Identifying the Constituency

Organizations without such a natural constituency still have constituencies. The organization might need to work harder to identify and build its constituency, but every nonprofit organization has its own constituency. At the very least the constituency consists of people who need the services of the nonprofit, those who provide the services and direct the programs, those who govern the organization, and those who support the cause. In developing its constituency, an organization should expend the resources necessary to identify, inform, involve, and bond the constituency to the organization. The energy, time, and money invested in constituency development will be returned in multiples by serving the nonprofit through volunteers, donors, and advocates. The bond for this philanthropic activity is the nonprofit’s mission.

A synonym for constituency is interested parties. These interested parties include stakeholders currently involved with the organization, those who have been previously involved, and those with the potential for future involvement. All constituencies also have active and inactive groups, interested and uninterested, close and distant. For fundraising purposes it is essential to know the interests, needs, and wants of the people in the constituency because their level of involvement helps or hinders the nonprofit as it seeks to accomplish its goals.

A Constituency Model

A helpful way to think about an organization’s constituency is to visualize a set of concentric circles (see Figure 3.1). These widening circles represent the energy of an organization and the flow and dissipation of the energy moving outward from the center. An analogy is the action of a rock thrown into a body of water. Where the rock enters the water the action (energy) is highest. As the waves radiate outward from where the rock enters the water, they become wider but weaker; that is, as the waves move farther away from the center of the action, they are more shallow and have less energy. This is how the constituency of a nonprofit interacts with the organization. The closer to the center of the action, the greater the energy, the stronger the bond. The core constituency, then, is at the center of the concentric circles. Those members of the constituency who are in the second, third, and fourth circles—moving away from the center—have a weaker bond with the organization. The farther away from the core the constituency segment lies, the lower the energy and the weaker the bond to the organization.

For the constituency model to affect fundraising positively, certain constituent groups should populate the inner circle or core. As shown in the figure, the board of trustees, the senior management team, and major donors will ideally form the core of the organization. The trustees hold the organization in public trust and are responsible for the mission, vision, and policies of the organization. The senior management team carries out the organization’s programs to meet the community needs articulated in the mission. Major donors not only demonstrate their commitment to the cause through their gifts of substance but also serve as advocates for the cause. All three core components of the inner circle provide the energy for the organization and influence the direction of the organization.

Although these three groups are the critical ones to be in the central circle, large organizations might include additional groups. Alumni boards, visiting committees, foundation boards, advisory committees, and “friends of” groups, for example, might be part of the core constituency for complex organizations.

FIGURE 3.1. THE CONSTITUENCY MODEL.

In the second circle are volunteers, for program delivery and for fundraising; clients receiving the organization’s services; employees, who are not part of senior management; general donors, meaning those who make gifts more modest than those made by major donors; members, if the organization is a membership organization; and others involved with the organization, such as vendors, who have a stake in the organization but are not in the central circle.

All the components in the second circle are important because they provide a broad base of support and a potential for greater future involvement, including more strategic volunteer activity and major gift development.

The third circle—former participants, former board members, and former donors—represents a drop in energy, as these groups are farther from the core of the organization. Although “former” indicates a state of what once was and might imply something negative, this circle holds potential for reactivation and renewed involvement. Imaginative, open communications efforts might reveal that members of these groups would simply like to be invited back to participate more fully. If they once were participants, board members, or donors, they surely share the values of the organization. Exploring how to win back their affections and their loyalty might move them back into the second circle and perhaps into the core circle.

The fourth circle, people with similar interests, is an ill-defined constituency segment. Constituents here are distant from the energy center. They typically know little of the organization, and the organization rarely knows much about them. This is the segment usually approached through direct mail in an attempt by the organization to acquire new donors. It is worth probing this segment, although the organization needs to recognize that returns from this segment are likely to be low for the time and energy expended.

The very last circle is the organization’s universe. Every organization has such a constituency segment and often knows little about the giving potential. Involvement will be minimal, and whatever gifts come from this circle will probably be modest in size. But the sequence of gifts might be regular and long-lasting. The donors in this segment might give year after year, and the cumulative giving becomes substantive over time. This circle, too, is worth attention and energy.

Based on the Rosso model of fundraising, several principles of the constituency circles model are important. First, because energy is at the center and flows outward, the bond is strongest at the center. Fundraising, then, begins at the center of the constituency circles and is taken to the outer circles by the board, management staff, and major donors in the inner circle. The constant challenge for the development program is to align the central players in the core circle. A dysfunctional fundraising program is one which finds the board and/or the management staff on the outer circles.

A second principle is fluidity in the circles. A major donor this year will be a general donor next year. Board members’ terms expire, and they become former board members. Other changes occur in the constituency for many reasons: people change residences or occupations, donors’ interests change, donors’ financial capacity changes, and so forth. Patterns in constituency development show that a 20 to 25 percent change annually is to be expected. Effective constituency development requires consistent involvement with all the circles in the model.

Identifying and Attracting Likely Donors

One of the truisms of fundraising is that the best prospective donor is a current donor. Someone who has made a gift has demonstrated interest in and involvement with the organization. That donor is likely to consider another gift. Experienced fundraisers testify that every donor at one level is a prospective donor for a gift at a higher level. Working conscientiously with the constituency model will reveal the most likely candidates for renewed gifts and for increased gifts.

The most likely donors are identified by three characteristics: linkage, ability, and interest. Linkage is contact. Often such contact is person to person, a peer of the potential donor. The personal contact, the linkage, makes possible a personal visit to the potential donor for the organization to make its case for a gift. Linkage can also be geographic, emotional, or professional (more about this in Figure 3.2, The Wheel of Roles and Responsibilities). Linkage is another term for the more commonly used concept network. Establishing linkage means determining who knows whom and can arrange the visits necessary for successful gift solicitations.

Ability means the financial capacity of the gift source to give a gift at the level the nonprofit deems appropriate. Research by the nonprofit helps determine the capacity. Peer evaluations (linkage) of gift capacity are also effective in determining the ability factor.

Interest in the nonprofit and its work is essential. Even the most financially able prospective donor will not make a gift to an organization in which she has no interest. Interest follows information and precedes involvement.

When identifying the most qualified and most likely prospective donors, all three of these characteristics—linkage, ability, and interest—are imperative. It is most likely that these characteristics will be in greater evidence in the inner circles of the constituency model. Surely it is important to test the principles across all the circles, but the most likely prospective donors will be found in the first two or three circles.

Some aspects of the constituency arise automatically. For instance, the client base becomes an immediate adjunct of the constituency because it acts in response to services offered. Trustees, management staff, and beginning program staff become an early part of an organization because they must make available the services that are needed by their clients. Contributors, volunteers, and advocates take longer to develop. They must be sought out and invited to become the philanthropic base that will augment and celebrate the organization’s work.

The fundraiser must be sensitive to the fact that there is constant interaction within and between the constituency circles and among the elements that make up each circle. Individuals gravitate toward the core circle as their interest is touched and then deepened; they drift away if their interest slackens, if they are ignored, or if their interests change or are neglected. A studied program of constituency involvement and thoughtful cultivation is necessary to maintain the vitality of the constituency base.

A responsible fundraising staff should assert itself continuously to develop an awareness within the constituency of the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives; to foster an understanding of the service to that mission; and to invite constituency commitment to the organization through the process of making a gift. This gift-making process forges a strong bond between the constituency and the nonprofit organization and its mission.

An effective, externally oriented communication program is the first necessity. In developing any human relationship it is necessary to get the attention of the subject, the person whom the organization wants to involve. The person must be made aware that the organization exists, and that it exists for a purpose that may hold an interest to him or her. Awareness must be converted into understanding, first of the guiding mission that delineates the human or societal needs that must be addressed, and second of the programs that will respond to these needs. From awareness to understanding to acceptance is the direct path to involvement and the process that is so necessary for constituency development.

People will identify with an organization if they understand and can accept its reason for being, if they accept that the programs are valid and responsive, and if they strongly believe that the people associated with the organization are competent and trustworthy in their service to the mission.

Various techniques are applicable to this process of identifying and involving a constituency, particularly the segment of those who are likely to contribute funds and to volunteer time. One of the first and most effective instruments for constituency development is fundraising. The fundraising process is based on intelligent, purposeful communications with the amorphous and unidentified market, including prospective donors and existing donors. A sensitively managed communications program will invite interest in the organization, its mission, its goals, and its programs. The outreach or public relations effort should include periodic newsletters that contain information of interest to the reader. These publications too often are self-serving informational instruments that extol the accomplishments of staff members while neglecting the concerns, questions, and curiosity of the constituency. Periodic surveys of readers ’ interests and reactions to the value of the newsletter might well evoke the kind of response that will heal the myopia of an overweening self-interest.

Special events offer an opportunity to attract the attention of potential constituents. A special event may be defined as an activity that is designed to accomplish a variety of objectives, one of which is to invite possible constituents to become involved and to learn more about the organization. Events may include open houses, come-and-see tours, 10K runs, leadership dinners, fashion shows, discussions, seminars, workshops, annual meetings, and book sales.

Properly staged events can serve purposes other than just raising money. They can encourage people to become part of the organization’s expanding constituency base.

It is important to know and understand the concept of constituency circles, but this understanding must be translated into an understanding of the individual constituent in order to create and maintain the exchange relationship underlying effective fundraising and giving.

Roles and Responsibilities That Influence Giving

In identifying candidates for major gifts or for volunteer leadership positions, fundraisers are well served by a model defined as the Wheel of Roles and Responsibilities (see Figure 3.2). This model shows the many roles and responsibilities assumed by individuals. The roles and responsibilities can help determine the behavior of constituents in relating to the nonprofit organization.

The individual who is a prospective major gift donor or leadership candidate is in the center of the wheel. Each spoke represents a role or responsibility demanding a portion of the individual’s time, energy, ability, and inclination to be involved with a fundraising program. The roles and responsibilities include family, career, religion, education, recreation, politics, and social roles.

FIGURE 3.2. THE WHEEL OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.

Family is of central concern to most individuals. The family will often positively influence the gift-giving decision. But family interests can also hinder the major gift process. The fundraising executive needs to determine how the family role influences the gift-making decision.

A career or profession will often influence a constituent’s ability or inclination to help a nonprofit organization. Certain professions are conventionally viewed as most likely to be major givers: attorneys, doctors, investment managers, and in the late 1990s technology investors and entrepreneurs. Other professions—educators, nurses, social workers—are generally viewed as having little capacity to give. Effective constituency development goes beyond conventional attitudes and explores each individual for capacity and inclination, ignoring convention as the sole determinant.

Religion has been and continues to be a bedrock of philanthropy. Historically, giving patterns reveal that religion influences generosity to secular causes. It is true, however, that commitments to the individual’s place of worship can reduce financial capacity to give to other causes.

The role that education plays in an individual’s life can be an important factor in major gift capacity. If a prospective major gift donor is paying tuition for family members enrolled at private universities, the donor’s capacity to give to a nonprofit may be limited for the duration of the educational process. If the person values education because of the person’s current stature, it can be a very important factor in determining interest in philanthropy in higher education.

Recreational interests can play an important role in the prospective donor’s life. Some interests might be so costly as to reduce potential for gift-giving. On the other hand, recreational interests provide a forum for involvement and interaction. The astute fundraising executive will determine how the nonprofit can meet the donor’s interests through recreation.

Politics, or civic engagement, plays a role in most people’s lives to the degree that it influences how people interact. Those constituents most actively engaged in communities of interest and shared values have wide-ranging connections, thereby expanding constituency circles.

Social roles are important to fundraising for how they build networks and make connections. A socially active, energetic constituency will extend itself widely, creating many opportunities for delivering the nonprofit’s message. Broadening social contacts will assist in establishing helpful linkages.

These roles change many times during an individual’s life. The fundraiser must recognize that some of these roles might be in conflict with the organization’s fundraising needs and will therefore militate against the making of a major gift. On the other hand, the roles might be compatible with the organization’s needs and form a basis of linkage to the organization, thus facilitating a major gift. The role of the fundraising executive, along with volunteers, is to identify those elements that provide a basis for the exchange relationship, focusing on the compatibility of shared values.

Conclusion

Constituency development is critical for long-term, sustainable fundraising success. Most organizations will have a larger constituency than they can interact with effectively. Organizations should spend maximum time and energy identifying their constituencies and cultivating meaningful relationships with them, moving the constituents closer and closer to the center and bonding them to the core of the organization. Sensitive attention to the needs and values of the constituents will draw them more intimately into the mission of the organization.