Psychologists tell us that from our early days as toddlers to our days as adults, we are constantly organizing the world around us. We learn quickly that something that is red may be hot or it may not be hot, so we learn to pause before touching it. We learn how different types of people respond to us and how we respond to different types of people. We begin to categorize. We learn about causality. We come to know what is “home” and what is “away”.

As we learn more about how the world works, we begin to learn about systems—rain leads to puddles leads to tiny streams which turn into larger streams… When it is cold outside, we put on coats and when it’s hot we go to the beach. We learn that cows eat hay and miraculously that turns into milk and we drink milk. Even better, milk turns into ice cream!

Whether we realize it or not, we all have thousands of mental models. You have a mental model of each donor and prospective donor with whom you met or would like to meet. You have a way in which you approach your work—call it your routine, your process. You believe that your actions will lead to a person make a gift, or to volunteer, or to advocate your cause. Embedded in this belief is a belief about causality—if I do something, if I take a particular action, something I want will (I hope) follow.

In fundraising and in fundraising management, many of our mental models deal with structure and causality. Prospect researchers discover and describe the structure of a prospect’s life and suggest, for example how an inheritance might have enhanced a person’s ability to contribute a major gift (structure). The researchers might also point out that in the last campaign this prospect’s best friend solicited her for a gift in honor of a favorite teacher (causality).

You call the prospect, request a meeting and she agrees to a meeting. If you do not call the prospect, she probably is not going to ask you for a meeting!

If we are prospect managers, we take certain actions in the belief those actions will cause desired outcomes. (You call the prospect, request a meeting and she agrees to a meeting. If you do not call the prospect, she probably is not going to ask you for a meeting!) As we learn about and then implement the typical steps involved in moving a prospect from “could make a gift”, to “made a gift” we discover where our mental model of causality is predictive of actual behavior and where it may fall short. As in other parts of life, we learn that as our mental models are tested against reality—against what actually happens—we modify them by incorporating a “likelihood” factor. For example, we might believe that the likelihood of receiving a $10 million gift for our organization is very small even if we have real prospects who have that type of gift capacity. None the less, we know that if we do not seek that size of gift, the likelihood of someone dropping $10 million in our laps is about zero. Undaunted, we form a plan to pursue that gift. To do so we begin by imagining (a mental model) why (motives) someone would give (behavior) us $10 million. We develop a plan (a set of causal steps) and move forward.

When we talk about fundraising programs, we are talking about activities packaged in a way to produce desired outcomes—usually along some sort of engagement-invitation-commitment-gratitude continuum that leads to a gift from a donor and our reciprocation of that gift through such things as expressions of thanks, appropriate recognition, evidence of impactful use of that gift and so forth.

This is the point at which by articulating what is in our mind (often quite general and maybe even a little fuzzy) through verbal, written and visual communication we start to clarify our model. This is also the point at which by sharing these attempts at clarification we can find out how others view the same question. We can discover where our mental model of say, of a specific strategy for a specific prospect to the broader model of how we do major gift fundraising, is the same or differs from that of others. By translating our models to visuals using such as tools mind maps, geographical maps flowcharts, and storyboards we can share our models, have others translate their respective models into visual aids or take our visualizations and build upon them.

Here’s an exercise to help you articulate a mental model about a donor:

Using some 3 X 5 cards, on each card write a single, separate idea or attribute that describes a major gift donor you know. You might find it helpful to incorporate ideas from our Five Questions articles.

Cluster all of those ideas.

Then ask a colleague to look at your cards and to describe the donor to you. Does your colleague “see” the donor who you “see” in your mental model? Add anything missing in your translation from what is in your head to what is in your cards model. Better? More accurate?

Practice translating your mental models into visuals that you can share with others. It will help sharpen your skills in terms of more accurately knowing a person and of understanding their motivations and behaviors.

Contact us if you would like to learn more about creating mental models for your prospects to strengthen your fundraising program or give us a call at (630) 986-9884. We look forward to connecting with you!