She’s the Director of Philanthropy at YWCA Clark County in Washington, which provides services for domestic violence, sexual violence, and foster care.

“Our services are really face to face, one-on-one,” says Brittini. “And as soon as the coronavirus happened, we had to be really creative with how we were going to change that and work remotely, because abuse and neglect and domestic violence and sexual assault doesn’t stop just because a pandemic is happening.”

In fact, she says that almost immediately her organization saw an increase in demand, while incoming revenue began to drop. To make matters even more urgent, the organization held a fundraising event just before a stay at home order went into effect, with a big shortfall.

It was the perfect storm, and Brittini felt the pressure to bring in needed revenue.

“A lot of my work tends to be face to face,” she says. “I was nervous about how I was going to connect with our major donors who are really critical to our work right now and have those really big conversations and personal conversations over the phone.”

But Brittini’s coach at Veritus encouraged her to continue to reach out to donors in other ways.

“She really walked me through that,” says Brittini. “She supported me and really encouraged me that people are wanting to give right now. She said I just needed to share what is happening with our organization with the donors and that I would start to see a response.”

Brittini put that counsel into action and saw results right away.

One of the donors in her caseload heads a family foundation that had supported YWCA for many years. Brittini had been cultivating the relationship to increase support and had even submitted a proposal back in November.

“But it had gone kind of silent. She wasn’t very responsive,” Brittini says.

“When the virus happened, I reached out to her and was just very transparent about what was going on. And I just followed up and said, ‘I know that I submitted a proposal back in November. And if you’re still considering your gift, we really need it now more than ever because our shelter is really struggling to meet the need. We’ve had an increase in calls with domestic violence, and I know that this is a program that you’re really passionate about.’”

Within the day the donor called back to say the foundation was increasing its support and committed to a gift of $75,000 for the domestic violence program.

Brittini’s experience with her donors really reinforces what we’ve been saying all along about The Veritus Way:

This coronavirus crisis has proven that meaningful connections are THE KEY COMPONENT in a donor relationship. The depth of the connection with donors is dramatically more important than the medium used to reach them. 

Brittini is especially grateful to have learned about the power of the Veritus philosophy of Permission Based Asking™.

“I have reached out to several donors or they reached out to me just kind of checking in and seeing how we're doing” says Brittini. “And by really having them opt into a conversation about giving it's helped them take the lead in it and not make me feel like I am bombarding them or blindsiding them with an ask. It’s really them really choosing to have that conversation.”

As you speak with Brittini, you get the sense of someone who was born to be a major gift officer.

“I love fundraising so much!” she says. “I am honored that I found the fundraising career early in my life and that I’ve been able to really grow in it.”

She has some advice for her fellow fundraisers:

“If I could tell my colleagues what to do in this situation, I would say reach out to your major donors, just check on them and see how they're doing. And naturally, they're going to ask how you're doing and how your organization is doing and just be transparent with if you're struggling, what that looks like, what your need looks like, what kind of gifts you need. 

“Donors have been more generous now than they've ever been before, and it continues to inspire me day by day how much our community is responding and how much they really care. I think that it's kind of a magical thing that's happening, that we are in such an uncertain time and all going through this trauma together. And everybody just really wants to make sure that people are okay and give what they can.”