Isn’t it a shame that nonprofit folks can be so insular? They’re definitely missing out on your skills!

I was responding more to your comment about not being “pitched” to which I perhaps took out of context.

You may have guessed that i come from the commercial sales arena! I am trying to move into corporate fundraising for not for profit and while I have experience of fundraising for a charity on a volunteer basis I am finding it
difficult to break into the sector. I get the impression that many not for profits like to employ people from their own sector and do not want to take a risk on people with commercial experience.

Yes, I’ve read Carnegie and love it. Try to read it annually.

But the point of this blog wasn’t to draw some sort of false distinction between sales and fundraising. I actually pride myself on teaching sales skills to nonprofit folks in a way that doesn’t cause them to put up walls or defenses.

This email was about people that want to pitch fundraising people into buying the seller’s product to raise funds for the fundraising people’s nonprofit. Candy sales, furniture sales, gas card sales, etc.

Does that make sense? Or am I still missing the jist of your comment?

If you are raising funds from people who only benefit from “the joy of giving” they still have to understand they will be receiving that joy by giving to your organization. Presumably you explain to them where that money is going and how it will be used which is all part of a sales process. If you “pitch” it badly then you won’t receive the funding however worthy your organization may be.
My belief is that many fundraisers are in denial and that they actually follow a similar process used by people in commercial sales. I will leave it to other readers to think why that is.