The Extreme Fundraising Blog

Leona Helmsley’s will is causing quite a stir. In addition to leaving millions of dollars to her dog, the NYTimes says it contains nuggets like:

To receive money from the trusts, the grandsons are required under the will to visit the grave each year of their father, Jay Panzirer, Mrs. Helmsley’s only child, who died on March 31, 1982. “If DAVID or WALTER fails to visit the grave during any calendar year, her or his interest in the separate trust established for her or his benefit shall be terminated at the end of such calendar year,” with the principal treated as though the grandson “had then died,” the will states.

Not sure you want to encourage your donors to do this. But stories like this make it much easier to talk to your donors about leaving your nonprofit in their will.

Could a new planned giving approach be:

Hey, did you hear the one about Leona Helmsley?

Last time we looked at the #1 fundraising secret: ask!

Asking will always be #1. The rest of these fundraising secrets are in no particular order.

That being said, the second secret is: brainstorm objections up front.

Nine times out of ten, when you ask for money the prospect won’t say “yes” or “no.” They’ll give you an objection. In another secret we’ll look at why objections are great. (They really are!)

The comforting news is that objections tend to cluster around 4 or 5 common themes. So, instead of being surprised by them, why not identify them before you ask?

Give this easy “objection exercise” a try. It could be a blast.

1. Get your team together (volunteers or staff) and have them write objections down on post-it notes. Go until there are no more objections. Get out as many as you can. Have fun with this and be sure to laugh!
2. Then put the post-its on a wall and have someone start clustering them into common themes. Chances are, you’ll see only a few common groups forming.
3. Now strategize on ways to answer these objections or respond to them. Don’t become cavalier and abrasive. Use these objections to move yourself to the prospect’s side of the table. Help them solve the “problem” keeping them from saying “yes.”

Once you’ve done this, you’ll feel much more comfortable when you get one in real life!

Better yet, since you’re mind won’t be racing with fear of what the prospect might say, you’ll find you’re able to actually focus on the her more. She’ll sense that. And appreciate it.

Let me know how the “objections exercise” goes with your team!!

I’ve recently become aware of two things about the title of my book The Get R.E.A.L. Guide to Asking for Money: Connecting Donors with What Matters to Them Most.

1. It is really long.

2. The “R.E.A.L.” raises spam alerts.

Would you help me by voting on keeping this title or choosing one of three new ones?
Click here to take survey.

As a thank you, your email will be entered into a drawing for a free copy of the book.

Click here to take survey.

To find out more about the book, go to: http://fundraisingcoach.com/realsimpleguide.htm

[Update 8/27: Thanks to everyone that’s responded to the book title survey!

Although a shorter one seems popular, many of you are making persausive arguments for sticking with the title I have. Most of your comments reflect that the word “fear” in the title isn’t a good thing.

And many of you are nice to say that my writing makes seeming difficult things like fundraising feel “simple.” I still have to get the final from my publisher but it looks like the book title will stay as it is!]

I love ForImpact.org’s W.O.W. emails. I read this just after writing yesterday’s post Fundraising Secret #1. It definitely fits!

Read it and prosper:

Last week Tom and I were with a Benedictine prep school in New
Jersey. We were discussing the importance of focusing on top
prospects in the development plan when one of the board members asked
this question:

“What type of results should we expect if we visit with each of our
top 100 prospects?”

Being the ‘helpful outsider’, I gave that wonderfully ambiguous
answer: “It depends.”

After thinking for a moment I was able to offer an epiphany that was
a bit more insightful…

I’ve never been with an organization which made a commitment to
focus on its top 10 prospects that wasn’t completely and totally
transformed (in ways beyond funding results).

That’s a long-winded epiphany — I will restate: If you
focus on your top 10 prospects it will transform your organization
(period).
This is a simple (not easy) idea that changes everything.

The secondary epiphany is that most organizations gloss over their
top 10 prospects to make selective visits with prospects 11-100 (if
and when they’re making visits).

Why aren’t more organizations transformed by their top 10?

• They don’t stop to ask the question, "Who are our top 10
  prospects?"
• It’s easier to focus on prospects 11-100.
• They give up on the top 10 at the first sign of uncertainty. (eg.
  “The prospect did not return our phone call. she must not be
  interested.”)
• They have not yet committed to ’sales’ and are therefore not out
  making asks.
• They have ‘top of the pyramid’ call reluctance because:
• They can’t communicate the vision/mission/message.
• They haven’t been trained to sell and therefore fear
  messing it up.

Action:

• Make a commitment today to focus your energy on your top 10
  prospects.

• Make a commitment to visit with them, share the story, and present
  the opportunity within the next year.

• Don’t back down from this commitment*.
• E-mail me (nick@forimpact.org) on August 13, 2008 with your
  transformational success story. I would be equally interested (and
  very surprised) to hear from you if you truly made this commitment and
  weren’t wildly successful in your funding efforts.

*If you have encounter any of the challenges above join us at a href="http://www.forimpact.org/training/?jmid=1046727858">training
camp to remove the challenges [more powerful than a plug; it’s a
statement of action].

For more W.O.W. emails and funding ideas check out href="http://forimpact.org">www.forimpact.org.

 

Since many have finished their fiscal year and others that haven’t finished are working on budgets for the next fiscal year, I’ve been pondering things that would make this coming year our best fundraising year yet.

I’ve come up with about 100 secrets, tips, and tricks that I’ll be blogging over the coming months.

Of course, the #1 Fundraising Secret to making this year your best year is: Ask.

I continued to be amazed at how easy it is to get bogged down in non-asking activities. We may hide behind terms like “preparing” for an ask or “following up” after an ask. But preparing and following up won’t bring in the money.

In my seminars and upcoming book, I teach that there are really only three forms of fundraising communication:

1. Cultivation
2. Asking
3. Stewardship

Cultivation and stewardship are vital. But they’re nothing without asking. To just cultivate and steward would be like eating an Oreo cookie without the filling. Yuck.

And our donors and donor prospects know this.

Our donors know that nonprofits rely on the generosity of others to fund their operations. If we aren’t asking them for a donation at some point in our communicating with them, we’re just wasting their time.

And ours.

So the #1 Fundraising Secret is and will always be ASK!!!

Homework: What can you do to make sure you’re asking for money every week this coming year?

I’ve had to schedule this in my calendar as a recurring appointment. Every week, I block out one hour called “Set up Solicitation Calls.” I figured we schedule the meetings that are important to us and, as a fundraiser for the hospital, solicitations are crucial to forwarding the mission of the hospital. So it’s now in my calendar!