There’s a moment almost every fundraiser knows.
You’ve sent an email. Then another. Weeks pass without a response. Meanwhile, your portfolio is full, your calendar is packed, and there are plenty of other donors waiting for attention.
It’s easy to look at a silent prospect and assume they’re not interested. But what if the relationship hasn’t really had a chance to begin yet?
At the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation (USNA AA&F), one data point challenged that assumption. Across their fundraising team, it typically takes at least six outreach attempts before a discovery prospect responds and agrees to a first meeting. Not two. Not three. Six.
That insight didn’t come from intuition. It came from tracking the work required to build new donor relationships over time. And it raises an important question for every fundraising team: how many potential relationships are being written off before they’ve had a chance to develop?
The Data Most Teams Don’t Have
USNA AA&F has built one of the most metrics-driven development cultures in higher education, helping drive its first-ever $100 million fundraising year.
One of the metrics the team tracks is simple: how many outreach touchpoints does it take a new gift officer to secure a first meeting with a discovery prospect? The answer, based on their data, is at least six.
When AJ Bauer, Associate Vice President of Development, shared that number during a recent webinar, she wasn’t making a point about persistence for persistence’s sake. She was sharing what the data revealed about how donor relationships actually begin.
“When we are looking at that quarterly portfolio review and a gift officer is like, they have been so unresponsive, we will actually look at the number of outreaches and say, okay, you have emailed this person twice. We need to try a little bit harder.”
For many teams, that shift in perspective matters. Two unanswered emails don’t necessarily tell you much about a donor’s interest. They often tell you more about timing, communication preferences, or simply how busy people are.
Why Unresponsive Is Often the Wrong Diagnosis
When a donor doesn’t respond, it’s natural to look for a conclusion. But the reality is that most donors aren’t making a statement when they don’t answer an email.
They’re busy. They’re traveling. They’re changing jobs. They’re juggling family responsibilities. They’re sorting through crowded inboxes. Sometimes they simply haven’t seen the message, or the timing isn’t right, or they need a different way to engage. And sometimes they just need a few interactions before they recognize your name and understand why you’re reaching out.
A lack of response isn’t always a lack of interest. Often, it’s simply part of the relationship-building process.
Consistency Matters More Than Persistence Alone
At USNA AA&F, the goal isn’t to send more messages for the sake of sending more messages. It’s to create thoughtful, consistent outreach that gives relationships room to develop.
When a prospect hasn’t responded, the team asks a few practical questions: How many times have we actually reached out? Have we used more than one channel? Is the message relevant to this donor? Have we made the outreach personal and meaningful?
Those questions often reveal opportunities to strengthen engagement rather than simply increase activity. Six emails aren’t the same as six thoughtful touchpoints. A donor who ignores two emails may respond to a phone call. Someone who doesn’t answer a call may engage on LinkedIn. Others may respond to a handwritten note, a stewardship touchpoint, or a message tied to something they care about at the institution.
The goal isn’t more outreach. The goal is finding the right way to connect.
What Happens When You Stay Engaged
One lesson from USNA AA&F stands out: once a conversation begins, donors often want to engage.
As AJ shared during the webinar: “When we get our foot in the door, generally, our alumni will make a gift of some sort. We have an incredibly generous community that will give at whatever their capacity is. It’s just a matter of getting in touch with them.”
The challenge isn’t a lack of generosity. It’s creating enough opportunities for a relationship to take shape. That’s why tracking outreach matters, not because activity is the goal, but because visibility helps teams understand what it actually takes to connect with people.
When fundraisers can see the full picture, they’re less likely to mistake silence for disinterest, and more likely to stay engaged long enough for a relationship to develop.
Building a Culture of Follow-Through
Creating meaningful donor relationships requires more than good intentions. It requires a shared understanding of what engagement actually looks like over time.
At USNA AA&F, quarterly portfolio reviews help managers and gift officers evaluate outreach activity, engagement patterns, and opportunities that may still be developing. When a prospect is labeled unresponsive, the first question isn’t whether they should be removed from focus. It’s whether the team has truly given the relationship a chance to develop.
That mindset changes how teams approach donor engagement. Instead of asking, “Why isn’t this donor responding?” the question becomes, “What have we learned about how this donor prefers to engage?”
For organizations looking to strengthen their own approach, the first step doesn’t have to be complicated. Start by tracking one thing: how many touchpoints does it take your team to secure a first meeting? The answer may be different than you expect.
Relationships Rarely Happen on the First Touch
Fundraising is built on relationships. Relationships take time, consistency, thoughtful follow-up, and a willingness to keep showing up even when a response doesn’t come right away.
The teams seeing the strongest results aren’t necessarily sending more emails. They’re creating a process that helps them stay connected, learn from engagement patterns, and focus their attention where meaningful relationships are most likely to grow.
Sometimes the difference between a missed opportunity and a lasting donor relationship is simply one more thoughtful touchpoint. And sometimes that’s all generosity is waiting on: one more reason to believe someone is still paying attention.
Interested in seeing how EverTrue’s engagement platform, Signal, helps fundraising teams manage outreach, track engagement, and build stronger donor relationships over time? Schedule a demo today.
About the data: The six-touchpoint finding comes from outreach data tracked by the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation using Signal, EverTrue’s engagement platform. AJ Bauer, Associate Vice President of Development, shared this insight during a live webinar hosted through the Philanthropy Masterminds Series, sponsored by EverTrue, in June 2026. USNA AA&F was recognized as a 2026 EverTrue Innovator following its first-ever $100 million fundraising year.
