I had the opportunity this year to do some “Dear-Abby” style questions and answers over on the blog for Little Green Light.

The first one is excerpted below.

—Erik

How do you deepen relationships with your most significant donors? – Gina, via Little Green Light

Hi Gina,

That’s a great question. There are a lot of different ways of going about it, but I’ll put the question back to you—how do you go about making a new friend?

Because that’s probably a good indicator of how you’d be most comfortable deepening relationships with significant donors. These are real relationships you are forming and building. They shouldn’t at their base be transactional—though, of course, at some point you will ask for a gift.

So share appropriately of yourself, your background, your family, and why you love the work that you do. But also ask a lot of questions. Learn about your donors and their lives. Find out what’s important to them. Keep the conversation going and the relationship deepening.

If you want some tactical ideas on how to deepen relationships with donors, you can always…

Finish the rest on the Little Green Light blog!