I originally created 12 Tips back in 2013. Here’s an expanded and updated set of 16 Tips.
One of the biggest keys to successful fundraising is asking people in a meeting for money.
Events, letter, phone calls, and emails all belong as part of a robust, comprehensive fundraising system. But thriving organizations almost always find that one-on-one solicitations are where they secure most of their unrestricted funds.
Many fundraisers I train believe that making the ask at the meeting is the easy part – where they profess to get held up is in getting the meeting in the first place.
Here’s sixteen tips for how to get the meeting
1. Make sure you’re working connections and not cold prospects. If they’re not current donors, you should focus on people you know, or having someone who knows the donor connect you (either by making the meeting request directly or at least letting you use their name). If you’re counting on your board to supply connections and they’re not being helpful, find others who will be (from existing donors, allies, don’t be shy in asking for help).
2. Make the request via phone. It’s too easy to duck an email and in an email you can’t engage people, motivate them, and respond to any misapprehensions they might have about the meeting. If you don’t have their phone number, there are still ways to look up people’s number just as in the old days of the white pages. (Don’t have phone numbers, check out tip 16).
3. Be persistent without being a pest. You will often have to try to call a donor a dozen times before getting a meeting request in, especially with people are increasingly not answering their phone. So script out a really compelling short voicemail message that ends with the bottom line: I’ll to reach you again next week. This increases the odds they’ll pick up the phone when you call again. Just keep trying at different times and dates.
4. Start the process far in advance of when you really need the meeting to happen. If you need the ask to take place in November, start requesting the meeting in October. The further out you set a proposed date, the less likelihood that conflicts will get in the way. Or, if you ask for a time 10 days out and they say they are already booked, it gives you an easy (and hard to refuse) follow-up ask for a later time when they’re not booked.
5. If they say it’s a bad time to talk, ask if you can call back “in an hour” or “tomorrow.”
6. Start by thanking them if at possible. For past donations. For past volunteer work. For some other community work they’ve done even if not for your organization.
7. Be passionate and upbeat. Passion is contagious and people are more likely to want to spend time with someone if they perceive you as upbeat. You are selling yourself as much as the organization in trying to set up the meeting.
8. If it’s geographically appropriate, tell them you’re going to be in their area. Some donors are reluctant to have you make a special visit just for them. But if they think you’re already in the area, they’re more willing to meet.
9. Make clear you’re looking both for their input and to see how they can help. Propose some topic where you’re seeking input (your upcoming or new strategic plan, your communications, ideas, some specific organizational issue, etc.).
10. Create some time-urgency. Mention something you hope to do in 2-4 months and the impact it will have and that you’re talking to supporters so that you’re in a position to move forward at full capacity.
11. Propose a specific date and time. Don’t ask: “Can we meet?” Ask: “Are you free to meet on Tuesday the 22nd at 3 p.m.?” Assume they want to meet. Wouldn’t anybody want to meet you? Get them focused on the where/when.
12. Focus on their convenience, not yours. Always offer first to meet them at their home, office, or a nearby coffee shop or restaurant. Let them choose. Be willing to meet early in the morning, just after work, or during the evening. If they say they’d like to meet via zoom, that’s not a bad option compared to no meeting, but make at least one attempt to gently push them into an in-person option.
13. Be prepared to pivot back to a second ask for a meeting if they initially say no. In my experience, nearly half of the eventual meetings I got involved a donor prospect initially saying something like: “I’m too busy” or “Don’t waste your time with me, I’ll donate regardless.”
14. Use peer pressure. If you know they’re friends/colleagues/rivals of someone else who you’ve met with or are meeting with, figure out how to drop that into the conversation.
15. If they say something that divulges something personal (e.g. I’m going to my son’s wedding”), don’t be afraid to follow up with a question designed to make the relationship more personal (e.g. “Congratulations! Where is he getting married?” You should be genuinely interested in them as a person, not just a checkbook.
16. Lastly, if you don’t have phone numbers for a donor, consider ways to obtain it. The free way: If you know of a board member or person close to the organization who likely has it, don’t be shy to ask. The paid ways: If your organization subscribes to a Wealth Screening service via your donor database, those often come with a data append function that will provide phone numbers. Alternatively, WhitePages.Com is a relatively affordable (on a monthly basis) way to put in a name and physical address and get information about the person, including phone number. You may be able to subscribe for just a couple months to fill in phone numbers for your top donor prospects and then let your subscription lapse.
Have your own tip with something that’s worked for you? Please share your ideas!