The Extreme Fundraising Blog

Regular readers of Extreme Fundraising will know that we’ve invested most of the year in exploring how our innate talents and abilities affect the way we ask people for money. I’m encouraged that many of you have experienced “ah-ha” moments as you’ve begun to strategize your work to align better with your hardwiring.

Today we’re starting on a very different, and pretty funny, series looking at some of the top “Fundraising Follies.” For the next few months, I’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes I see fundraisers make.

How do I know? I’ve made them!

In studying what not to do, we’ll draw some memorable pointers on what to do.

If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ll know that my first professional fundraising ask was for $100,000. Today you’ll hear the story behind that ask. (I’ve changed the circumstances a bit to protect the anonymity of the donor.)

Back when I was cutting my teeth as a paid development person, my mentor kept intending to take me on visits as part of my training. But one thing always led to another and it never happened.

Plus, being a first-born and an extrovert, I didn’t want to wait. The organization was in an exciting time of growth and I wanted as many people as possible to get in on its success.
I love matching up donor interests with institutional needs. It’s like plugging an electrical cord into a wall outlet. When you find the outlet that matches the prongs, power is released!

Obviously, to make sure the plug and prongs fit, you need to do your homework in advance. As I did my homework, I noticed one of the naming opportunities in the campaign that would probably fit quite well with a particular donor. His son loved the computer lab of the newest building on campus. His son even volunteered in the lab to teach others how to use the computers. Even though the building was built, the lab was still a naming opportunity in the campaign.

I know some parents may feel odd about naming a building while their kids are still at the school. And I understand that. In this case, the donor’s wife had died tragically in a car crash a few months before. The entire school was shocked and gave lots of support to the student. I knew the student and felt that naming the lab in honor of his mother might be a fitting way to remember her life.

Since I had no idea of the financial capacity of this family, I decided to structure the ask around the wife’s former employer. I knew she had been on a business trip when the accident occurred and I knew the company had done worked hard to help the family. The naming opportunity for the lab was $100,000 which I felt the company could probably do, especially if spread out over a few years.

So for my first official ask, I set up an appointment to talk to the donor about the school and the campaign. I drove to his house and had an amiable visit. We talked about his son, his acclimation to school life, and his love of the computer lab. Then I shared with him my idea about asking the company to donate $100,000 to name the computer lab in his wife’s memory and asked him if he’d be willing to approach the company himself.

He cringed a bit at the $100,000 and started listing all the company had already done for his family. In the end, although he saw the natural fit, he decided against asking them.
It wasn’t until I got back to my office that I realized I’d asked him on the 1 year anniversary of his wife’s death. My heart plummeted into my stomach. What had I done?

Fortunately, the donor wasn’t offended and we were able to keep an amiable relationship. But I’ve never forgotten to go over the details one more time before making a solicitation!

The lesson: As fundraisers we need to live in the tension between doing our homework and getting out their and taking action. Researching is crucial but can be overly comfortable. Don’t get caught up in “analysis paralysis.” Remember, the #1 reason people don’t give is…they are not asked! So get out there and ask someone for money today.

But make sure you check on a few crucial details before you make a complicated ask!

We all make mistakes. Often we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. Have you made some outlandish mistakes too? I’d love to hear about it! You can email them to me at:marc@fundraisingcoach.com.

I’m thrilled to announce that my new teaching CD, Creating Donor Evangelists, is in the final stages of being mixed. In this exciting audio program based off of my popular special report of the same name, I show you how to apply some relatively inexpensive but high leverage processes that will move your donors from simply being virtual ATMs to being raving fans of your nonprofit.

These CD’s will sell for $14.99 but I’m offering a special pre-publication price of $10 to you since you’re an Extreme Ezine subscriber. Click on this link to pre-order:
http://www.fundraisingcoach.com/cmd.php?cmd=cart&ProductID=2065335

As we’ve learned through this series, an “ability” is a hardwired, natural talent that we’re born with. It speaks to the things that seem to come naturally to us; the things we do with relative ease. We all do things that we are not talented in. We’ve built up skills to help us with these tasks but, even with strong skills, these tasks take longer and create more stress than tasks that play to our abilities.

In this series, we looked at what the Highlands Company calls the “Personal Style” abilities:

• Generalist/Specialist,
• Introversion/Extroversion, and
• Time Frame Orientation.

These abilities are very transferable between jobs. We saw how the difference between Specialist and Generalist deeply impacts the way we approach work and teams. We also saw how Introversion and Extroversion not only indicated what energizes us but also whether we process information verbally or not.

Then we looked at how Generalist/Specialist and Introversion/Extroversion combined to create the distinct patterns of People Influencing, Performer, Renaissance Person, and Professional/Researcher. Finally, we looked at how our Time Frame Orientation, whether short-, mid-, or long-term, mixes with the various personal style attributes.

We moved on to looking at the five Driving Abilities in detail:

• Classification,
• Concept Organization,
• Idea Productivity,
• Spatial Relations Theory, and
• Spatial Relations Visualization.

These are the abilities that compel us to use them. If they do not find expression in our life they will cause dissatisfaction.

Among the things we discovered was that people high in Classification like chaotic work environments and people high in Concept Organization are naturally talented at organizing thoughts. We also saw that people low in both Classification and Concept Organization may make the best executives and managers since they tend to be very effective decision makers. We also looked at how these two combined to create four distinct problem solving patterns: Consultative, Diagnostic, Logistical/Analytical, and Experiential.

We learned that Idea Productivity had to do with the quantity of ideas our brain continually generates, not the quality, and how that can impact our ability to concentrate. We also saw how Spatial Relations Theory and Spatial Relations Visualization deeply impact the satisfaction we get from the work we do.

An important point about abilities is that they do not determine whether you can or cannot do a task. The Highlands Company has identified 8 factors that affect your work and life:

• Abilities,
• Skills,
• Interests,
• Personal Style,
• Family,
• Values,
• Goals, and
• Career Development Stage.

All of these combine to help you complete a job. But when you’re working in line with your abilities, it’s as natural as breathing—you just do it. But when you’re working outside of your abilities, it’s like someone with asthma or emphysema breathing—you have to think about each breath. It’s not that you can’t do things outside of your abilities; it’s just that it you’ll expend much more energy doing them.

Abilities are not influenced be education or experience. They remain constant throughout life. Skills, on the other hand, are learned and can get rusty without constant use.

As we’ve seen, understanding our abilities can help influence all aspects of the fundraising cycle: cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. They also can give clues as to why donors—and co-workers!—behave as they do!