The Extreme Fundraising Blog

I’ve received some terrific questions from EFE subscribers over the years. Most of these questions are ones that would help all of us improve our fundraising and our ability to relate to donors.

So I’d like to explore a new feature on my blog called “Question Marc.” (Get it?)

All I need is your questions and permission to post them. Ask exactly the question you have, and I’ll obscure the details so none of your board members or donors can tie it to you. *grin*

Email your questions to marc@fundraisingcoach.com or post them below as a comment.

I’ll be at the VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads conference THIS Friday. (Read the original post here.)

Post a comment and let me know if you’ll be there, I’d love to meet over coffee!

UPDATE: The Hampton Roads Institute for Nonprofit Leadership Fifth Annual Conference was a blast. Kudos to Ellen Farber for putting on such a great day. And thanks to all of you who were there!

“I’d like to ask you to consider a gift of $5,000 to the campaign.”

Did you practice the question? Is it rolling off your tongue?

Keep on practicing. Then try adding higher dollar amounts.

I was just speaking with a new colleague who told me a cool story. In a past position, he and the board were hoping for a $50,000 gift from a donor for a campaign.

When they shared the story, the donor said, “I’m prepared to give you $50,000…” Here they all breathed an internal sigh of relief, but the donor hadn’t finished. “…a year for the next five years.”

How cool is that!

Granted, that doesn’t happen to all of us. Usually we’re the ones trying to remember the “…a year for the next five years” phrase. Last fall, a donor told me she doubled her gift simply because of that phrase.

She’d decided on a number and had written the check. We’d asked for a multi-year pledge and she had decided on a one-time gift. I was grateful for her including a gift to us at all, but I took a risk and said, “At the risk of appearing pushy, would you consider repeating that amount at this time next year too?”

It turns out the amount was a few thousand dollars! (When she told me she’d written a check, I’d fallen into the trap of thinking of my checkbook and the size check I could write. I should know better than to do that!)

But because I asked her to consider repeating the gift next year, she did.

You just never know until you ask!

All fall, we’ve been working through the basics of asking people for money with the simple four-step formula: R.E.A.L.

1. Research,
2. Engage,
3. Ask, and
4. Love ‘em.

Now we begin focusing on “ask.” Some of you may be wondering why it’s taken so long to get here. After all, we started this series back in September!

Remember, the Get R.E.A.L. formula is designed to take the fear out of asking. Which do you suppose is easier:

• walking up to a stranger and asking her to give money to your cause, or
• calling a person you’ve gotten to know and ask them to invest in an aspect of your mission you know interests them?

If you don’t do the research and the engaging, you won’t get to know people. Not everyone is going to give to your cause, no matter how important your cause is. Doing the first two steps helps you weed out those folks who won’t be interested in giving and helps you focus your activities on the folks who will.

Do you remember the #1 reason why people don’t give money to nonprofits? Right. They aren’t asked.

So ask!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at various parts of the “ask.”

For now, here’s the question that’s helped my raise millions of dollars:

“I’d like to ask you to consider a gift of $5,000 to the campaign.”

Change the amount to fit your situation and keep practicing the question until it rolls off your tongue!

It will be a valuable tool in your fundraising tool belt.

May 2006 be even more of an Extreme Fundraising year for you than 2005 was!