You know that they are predisposed to saying "yes" and you'll have had time to shape the ask around their passions. You'll already have the odds in your favor. If you've done the first two steps, this step will be quite fun. Even if you skip the prior two steps, you'll still reach some level of success by consistently executing this one. The number one reason people don't give money to your cause is that they are not asked. If the prospect has c and p then here's where you work on i. It's important to get to know your prospects before you "pop the question." While you'll certainly want to share the story of your cause, take time to get to know them-listen to their story, discover their interests, hear their goals. I like to think of this as the dating part of the relationship. Which brings us to the second step, engage. While you can't make someone more wealthy or generous, but you can have a chance at making someone more interested in your organization.
But watch for those with high scores in the first two categories and some inclination to your cause. You should promptly visit anyone scoring 12 or more. This is tool can be useful because it removes individual personalities from the prospect rating process and makes it feel more objective. Have the people on the committee assign a score of 1-5 for each category-1 being lowest, 5 being highest. Are they interested in your cause? You can find this out by looking at other causes they've supported and by asking people close to your organization.You need to be a good steward of your resources, if the prospect can't make a worthwhile gift or doesn't have a track record of giving you would be better served seeking donations elsewhere. Are they philanthropic-are they generous with their money.Does the prospect have capacity-are they financially able to make a gift?.One simple method of doing this is conducting what I call a " cpi screening": rating each prospect on capacity, philanthropy, and interest. You could invite these people, remind them of your cause and fundraising goals, and ask them to go over the names of prospects.
So can your board members and a development committee in the form of a peer review committee. Google can be an incredibly helpful tool. Work through the grid until you have names of prospects for each level.Īs you're building your prospect list, you'll want to continue your research. Experience shows that you'll need to have 4 or 5 prospects to achieve that gift. So, to reach your goal of $100,000, you'll need at least one donor to give a minimum of $10,000. The next two should equal 5% of the total, etc. Long-standing common wisdom shows that you'll need at least one gift equaling 10% of the total. One of the most helpful tools is a gift grid. If you're attempting to raise $100,000, the knee-jerk reaction will probably be "We just need to find 100 people that will give us $1,000." As nice as that seems, decades of fundraising experience show that that simply isn't how it works. Once that need is determined, it's important to research how many gifts you'll need. This may seem obvious but my experience is that most groups never put a specific dollar amount on their need. The first step of research is to find out how much you need to raise. The basic model I use for asking for money is the acronym R.E.A.L.: Research, Engage, Ask, and Love.
To keep it easy, I implore them to "Get R.E.A.L." How to Ask for Money: Get R.E.A.L. It can get you off to a good start and keep being used for years to come. Here is a simple plan on how to do fundraising I recommend to my clients. It can actually be an incredibly exciting adventure. The panic of making budget seems to make raising money impossible without knowing someone rich and famous like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.īut fundraising isn't impossible. I often get asked by board members of start-up nonprofits how to ask for money.