You have to touch base, and take care of them during the year, to be able to ask them to show up once a year and fill your basket.

“Cultivating the relationship, helps the ask become a natural progression of the relationship, rather than this thorny objective we need to accomplish. Our donors will want to come forward because they are enthusiastic about the organization, and because they are enjoying the relationship with you.”

Brian Saber in Joan Garry’s Podcast “Nonprofits are Messy” Episode 22: The Art and Science of The Ask

The following are also from Joan Garry’s Podcast. I suggest you listen to her work, but in case you don’t have time to download them right now, here are some choice words of wisdom.

Role Playing The Ask.

“You’ve been so wonderful to us. Thank you for supporting the work we’ve been able to do. You’ve helped build this (foundation, organization, school, etc.). As you know (insert problem here. Funding dropped out, growing into new building, serving more people, etc.). And I’m really hoping, I know this is more than you have done, but I’m hoping you will consider a gift of (whatever you think they can raise up to) because what that would do is allow us to do is (fill in the blank). “ Ask them to be a part of the legacy.

If you think it’s too much.

“We could split it up throughout a number of years. Or if you could consider making a gift of 10K now, and I realize that’s a lot. We could use that as a gift to encourage others to step up and make a larger gift as well.”

To bring them back to your organization:

“Ask them if they’d like to re-engage and touch the work a little by coming to and event, or stop by the store (or whatever works for you) and see how the gift will impact us.”

Role Playing If The Ask Fails:

YOU: “Hi ________,” this is ____________ I’m on the Board at _________________. How are you? I was calling because you had attended our gala last April. I imagine you go to a lot of these, so I don’t know if you remember, but we had __________________.

It was a really nice night wasn’t it? And we were really pleased, and did really well.

And you made an extraordinary gift from the floor. It’s unusual for people to give that kind of a gift, and you have been really generous. And we were wondering if you’d be willing to consider making that pledge now and consider making an additional pledge of (whatever the next level up is) to our annual fundraiser. It would help us reach a pretty aggressive goal that we have this year to make sure that we have all the resources we need to make sure _____________.”

RESPONSE: “Well, I’m not thrilled with the idea. I haven’t heard anything from you, like, I mean, do you have a newsletter? I was thanked for being there, but not for my money. And I’m irritated at your dropping the ball on cultivating a relationship.”

YOU: Ask them out for coffee and ask if you can bring someone from development with you because it could have happened to others. Congratulations, you just kept that donor as a member of your organizations family!

Donors are often upset because they care about the organization. We can’t slight them on thank yous. This is how the Board and staff members are turning lemons into lemonade and not worrying about being perfect, because caring matters more than being perfect.

As Jim Bennet Chief Development Officer at Lambda Legal says, don't get into analysis paralysis and find reasons not to make the ask. A) My client data is old or incomplete. B) I don’t know this person. C) There’s no institutional relationship. Just start the conversation and start the relationship.

Zan Auctions can’t recommend Joan Garry’s Podcast “Nonprofits Are Messy” highly enough. Benefit Auctions, Fundraisers, Organizations, Schools with Live Auctions, Fund A Need, Paddle Raise, Board Members, Volunteers, Development Teams, and more will get a wealth of information from Joan and her guests.
Consider listening to an episode on your ride home today.

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