Ask Jacquee: What is Cultivation? [Video]

What is cultivation? 

Cultivation is the process of building trust and loyalty to develop relationships with prospective funders. 

What is the importance of cultivation?

Cultivation is important because your grant proposal is more likely to be considered or even awarded when you have invested time and effort to establish a meaningful relationship with the funder. 

To be clear, cultivation is not engaging funders only when you need financial support, making frequent requests, and it certainly does not end after you receive a gift and send a thank you. 

The purpose of cultivation is to foster trusting relationships by involving funders in authentic and solution-based conversations.

Cultivation is continuous communication with funders to tell them about how their gift and involvement are making an impact. 

What will you do this month to cultivate funders for your organization?

At Bloom, we ensure your cultivation efforts are strategic by planning in advance and coordinating cultivation across key staff members. We support clients through every step of cultivation, from preparing ghostwritten outreach emails and detailed scripts to pre-meeting prep and post-meeting strategizing. 

Contact us to learn how we can support your organization with cultivation.