Talking About Money
It was our first coaching call. I asked what her most pressing issue was.
“My boss wants me to call a list of donors.” And the problem? “I don’t know what to say!”
Fair enough. First, of course, let’s talk about the purpose of your call. What do you want to happen as a result of the call? Let’s face it—there are lots of reasons to call people. The most common reason to call your donors include:
To find out how they are doing—and these strange and awful times, that is a wonderful reason to call your supporters
To thank them for their recent or past gift
To let them know what has happened at your organization since their last gift or your last conversation.
To tell them about an exciting new initiative
To ask them for a donation
She wasn’t sure why she was to call, which lead to her first assignment: Ask her boss that all important why. Why am I calling these people? Then we could develop a plan and a script. But since we had time left on our call, I asked her which of those 5 reasons gave her the most pause.
As you might imagine, it was the last one: How do I call someone and ask them to give?
Assuming this is for annual support, it’s pretty straightforward and not difficult at all. It starts with clarity; being upfront about your purpose and what you hope to achieve.
After you get through the niceties, tell the person that you are calling about their annual gift. “Your support over the past several years has been terrific. I’m hoping that we can count on your continued support this year. Last year you generously gave us $500. I’m calling to ask you to consider increasing that to $750 or $62.50 a month.”
If, over the year, your organization has reached out, informed the donor of the value and impact of their gift, this is a pretty easy call. However, if the last time this donor heard from you was last year, your road may be a lot bumpier.
My client, however, had a more basic problem—no one was answering her calls. Should she leave a message or send an email?
I have no magic answer here; either way could work. But either way, do be clear about what you want. That means talking about money. Tell them how much you are hoping they will give.
Indeed, money should be a topic of every conversation you have with a donor. You are a fundraiser, after all. The issue of money should not ever become the elephant in the room.
The way to avoid that, is to talk about money at every single meeting.
“Your support over the years has been really important; over the past 5 years, you’ve donated more than $3,000 and that has allowed us to…..”
“This year we are hoping to increase our annual giving and raise $2.5 million to help us provide our clients…..”
You might be telling a lapsed donor how their past support was so critical and that you hope that they missed being part of your family as much as you missed them. Would they consider once again making a gift of $XX?
What you really want is for them to respond to the amount of the ask rather than consider if they are going to give at all.
“Ummm, $1,000 is more than I was thinking about,” is far closer to a yes than no comment about a gift. From here, you can ask if they might now think about a gift that size? If they say it is too large, ask them if money were not the issue, would they be inclined to give you a donation at that level? If they say yes, you know they are a strong and loyal donor. Your job now is to find an amount that feels right to you both. If they say no, you need to remember that this is not dating—no does not always mean no. You must discover the real issue. Is it that they don’t love you enough? Perhaps they aren’t convinced about the reasons for making a gift. Your job here is to find out what is standing in the way of their support.
Once you know what the issue is, you can create a cultivation plan that will move them toward making that gift—the one you will be talking about with them as you move them forward from hesitation to commitment for a gift of a certain size that has been discussed, dissected, and finally agreed upon.