Some fundraisers are uncomfortable asking for money.
I get it. Asking can feel awkward. Like a hustle at best. Or at worst, like a scam.
But there’s a better way to think about asking, as Seth Godin points out at The generous ask:
… the best asks are actually offers. When we offer to help someone get to where they were going, we’re approaching the relationship with generosity, not selfishness.
Some fundraisers call the ask the “offer.” It’s a term borrowed from commercial marketing. It means “the thing you’ll get if you buy from (donate to) us.”
Instead of seeing your fundraising as a way to say, Give us some money and instead think of it as Make something you care about happen … your fundraising is suddenly very different.
And more effective.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.