WHY DO WE MAKE FUND RAISING SO PAINFUL?
How do you enlist of group of people to help with their agency’s fundraising when their only experience in raising money has been uncomfortable or unpleasant?
That was the task I faced in my first meeting with my new client, which provides scholarships for needy kids to go to a Catholic high school.
I always try to make people realize that fundraising is not just about asking, but providing them with an opportunity to give, and allowing the “cause” to do the asking. This immediately gets them to relax.
• I first asked them about their own fundraising experiences and what they didn’t like about it. That gets them involved.
• I told them I wanted to give them a new prospective on fundraising and promised them by the time they left the lunch they would want to get out there and do it. That lessens their anxiety.
• We sold them on the cause: helping needy students go to a high school where they could get a good education and would be able to go on to college.
• I told them I would never ask them to solicit a friend for a gift “as a favor”. I wanted the “cause” to do the asking, not them. Just get them to the “well”-we’ll help them “drink the water.”
• I helped them understand the relationship between sales (which some were in) and fundraising: the cultivating the customer (donor). They could then relate this to their own life experience.
• We worked together to craft a product that they would be proud to “sell”. In this case it was to become an “Angel”, which would allow a child to go to high school for one year. We wouldn’t stress the cost ($1800) but instead encourage them to become an “Angel”. The cost of being an “Angel” would be outlined in a nice handout.
• I asked them to invite their friends to events where they could hear the stories of the kids who have already been helped and provide them with an “opportunity” to support one of these kids. I urged letting the “cause” make the sale.
• I then asked the to articulate a goal of the number of “Angels” they would need this year to help all the applicants. This gave them and their donors a goal.
• We discussed the need to cultivate these donors year after year by continually exposing them to the success stories made possible by the “Angels”.
• We planned an event, where all the former scholarship recipients could be brought together, to meet prospective “Angels”.
The feedback was enthusiastic and unanimous. They all wanted to help go out and bring in more money.
It seems so easy. Why do we make fundraising so painful?
Tags: Barrie, fund raising, journal