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I. Fundraising Follies: Flying Solo Revisited
II. Resource Spotlight: CharityTalk
III. Creating Donor Evangelists Audio Program
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I. Fundraising Follies: Flying Solo Revisited
If you’ll remember from the last EFE, I blundered by letting a wonderful volunteer “fly solo” with her solicitations.
Many readers responded to my plight! Thank you. Among the responses were those like Irene McGee’s of Crowley County Nursing Center http://www.ccntr.com/
“Just be open and honest with her. She’ll most likely be thankful.”
Dan Hatch of Straight Ahead Ministries http://www.straightahead.org humorously suggested: “Forward this article to her and tell her you made a mistake in not planning to join her in her solicitation calls.”
I’m pleased to say that the volunteer dropped by my office a few days later and I was able make amends. I apologized and said I felt like I’d kind of left her all by herself. I told her I was committed to helping her make the solicitations and would clear my schedule to be with her on her calls.
She was relieved. She still needs to make the calls because she’s got the stronger relationships with our prospective donors. But now I’m back in as an aide and accountability person. I’ll also be with her at the solicitations and make sure that the ask is specific and for the predetermined dollar amount.
As I reflected on this, I realized I’d forgotten something I repeatedly tell my seminar audiences: your nonprofit is not the center of your donor’s universe! She hadn’t been nearly consumed with the need to set up appointments as I had.
So we’re back on track to helping our organization raise $1.1 million in the next 5 months!
Thanks for your advice. I’d love to hear from more of you. Feel free to email me at marc@fundraisingcoach.com!
[I’m convinced we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. I’d love to hear your funniest mistakes! You can send them to me at marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]
II. Resource Spotlight: CharityTalk
This week the resource spotlight swings back to a CharityChannel.com tool: CharityTalk. This listserv is a forum for anyone and everyone related to the nonprofit sector to ask questions and post recommendation. With thousands of people subscribed to this one list, CharityTalk is truly the “big tent” discussion list of the nonprofit world.
I love discussion lists because the emails come right to your inbox. I’m not very good at checking websites on a regular basis. But I do check my email. These messages come to my inbox. I simply skim the discussions and jump in when I feel I have something to share.
There’s truly nothing new under the sun. When you’re faced with a dilemma, CharityTalk is a wonderful place to go to get answers from colleagues around the world. I highly recommend you take a moment to go to http://charitychannel.com/forums/. You can subscribe to CharityTalk and check out CharityChannel’s other forums.
[If you have tools that you think should be considered for inclusion, please email me at marc@fundraisingcoach.com]
III. Creating Donor Evangelists Audio Program
Creating Donor Evangelists is helping people around the country move their donors from mere ATMs to radical fans. The techniques are low cost and at $14.99, so is the CD!
To purchase your own copy, go to https://fundraisingcoach.com/.
To your extreme fundraising success!
