Raising Money, Part 2: Kevin Deeth
Raising money isn’t easy. There are countless organizations in the perpetual hunt for money. Some will succeed, others will fail. The balance between success and failure is influenced by a variety of factors, some controllable, others less so. In an attempt to tilt the balance toward success, I wanted to arm myself with the knowledge of professional fundraisers.
In the first part of this series, I spoke with Melissa Burns, who raised money for the University of Michigan before moving to the fundraising arm of the local chapter of the ACLU. For Melissa, fundraising fundamentally came down to relationships, and she emphasized several key skills needed to build and strengthen her connections with donors.
Kevin Deeth
Melissa’s lessons aren’t limited to academic and nonprofit fundraising. They are also embraced by Kevin Deeth, whose current role is leading the capital raising for Graham Allen Partners, a South Bend, Indiana-based private equity firm.
Like others we’ve seen, Kevin’s journey to private equity wasn’t predetermined, direct, or obvious, but at each step, he learned important skills that have influenced how he does his job. Kevin majored in marketing at the University of Notre Dame, where he also played varsity hockey. He continued his hockey career after college, playing professionally in the US and Europe. His experiences in the sports world reinforced his belief in hard work and sharpened his competitive spirit.
After finishing his professional hockey career, Kevin returned to Notre Dame, where he eventually ended up in the development office. While he initially didn’t know much about academic fundraising, his work ethic, competitive nature, and desire to learn drove him to quickly absorb as much as he could. His time in Notre Dame’s development office mirrored Melissa’s experiences at the University of Michigan. Kevin was raising money for student financial aid and the school’s endowment, and the impact of these financial gifts formed the foundation for how he spoke to donors. The philanthropic return on capital for these donors was the impact their gifts had on the lives of the students, an emphasis on a more transformational relationship rather than a transactional one. Through his numerous discussions and interactions with donors, Kevin built an extensive network of personal connections, relationships that would help him in the future. While at Notre Dame, Kevin also learned to create a pipeline of potential donors and take them through the fundraising cycle to result in a donation.
After more than six years at Notre Dame, Kevin was recruited to help raise a $150 million private equity fund at Graham Allen Partners. He quickly found that his skillset complemented the strengths of the firm’s team. While private equity fundraising is more transactional than academic development, relationships were still key, and many of the lessons Kevin learned still applied. He was able to build true connections with donors while at Notre Dame, and this ability to develop a rapport with people has proven valuable at his current job, as well.
At Graham Allen Partners, Kevin’s mindset had to transition away from pure transformational giving toward a more transactional approach, to think about investors, rather than donors. Thankfully, it turns out, the vast network of Notre Dame donors with whom he had built relationships were also savvy investors. Many of these individuals have separate budgets for philanthropy and investing, though their overall methodology for evaluating opportunities remained the same. So, Kevin understood how these individuals thought about financial opportunities, and building on these existing relationships has been fruitful for Kevin and the firm, as many of the investors in the fund have connections to Notre Dame.
So how did Kevin connect with these donors and investors? He used many of the same skills that Melissa highlighted.
It starts with getting to know the potential investor. Kevin, who’s naturally curious, has a proclivity for absorbing new information and truly enjoys learning about the people he meets. Before meeting with a donor or investor, he would do extensive research on the individual or group and create a personalized pitch based on his audience. During the meeting or the call, he would ask poignant questions to continue to learn about his audience, their interests, and their values. While any new information could be used to refine his pitch, Kevin has found that being authentically interested in learning about others has helped him bridge gaps between him and his audience and show them that he’s interested in forming a long-term relationship with them, not just a short-term transaction. Kevin believes that this makes the process of raising money feel less transactional because you’re working to establish a lasting and mutually beneficial partnership. This held true whether the audience was a donor or an investor, a pension fund or a family office.
Based on his focus on learning about his audience, it not surprising that Kevin emphasizes the need for active listening. People want to be heard, and Kevin wants to listen to them. Attentive listening allows him and his coworkers to generate better and more probing questions. By asking strong questions and iterating off of the responses, Kevin believes that you can break through the superficiality that characterizes some transactional relationships and form deeper partnerships. If you fail to ask good questions, you risk coming across as disingenuous, possibly preventing you from forming the partnerships you seek.
The opposite of active listening, in Kevin’s mind, is ego. Ego is the deal killer. Kevin believes that ego is a major reason why people fail to raise money. Ego prevents you from actively listening, from actually hearing your audience. It prevents you from responding to their needs and making them feel appreciated. If you can’t address their needs, you can’t form a connection with them. If you can’t form a connection, they’re not going to give you money. Unfortunately, in Kevin’s experience, active listening is a rare skill, while ego exists in abundance.
During their process of relationship building, Kevin and the firm rely on storytelling, underscoring the idea that fundraisers, at their core, are storytellers. The story that he and his coworkers craft revolves around the firm’s history, their founder, their team, and their process of investing in companies that could benefit from a digital transformation. Essentially, the firm emphasizes who they are, where they came from, where they’re going, and how the investor could join them on their journey. Kevin and his colleagues are careful to be authentic and transparent, using real world examples of their process and their successes. Authenticity helps the story resonate with their audience, which may include high net worth individuals, family offices, and institutional investors, such as pension funds, endowments, and foundations.
By listening their audience and crafting an authentic story, while keeping ego out of the equation, Kevin and the firm have successfully raised millions of dollars.
But the fundraising process doesn’t end once the check is signed and the money’s in the bank. As in academic and nonprofit fundraising, stewardship plays an important role in the private equity world, which is reflected in Kevin’s role of managing investor relations. Stewardship is an essential part of maintaining and strengthening the long-term relationship with the investors, an especially important aspect since the investment fund’s life cycle is ten years. Kevin frequently engages the fund’s investors as a sounding board and to solicit their feedback. Most of the investors have experience running the kinds of companies the firm invests in or have significant experience in the financial world. By continuing to cultivate the partnership with its investors, the firm creates relationships that are two-way streets. The investors can offer tangible advice and timely strategic insight, acting as mentors and providing guidance to the firm. This two-way engagement builds trust and demonstrates continued alignment between the firm and the investors. By encouraging the investors to engage the team, the firm gains additional insight and feeds the idea of collective effort toward a common goal. Having a strong connection with the investors is also vital for when the firm begins raising their next fund in a couple of years. Investors will only reinvest if they have a good relationship with the team. And it they feel like they are a part of a successful team, reinvesting is a no-brainer.
With Kevin’s experiences, fundraising ultimately boils down to relationships, ones formed from authenticity, free from ego, and built around a common mission. They are enabled by curiosity – a fundamental requirement for any business development, sales, or fundraising role – and are shaped by active listening. It takes effort to establish relationships like this, to continually build and strengthen them over time. But as Kevin has shown, the results of these relationships can be fruitful and have significant impact on the lives of others.
Special thanks to:
Kevin Deeth, Director of Capital Raising, Graham Allen Partners (kdeeth@graham-allen.com)
QIAGEN and Todd Festerling, PhD for sponsoring the blog