people who I talk to and I say, Well, we're gonna go have that conversation? And they're like, I'm not leaving my desk. I said, Okay, so this isn't for you. That's cool. There we'll have you do appeals. So I think it's really like that teach are they teachable?
Speaker 2Yeah. Oh, that's so good. It is interesting to me, just and I was having this conversation with somebody last week. It is interesting that we have a massive sector of nonprofits all across the country. And yet that is not really something you can go major in. Yes. You can't major in fundraising, but it is a a profession done by tens of thousands of people hundreds of thousands of people across the country. And yet we have no we have no educational piece for that. It's such an interesting there's a whole sector where the the actual education Needed to do it is kind of figure it out on your own because you didn't go major in something for that. You're so right. It's so curious to me.
SpeakerI got my hair cut yesterday, and the gal who was cutting my hair said, she said, What do you do again? And I told her. And she said, Oh, I was in, I was in nonprofit management for a hot minute in college. And I was like, my hairdresser is like the one person I've talked to in the last how many years. And I even think my daughter, who she's a natural-born saleswoman, this this girl, I'm like, what's she gonna sell? But even her trying to figure out her major has been interesting because it's like it's like we're talking to the business school. Well, is there sales? Well, yeah, we could teach you sales. We're talking to the marketing comms communication PR school. Well, we could do sales. It's even kind of this like floating, yeah, but like it's sales, it's sales, and there is no major, yeah.
Speaker 2You can't go be a sales major.
SpeakerAnd I'm just like, you're giving me this aha moment of like, so it might, but like salespeople are so important. Like we're important as salespeople. And so I don't know. That's our next, maybe our next uh foray into something, something our next magic wand.
Speaker 2Yes, right. Um once I get the this magical wand theory established, it's watch out world. Yeah.
How To Connect With Quam Taylor
Speaker 2Uh Sherry, as I I knew this would happen, we're like, there's just so much that we could talk about that we're just gonna have to have you back. Um but in the meantime, if somebody has if their interest has been peaked and they're like, you know what, I actually do really need help or would love to learn more, connect with Sherry. Talk to us a little bit about what Quam Taylor does and how folks can connect with you. Oh gosh, yes.
SpeakerSo I always tell people, you're gonna find me on LinkedIn every day. So you can hop over and connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm very active there. Uh also my website, quamtailor.com. But in short, if I would just tell people, if you're an organization who maybe you have a new strategic plan, maybe you're like, hey, we've kind of been raising the same every year and we need to diversify, whatever that looks like. And you know your donors are not giving their best gift every year. That is the key. You're like, they're giving, but I I just don't know how to move into that. Like that's when people come to me. And so it is the it is the most fun part of my job to meet incredible leaders doing incredible work because the shift isn't huge, but it's transformational. And I just I the the fact that I get to be a front row to like a social worker learning how to land a multi-six figure gift that was sitting there all along. Like, that's my like I'm just like I that's the best day of my month or week. So yeah, if you're wanting to grow, reach out, we'll have a conversation.
Speaker 2I love it. And is there uh what's the web address? Is there an email? What would be better?
SpeakerQuamtailor.com or you can sherry at quamtailor.com. Those are my two last names mushed together.
Money Psychology Book Recommendation
Speaker 2Perfect. Okay, so as we move to close, this year our closing question on the podcast this season is as we've dubbed it, the year of learning is what we're talking about here at Nonprofit Hub. If there is one book that you would suggest everyone put on their to read list, what would you add?
SpeakerOkay, we've talked loosely about this, but the one area that of course fundraisers need to know about is like money psychology. You know, it's very it's very what we do like can do some crazy things to us of like, I think that donor's mad at me. I think that donor will be offended, I don't think that donor can give that much. That's all up here in our head. And so there's this personal finance coach, nothing to do with nonprofit, uh Ramit Seti. He actually also has a Netflix show, but he has this book called I Will Teach You to Be Rich. It's a weird name. Okay. But Megan, it's all about the kind of internal money scripts that we've learned growing up in our family. Were we were we tight? Were we savers? Were we spenders? How did you know what is the like parental dynamics of was our mom in charge, was our dad in charge, whatever. And how that actually influences our lives today, influences our children. And what I've loved about this from a fundraising perspective is he'll say something. I'm like, oh, that's that internal script that as a fundraiser, it's like maybe I've I'm gonna go in and meet with this donor, and I've decided there's no way they're gonna give 25,000. So I'll just ask them for 10. Wait, why am I telling that story when I don't have that person's bank login? So I just love be having this awareness to this kind of money money psychology and all the scripts that are running through a head. It's a it's really helped me in coaching be able to say, hold on, what's behind that thought? You don't know if they would give you 25k. Your job is to ask for their best need. And so I just love this. He's kind of funny, but there's so many takeaways personally, like financially, you know, just as in our day-to-day life. But for fundraisers, I just love that kind of lens um that they could learn from this book.
Speaker 2Ugh, so good. Tell me the name and the author one more time.
SpeakerUh it's Ramit Seti, he's an Indian guy, so it's R-A-M-I-T, is how you spell his first name. Okay. S-E-T-H-I, I think. I love it. Ugh, so good. He's got a podcast too, which is really good.
Speaker 2Even better. I will be adding this to my list. Yeah, so good. Awesome.
Final Thanks And Sign Off
Speaker 2Sherry, thank you so much for joining us today. I really I just appreciate your heart for the nonprofit sector in general, but so much wisdom for those of us that are looking to break out of that chronic event cycle and take our orcs to the next level. So thank you so much for sharing. Appreciate you being here. Thanks. This has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Spear, and we'll see you next time.