• A sense of safety and an ability to be honest 

• Better, more open communication 

• Higher interest and involvement from each team member

• Greater energy 

• More enthusiasm for working towards shared goals

• Thoroughness in exploring the pros and cons of ideas, resulting in better informed decisions 

• Greater willingness to take risks and to try new things 

• An emphasis on mutual learning

People tend to attribute trust to individuals and organizations that do what they say they will do. An interesting thing about trust is that you do not need to like a person or an organization in order to trust them. Trust is developed through actions, not words, and reliability is a cornerstone in building a trusting environment in any team. People tend to have trust in situations in which they feel that there is a balance between what they give and what they get.

What Happens When Trust Diminishes?

Unfortunately, trust that took time, energy, and commitment to build can be diminished easily at any time. A single misguided action can erase the trust that took months or years to develop. When trust is broken, people take on self-protecting behaviours, and exhibit predictable patterns of diminishing confidence. Therefore, it is important to recognize when trust is breaking down on a team so that you can take corrective actions quickly. Trust is diminishing when team members:

• Fail to deliver on promises, or make empty promises

• Have hidden agendas and/or expectations for the team

• Blame others for their mistakes

• Talk about each other outside of meetings

• Collect injustices, instead of dealing with problems as they arise

• Form cliques and subgroups

• Try to control and manipulate others

• Feel pressured or controlled

How Do You Enhance and/or Rebuild Trust Within Your Team?

Here are some strategies for enhancing and/or rebuilding trust on your organization’s teams.

Strategy 1: Defining Trust for Our Team
Trust is a much-used word that has different meanings for different people. One way to build trust is to form team members to develop a mutual definition of the word.

Brainstorm specific behaviours that show high levels of trust. For example:

• People frequently offer new ideas

• People are willing to share information

• People listen to each other

• People are open and honest

• People honour the differences in the group

• People communicate with the intent to understand and learn, not to control others

Brainstorm specific behaviours that cause team members to decide that trust is diminishing or that there is a low level of trust. For example:

• People don’t complete assignments on time

• People have side conversations during meetings

From these lists of behaviours, create a short phrase that defines trust for the members of this team. The team can use this phrase to assess its trust-building behaviours.

Strategy 2: Monitoring Our Commitment to Trust
Trust-building behaviours increase the effectiveness of teams. Trust-diminishing behaviours slow down, or even stop, the team’s progress on its work. Team members need to be able to quickly identify both of these behaviours because of their importance to the healthy functioning of the team. Developing an ability to identify trust-building and trust-diminishing behaviours helps team members to recognize and reinforce positive behaviours, while planning how to reduce or eliminate inappropriate behaviours.

There are many ways to accomplish this objective. What is important is that team members identify ways that they can monitor these behaviours in a way that is helpful, and also non-threatening for everyone. Below are two examples of ways to monitor trust in the team. In both instances, teams first identified and agreed to behaviours that were trust-building and trust-diminishing for the team. (See Strategy 1).

One way to monitor trust in the team is to appoint one person to be the process observer for the group. The process observer’s role is to identify any behaviours that do not match the team’s guidelines for trust-building behaviour. The process observer then shares this behaviour with the team, and the team develops alternative ways to approach similar situations in the future. By having different people assume the role of process observer at meetings, the team members are able to increase their awareness of trust-building behaviours, as well as their ability to correct their own behaviours.

Another way to monitor trust is to have an outside facilitator work with the team. The facilitator can demonstrate the process, while showing team members how to do it for themselves.

Strategy 3: Assessing Our Team Meeting
At the end of the meeting, have team members answer the following questions:

• What did we do well to increase the level of trust on the team?

• What specifically did the team leader and/or other team members do to build trust?

• What actions diminished trust?

• How could we have structured our interactions to be more participative and trusting?

• What will we do in the future to promote teamwork, trust, and a participative relationship?

The team uses the answers from these questions to build specific action plans to build trust.

Trust must be nurtured and maintained if individuals, teams, and organizations are to attain their organizational goals in these challenging times. Trust building takes hard work, time, and energy; it also takes risk. For trust to grow and deepen, each person, team, and organization needs to be worthy of trust, and must continue to earn the right to be trusted. The bottom line is that without trust, no change effort can truly succeed.

Toni Lashbrook is a consultant in board development, organizational assessment, volunteer management, group facilitation, and resource design. She teaches part-time at Grant MacEwan Community College and at the Banff Centre for Management. Toni can be contacted at (403) 435-7957.

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2. Insights From a Million Dollar Donor by Sherry Snooks, CFRE

“Dad said, ‘Charity begins at home,’” explained Catherine Allard Roosen during an interview with Dr. Jerold Panas, major gift consultant and speaker, at a recent National Society of Fundraising Executives Edmonton and Area Chapter meeting. Dr. Panas probed Mrs. Roosen to help professionals understand how and what donors want from the charities they fund. Catherine Roosen and husband Harold recently gave a one million dollar individual gift to the University of Alberta “...it makes sense campaign.”

Mrs. Roosen has followed her father’s advice and offered the belief that, “Everyone could do a better job of giving.” “I always look to see if someone has benefited down the road. When that happens, it is a definite return on my dollars.” she said. When asked how she likes to be thanked for contributions, she hesitated and then indicated that for the first and small gifts a simple letter is appropriate. “Please always recognize the gift in some way,” she emphasized. When a larger gift is involved, a visit from the CEO or Dean, etc., “makes me feel good,” she added. “I get the biggest thrill out of being invited to tour the facility and see how my gift might have affected the organization or the lives of individuals,” she offered. “When given the choice, I always choose the tour over meeting the Chairman. I would like to think I could have an effect on someone’s life. It all comes back to the community. If the community prospers we all prosper,” she explained.

Dr. Panas inquired if there is anything named after the family, if that would be significant and does she ever wonder what “dad” would like. She responded, “All the time. Father would say, ‘NO, I don’t need my name plastered on some building.’ But as his children, we would like to see his name remembered.”

Answering on the question of who should make the ask, Mrs. Roosen had this to say. “If a friend asks, I would still evaluate the measure of the institution. I would give the friend some gift because of the relationship, but not much if I am not interested in the organization.” Her requirements are an established organization with solid financial standing. “Who should be included in the visit to request the gift?” Panas asked. “The person who can answer the questions for the project. If they do not know the specifics of the project, they are wasting my time,” she said. “They need to be organized as well. I get offended if one department requests a gift and two days later a different department asks,” she added. On the subject of taxes, she explained that a tax break is a bonus but not the motivation and could have an effect on the size of the gift. 

When asked about board selection and involvement, she stated, “I put some weight in the choices of board members. It makes a difference if the organization is good at recruiting community people who are best able to serve. Both for personal gifts and when serving as secretary/treasurer for the Allard Foundation, I look at how much the board has given as well as internal staff. If they don’t believe in themselves how can I.”

This presentation was made possible by the generosity of KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne Chartered Accountants and J.C. Perry & Associates.

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3. Giving Your Donor an Institutional Hug by Sherry Snooks, CFRE

The following reflects highlights from a major gifts workshop by Fundraising Consultant, Dr. Jerold Panas at a recent National Society of Fundraising Executives, Edmonton and Area Chapter meeting.

Every organization is loved by someone who is willing to make a major gift. These people often are making average gifts through direct mail or special events. They need to be sought and cultivated. The more donors are involved on your board and other volunteer roles, the more they love you and contribute financially. Our job as development professionals is to get them into the institutional hug.

Many of us fall into the trap of selling our institution’s needs. Institutions do not have needs; people have needs; and many are willing to give to the needs of others. Mary Kay Ash once explained, “At Mary Kay we don’t sell cosmetics, we sell hope.”

The individual major gift

People give because they feel they are saving lives or changing lives. The two most important reasons individuals give is: life experiences related to the mission of the organization, and being asked.

Many not-for-profit organizations think that minorities don’t give to charity. Recently 65% of minorities surveyed in America said, “Of course I would give a major gift, but no one ever asked.”

It is very important to ask for a specific gift. Be careful to be inclusive and avoid qualifying clients and donors as to their willingness to help.

It is actually easier to get the gift than it is to get the appointment. Once you get the appointment, you can get your “arms” around the person. It is very important to have a feel for the donor and what they want and need. Eighty percent of those who make the appointment with you will give a gift. You must listen for the gift. If you are doing more than 25% of the talking, you are not listening enough to learn the donor’s needs and wants.

You will be hurt more by those who would have said yes but were not asked than by those who said no. Major gift work is about having the right people ask the right prospects for the right amount in the right way at the right time with the right follow-up.

A major gift is any gift that one needs time to think about. It is one that requires the input of one’s spouse. I don’t need to discuss the purchase of Girl Guide cookies with my spouse, but I do need to discuss the purchase of a Girl Guide Camp. A recent American Girl Scout being interviewed on a national talk show for selling $30,000 worth of Girl Scout cookies explained her success this way, “There comes a time when you have to stop chatting and look them in the eye and ask them to buy those cookies.”

Why people say no

Prospects say no for the following reasons: mismatch of interest; failure to ask for a specific amount; asking for too much (prospects need to feel the amount they are capable of giving will have a significant impact on the project); asking for too little (indicates the project is not worth their effort); lack of urgency (why do you need this large an amount now?); wrong solicitor; failure to include spouse; or when the request is fundraising driven rather than donor driven (meets the organization’s needs not the donors).

When a prospect says no, ask the four vital questions. Is it: the institution; the project; the amount; or the timing? Try using the words feel, felt, and found: “I understand how you feel; I first felt that way; I found that;”...you will be amazed at the response.

The magic partnership encourages the volunteer to open the door. A staff person should go along to answer questions and in some cases ask for the gift. It has been found that 97% of solicitors give up after the first objection, 11% after the second and 4% after the third, yet 73% of donors voice three objections before making a gift.

Involvement of the board

The role of the board in fund development is often the most challenging. Board members should fall into one of three categories: willing to give; willing to ask others to give; or a roaring advocate for the organization. The board member should make the organization their primary philanthropic institution or at least the second primary institution. The organization in return must commit to make the most meaningful use of the member’s time and ensure the board member has a rewarding experience!

A good opportunity to begin involving board members is to let them make thank you calls to donors. This is safe and extremely rewarding. It is also much more fun than asking for gifts, yet often leads the board member to want to get involved in the next step of the cultivation process.

Donors should be thanked seven times. If this is done with enthusiasm and sincerity, it is guaranteed to return a larger gift. These thank you opportunities are more available than we think; a formal thank you, a call from the CEO or president, a handwritten note from the solicitor, formal acknowledgement, etc. St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee has a policy of having personal phone calls made to every donor of $100 or more. At more than 1,000 calls per month, they have found this well worth their expense and staff time.

When volunteers or board members are making a request for funds, be certain every solicitor has made their own personal gift first. This rule has been proven successful many times over and catastrophic when not followed. Ask them to talk about their gift. “Before I ask you for a gift, let me tell you what I have done.”

The cycle continues

It takes four times the energy and funds to gain a new gift than to renew an existing one. The single most important step in the giving process is the gift itself. It is the beginning for the next gift. Never let the cultivation process stop.

Every donor must have a philanthropic intent, after that it is up to the organization to make them feel a part of the hug that offers each donor the opportunity to save and change lives.

This presentation was funded in part by the generosity of KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne Chartered Accountants and J.C. Perry & Associates.

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