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Module 2 Discussion: Making the Ask, Thanking the Donor, Reducing Anxiety
28 RepliesIn Module 2, you learned how to make the ask and thank the donor while reducing anxiety and discomfort with the process of fundraising.
In a discussion post below, please respond to the following questions:
1: What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?And if you are not currently working at an organization or have never fundraised before... just imagine that you are about to begin your first day in fundraising at an organization!
After responding, please reply to at least one other learner and respond to their ideas.
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Meeting new prospective donors is challenging because am uncertain about the result but with practice I always get to be strong in ha doing all results from the future
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The hardest part of the ask to me is asking for the appointment, and transitioning into an ask.
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My experience has taught me that I need to let the donor warm up to me first and that I need to engage certain donors in specific ways in order to improve their receptivity to requests.
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Be confident! The worse is that they say no (not at all) and offer no help whatsoever. In that case, you still have exactly the same amount of funds after the ask as before.
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the most challenging aspect of fundraising, is asking for money. Main reason, because many organization asking day by day for money, then the fundraising scenario is about competition. The anxiety is the major problem because beyond the competition, you have to make the fundraising personal, in order to get the support.
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One way to make this aspect of fundraising easier, is for example, try to match organizations goals, with donors expectations and Sustainable development goals.
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I know what do you say, especially the stage to transitioning into an ask. But I think is because fundraisers sometimes think that asking for support or money is a situation where the donor has the last decision. In that scenario, the decision is taking by both parts.
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The last 3 months we were trying to catch new donors. Even it is an uncertain situation, they always are listening to what you say. So before you meet with them (institutions and Philanthropic organizations) you could read about their aims and mission and try to match your needs with their expectations. In case of individual donors, you might appeal for the human feeelings. empathy.
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For me the most challenges aspect of fundraising is initiating the discussion, The course has taught be an ice breaker which is discussing the interests of the donor before introducing my own needs.I will do a lot of research on the donors interest in order to have a fruitful discussion with the donor
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The hardest is asking for money.
My plan is to lay foundation for request of money, that way I believe it will be easy. -
These are real life situation.
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If the donor says "No" is the most anxious step as it hurts a person's ego
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would you mind explaining a little? what is it about exactly?
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I think if I ask and they say NO, I'll ask WHY lol
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I am an overthinker. To me, the challenge is to begin the conversation. In my head, I wonder what the person is thinking. I mean, they know I am here for their money and I feel a bit hypocrite pretending to care if the donor went to china or if he or she liked dolphins. We do not change a winning team, but I really believe in going to the point.
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well to me it is the best part of the conversation since it is the only time I know I will not be pretending being interested. it is why I am here.
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in other words, the approaching ways are not the same for everyone.
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The most difficult part for me is to make transition from a small talk with the prospect to making the ask. At times it feels embarrassing and somehow unnatural. But after going through the podcast by Tom Wolf I feel more confident to approach my anxiety!
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To me, the most challenging aspect is meeting new perspective donors, this is because I'm so uncertain of their response may me, the result from them. But I have learned to be confident and strong in handling all sorts of results in the future
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What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
A// To me would be the moment of asking to new donors to join us and dealing with the ¨NO¨
because dealing with a new person can yes be exciting and refresing but at the same time complicated and stresful.What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
try to infomr me more about our donors and their interest and how that can be fit in our programs and missions, so the donor can feel like we are exactly the kind of organization they need -
I know what you are talking about meeting new donors can always be challenging but i thin the magic is in knowing the donor so we can make a great impression showing them how we both need each other to make of this world a better place
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That seems to be a great topic.
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The most challenging aspect of fundraising is initiating because I need to improve in communication.
2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
I always passionate in what I am doing so I can tell clearly what I want to do and why I need the support from donor. -
Keep going.
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Yes. But we need to know that no doesn't me we can't or they don't trust us. No has so many meanings.
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yes I really agree with you .
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Meeting donor for the first time might be challenging moment sometime,because you might not know your if prospect area of interest March with your organization area intervention area
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Meeting donor for the first time might be challenging moment sometime,because you might not know your if prospect area of interest March with your organization area intervention area
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Meeting donor for the first time might be challenging moment sometime,because you might not know your if prospect area of interest March with your organization area intervention area
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My challenging part in fundraising is when I have to talk to a whole crowd in public. Because I feel so shy and sometimes it feels like am the one begging.
What I learnt was for what ever donation a donor gives to you, whether big or small, always appreciate the gift and send a thank you message to the donor within 24hours and I hope to implement it in our organization.
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The most challenging part for me is the initial part, when I do not know the donor and the donor does not know me, personally. For me, once I start a relationship with a person, things get easier and easier with each day, with each interaction.
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The most difficult part for me is to make transition from a small talk with the prospect to making the ask. At times it feels embarrassing and somehow unnatural. But after going through the podcast by Tom Wolf I feel more confident to approach my anxiety!
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The hardest is asking for money.
My plan is to lay foundation for request of money, that way I believe it will be easy. -
meeting donors and discussing your ideas with is quite an anxiety for me, but through this module, i understand that its best ones should indulge the donor into talking about his work before your key in
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this is a challenge most of us faced and i believe it take engagements before one get use to it
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The moment of greatest anxiety is when I go from a normal conversation to asking for money, because in many cases it seems rude to do so if the person is very focused on talking about himself.
Connecting what the potential donor says with the program I want to fundraise for, having an active participation once the individual closes a subject.
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Hi my name is Juan Carlos Celedon, I am the Fundación Explorambiente Leader from Santa Marta, Colombia. You can see us at facebook and instagram @explorambiente
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Hi my name is Juan Carlos Celedon, I am the Fundación Explorambiente Leader from Santa Marta, Colombia. You can see us at facebook and instagram @explorambiente
We have a lot problems at the begining with donors, but at the time We are getting better.
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Asking for monetary donations is the most anxious, as this even from personal experience, someone coming up and asking for monetary aid, sounds different alarms in your system.
However this can be overcomed by using the advisory technique, or the in kind donation which does not focus on monetary donations, but other forms and types of donations. -
Yeah, your very right. Fundraising has become a competition, I mean there are so many charities and causes out there, that you can almost be approached in a day (most especially on the busy and popular high streets) by more than 7 different charity fundraisers.
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The most anxious is how to begin the conversation with a person who you have never met before and how to begin the ask.
- during your discussion, how to transition from one point to another and how to draw the attention of your donor in soliciting his/ her support for your program.
Meanwhile, with the knowledge so far, anxiety has reduced and how proceed in my discussion in draw the interest of the donor.
- during your discussion, how to transition from one point to another and how to draw the attention of your donor in soliciting his/ her support for your program.
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My challenge is to mention the amount required. I tend to mention less amount which may not sufficient to complete the project.
This is because I have a sense of wanting to be conservative when implementing project- this is not entirely helpful. -
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The most anxious moment in the world for me is when I'm awaiting other people's response to my request for aid.
You always imagine the worst case scenario where they will turn you down and you will feel like you have been humiliated after all the time and effort you have put into trying to convince them.
Thanks to Dr Wolf his tips I will now see it from a different perspective : like he says : '' not now, but maybe later '' is how you should see a rejection. -
Exactly and it's often those small insignificant things like being turned down that you need help with to be able to process such a reaction. I found this course to be very helpful with that.
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In my own understanding the most difficult aspect of fund raising is asking for a specific amount of cash especially from someone you have not ask such before. to just tell the person please give us $100,000 not that the person is owning us nor do we have prior contact agreement before then.
To deal with this , i must first of all develop an orientation to deal with rejection and plan how to turn rejection to opportunity for another time. -
this is also correct especially if you are not present with donor to read some his/her body language as the discussion is going on. you will be anxious to have response
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For me, the most challenging part of foudrising is to find the donor who match with your organization
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Receiving a No response is more regular than you want, so you need to learn of this experiense and start with you new strategy
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Receiving a No response is more regular than you want, so you need to learn of this experiense and start with you new strategy
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Thank you for sharing such powerful knowledge
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Thank you for sharing such powerful knowledge
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Very true.
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For me, it's meeting prospective donors, and actually making the ask. But now that have learnt from this Module; Mr. Tom and Mr. Hoovers experience am more confident now.
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I know what do you say, especially the stage to transitioning into an ask. But I think is because fundraisers sometimes think that asking for support or money is a situation where the donor has the last decision. In that scenario, the decision is taking by both parts.
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I agree, although going through the 'right kind' of warm-up can be very challenging... Depending on the culture, when it comes to international NGOs or donors, they might not be very eager to interact with us in multiple realms or to go for a larger time in the previous interactions.
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As someone who works with an organization with bureaucratic issues regarding its funding autonomy, the part that brings to me more anxiety actually regards on explaining what are our demands and why and how they can be addressed by the potential donor.
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Leading a conversation is challenging. Because it is my first encounter with the donor and I don't have much to say about his or her persona
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The most troubling aspect of fundraising is initiating a conversation with potential donors. I plan to engage in a lot of practice and have my colleagues give me feedback on my approaches.
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I think this goes for many of us. WE don't want to appear to be too forward at the same time.
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the hardest part is for me to specifically ask for money or other kind of support from the donor, I usually tend to be more subtle and not to be so direct. But I understand with the course the relevance or doing so. I think I am shy to discuss directly this topic and fear to be rejected by the donor because of my letter being direct
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getting information on the donor, its website or through linkedin or twitter may be useful, so as to show that you are aware of their work
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making a mapping of potential donors is useful from the beginning
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Hi, the challenging part was requesting a specific amount of money from the donor, but from the lesson learned , there will be improvement.
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The most challenging in fundraising process is rejection, it is hard to cope with it, however, I see that sometimes the rejections comes as result of poor presentation. We so far have geared on skill improvement
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Meeting with a new donor is challenging, what is important is to become flexible to will happen if it yes or no
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real life situation, its very hard to ask for money.
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Asking for money and then following up on the ask at the risk of being annoying. For this fundraiser I only followed with those that showed interest in our cause for the initial email.
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This is the same thing i struggled with and then follow up with it.
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This message is for course facilitators. I cannot access the NYT article in Module 2, because the webpage says I've reached my limit of free articles. Is there an alternate way to access this article? I am really interested in reading it. Thank you for your help.
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Keep motivated after rejection is hard... thank you for sharing such great insights
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1: What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
Asking for financial support because I think by doing that, I put people in an uncomfortable situation.2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
I think, by giving people more option of how one donor can support, it releases the stress and uncomfortable situation for asking financial support. -
1: What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
Asking for financial support because I think by doing that, I put people in an uncomfortable situation.2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
I think, by giving people more option of how one donor can support, it releases the stress and uncomfortable situation for asking financial support. -
1: Para mim, o aspecto mais esperado ou desafiador da arrecadação de fundos é receber a informrção através do telefonema ou pessoalmente de que o dinheiro ou a doação solicitada está liberada para a Organização. Porque traz alÃvio e certeza de que as metas, os objetivos podem ser alavancados ou até mesmo alcançados dentro que foi planejado.
2: A maneira que posso tornar esse aspecto da arrecadação de fundos mais fácil, seria o estreitamento de minha equipe com a equipe do (a) doador (a), e com isso tornando ambas as equipes familiarizada, fazendo com que todo o trabalho seja mais himanizado.
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1: For me, the most anticipated or challenging aspect of fundraising is receiving information via phone or in person that the requested money or donation is released to the Organization. Because it brings relief and certainty that the goals, the objectives can be leveraged or even achieved within what was planned.
2: The way I can make this aspect of fundraising easier, would be to narrow my team with the donor's team, and thereby making both teams familiar, making all work work. more hymanized.
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1: I am most challenged by striking the right balance between giving good details (about the contact and their history, about my organization, about patients we've helped) and keeping the communications concise.
2: I plan to work on this area by soliciting feedback from any contacts I make verbal connections with. I can ask them, near the end of a conversation, "I'm working to improve my ability to communicate in a clear, concise, but meaningful way. I'd appreciate your help! Do you have any advice for me in this regard?"
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Through my learning in this model, i get to know that I need to let the donor warm up to me first and that I need to engage certain donors in specific ways in order to improve their receptivity to requests.
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The most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, to me is making the ask. This is because mostly the organisations that we have attempted reaching out to never responds. So if we get a meeting the following process are pretty easy to follow through. But first they having to agree to meet is always my anxious moment.
However, going forward now am better informed. I will henceforth make sure I do not let no bother me
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That is a good way to receive feedback. But am sure you know depends on probably the time you might have to make your presentations before getting to the point. Assuming you have a 30 minutes presentations would this method still work out?
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Everyone certainly likes good news
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I am new to fundraising, so these are unchartered waters. However, continuing education opportunities, such as this course, provide the knowledge that will help me become more confident.
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To have the guts to ask a donor.
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1: What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
It is always difficult approach people who are not from the community. Do they know enough about us? How much information do I need to give them?
2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
Rehearsing saying the benefits of the programs --which are wonderful!-- and thinking about the goal.
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If the cause is worthy and you are passionate about it it shouldn't be difficult.
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A "no" is only for now, but not forever. I'll definitely keep that in mind.
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Meeting new prospective donors is challenging because am uncertain about the result but with practice I always get to be strong in ha doing all results from the future
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being a beginner the most challenges aspect of fundraising for me would be initiating the discussion and making sure the donor is happy with the conversation so that they are willing to support
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The most challenging aspect of approaching and asking a donor is the switch in the conversation into the actual ask. You need to be able to understand their feelings and mode toward the situation, while also getting to the point.
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The challenging issue during the fundraising is time, follow-ups and waiting for responses.
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The challenging issue during the fundraising is time, follow-ups and waiting for responses.
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1: What to you is the most anxious or challenging aspect of fundraising, and why?
There is more than one aspect that challenges me - one I find few answers for are finding potential donors with an interest in international projects.
When a project is local, community focused, people tend to have more of an interest and understanding since they are more aware of the problem and can see results right in their general area.
When it's in a country far away, that most, people, if not all, have seen or experienced, they are less likely to want to participate or be interested. It is a challenge2: What is one way you have made or plan to make this aspect of fundraising easier in your work?
I am in the process of compiling stories that would highlight the issues our organization is working with in Kenya. Personal stories of people we've helped and others still in need - both young and old - that would touch the heart of the listener and move them to want to help...and at least make them aware of lives being impacted by no fault of their own
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I had the same issue...the article would pop up on screen for a second then change over to a page showing only the first page and no more. Would like to read the article.
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SSABINA....I have always been wary of asking for funds also feeling like I am putting the person in an uncomfortable position...how I am working on getting around that is having good information about the potential donor to know their true interests in issues we are working on...and remembering I am not asking them to give me money, but supporting a cause that impacts the lives of others. A work in progress for sure...
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Transitioning to the ask is difficult and it's so easy to just keep talking as the clock is ticking. Hopefully they say something that connects as a great lead to the ask. If not, remember the great work you're doing and maybe tell a story of someone helped and then do the ask to help others in the same situation.
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Correctly approaching the (potential) donor i.e. communicating having done a thorough homework of knowing him/her, his/her interests and being able to articulate /communicate clearly, yet in a simple friendly way the specific ask when the friendly atmosphere has been established, such is the key, that can turn to be a challenge if mishandled.
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The most stress inducing part for me, is meeting a potential donor for the first time. I get worried that I won't be able to connect interests. But, I now know that I need to make sure that I put in the research time to make sure that I have something personal to connect with.
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I agree, it is a balancing act. You have to stay on your toes and read the situation in front of you.
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Correctly approaching the (potential) donor i.e. communicating having done a thorough homework of knowing him/her, his/her interests and being able to articulate /communicate clearly, yet in a simple friendly way the specific ask when the friendly atmosphere has been established, such is the key, that can turn to be a challenge if mishandled.
Incorporating donor families is a kind of wise investment. Even if the kids do not take up the interests of their parents, it is still a good idea to approach them, attempt to get them involved if possible, and to show them courtesy. After all they will inherit the estate of their parents, and they still remain good prospects and targets for the future as potential donors whose parents at least used to be former donors.
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The aspect I feared the most was transition.
I would literally get to the person and don't know what to say or how to say it.
It was a very embarrassing situation.
But with this course I have learnt to follow up on what the donor is saying and find a good way for entrance especially ones the discussion relates to my organization and if no I would stay by saying the reason I came today which is a fundraising call -
I was faced with the same challenge until my challenge became transition but now am over it.
