HOW LONG?

Taking the temperature of our audience Wednesday at the Fundraising Summit at IIT, I asked for a show of hands of those who had been in fundraising for various amounts of time ... the only people among the 50 folks in the room who had been asking for money for 20 or more years were Ray Merenstein, my co-presenter, and me! (That may be why the Center for Nonprofit Success tapped us for this session.) In the car on the way back to Evanston with the sunshine glistening off Lake Michigan, I thought about the real answer to that question.

I bet most of the folks in the room had sold Girl Scout cookies or took gift wrap orders or washed cars for their team. In reality, we've been in fundraising so long we should be experts at it!

My kids were fundraising as toddlers! Their major gift requests may have had a few less 0's in the number, but they knew how to establish rapport, they educated me on the benefits of a gift (even if the benefit was only to them, like so many organizations' appeals) and they definitely asked for a specific amount or specific gift! (And, far more often than not, they got the gift!)

One point I hope everyone took home from the Summit was the need for being donor centric. Successful fundraising is done on a win-win basis, matching donor interest with organizational needs. Only by knowing your donors, will you be able to make that match.

If you would like notes from our presentation, leave a request here.

* Maggie Blake, fundraiser in training.