Welcome back to nonprofit courage lab, how to ask for more and raised major gifts. This is Julie aronia, and this is episode two. We've all been there. You've probably had somebody say to you, Hey, I really love what you guys do. I love to get more involved. Hey, let me know what you need. Hey, how can I help? Something like this, right? Maybe it was in passing.
Maybe you ran into somebody leaving the grocery store or at an event, somebody just in passing when you're just rushing off to the next thing has mentioned casually to you that they would love to help you. Right. Has this happened to you? Pretty sure it has. And. Immediately you think, oh, that's so kind. And sometimes we say, oh, you already do so much.
Thanks so much for sharing on social media or telling, you know, your, your friends or sending that email that you send, or even just being here today at this event, we just love having you here. Thanks so much. And we're so nice. We're nice. You know, we're just all, we're so grateful and here's the thing, friend, you gotta stop lying, like stop that, you know, like authentic relationships with your donors are built on honesty. And if you were really honest, You'd be like, yeah.
actually you being here is not enough help that we need. It's great that you're here, but honestly, what I really need from you is money. I need your financial contribution. So first things first, we have got to stop accepting scraps and being grateful for that. It isn't enough. And if you're really honest, you would say, Hey, you know how you can help. The thing we need the most right now are financial contributions.
Are you willing to consider making a gift and you might need to be ready with an ask right on the spot. Oh, amazing. What do you need? Well, would you consider being a monthly donor and giving a hundred dollars a month? Just ask for something, pull it outta your back pocket. Get real, you know, that you need donations. And when someone offers you help, you need to receive. and you need to be honest and say straight up, our biggest need is this.
You don't need more volunteers unless you need volunteers. You don't need more awareness. Oh my gosh. Awareness. Oh, we need to raise awareness. No, you don't. You need to raise money Let's be honest. Let's test this for real though. If you had enough money, would you ever talk to anyone about awareness? If your budget was fully funded, would you even use the word, the phrase, raise awareness. Now you wouldn't.
If your budget was fully funded, you wouldn't waste your time with raising awareness now, I think one exception could be, if you are raising money for. A rare illness or a type of chronic illness or disease or something that is like not well known, but affects people. A lot of people, a significant chunk of society. I could see awareness being something that you need to focus on.
It needs to be a priority, but other than that, Listen, babe, if you are running a youth mentorship program, you don't need to raise awareness, right? Let's get real. You need unrestricted dollars. This is the invitation for you. When someone says to you, Hey, I'd love to help, or I'd love to get more involved. Here's your new response? Amazing. Thank you so much. We'd love to have you more involved.
Our biggest need is financial support and just shut your mouth and then hear what they have to say. If they say, oh, oh, okay, well, I can do that. Uh, what do you need? Here's a canned response. You can obviously make it your own, but you wanna say something. Well, most of our monthly donors give $50 a month, or you could say the majority of our donors give a hundred dollars a month. Something like that. Right.
If you use majority or most mean that does something in people's brains, they're like, oh yeah, cuz they're, they're asking you well, how much? Because they wanna know what do other people. Part of why you haven't gotten your revenue to where you want it to be is because you struggle to receive help from the people who have offered it. And I wonder friend, if you had gone back to all of the people who've ever said to you within the last 12 months, Hey, I'd love to help.
Hey, I'd love to be more involved and you went back to them and you said, Hey, I remember in April that you said you would love to be more involved. Here's the help that we need. We need financial support. Would you consider becoming a monthly donor or would you consider giving towards our year end campaign? And obviously making it about the impact. I wonder if you would exceed your goals just by doing that. I know that receiving help is difficult. Believe me.
I, if you're familiar with the Enneagram, I'm an Enneagram eight w seven. We are called the challeng. If you can't tell already. Hello. and I think that I am just one of those people that I love hard work. I love a challenge. I love it. Wow. There's a really big goal. Boom. Let's go out there and get it. Yeah, that excites me. I, I think I get bored easily. I love hard work. I'm surrounded by people who are hardworking. And I understand this. You are a helper, you are a servant.
You love to serve others. You love to love others. You are a giver. You are the one who gives you. Outgive everybody. I get it in order to get to where you wanna go. You can't get there. This isn't about your personal capacity. This is about a different capacity within you, and that is the capacity to receive help to build your team and the team, the people you need on your team are donors. Will you allow people to help you? Will you get.
And stop being grateful for one Instagram post or coming to a Facebook event or showing up for the fundraiser showing up. Isn't enough. If you are honest, you need financial support. So remember authentic relationships and I know that's what you wanna build with your donors. I know it is. I get it. That's what I want too. They are built on honesty and trust. And if you ain't honest, you don't got much trust. And if you don't got trust, you ain't got no relationship. Right.
So get real, be honest and accept the help receive. The help and be honest about the help that you need. Now, you may have board members or volunteers who offer to help you, and they say, I'd love to volunteer in this way. And you're thinking in your head, good gravy. I do not wanna spend 20 hours a week supervising volunteers just so that they can have something to do that makes them feel good about their contribution in the. If it ain't helpful, then let 'em know.
That is not the help that I need. Start telling people what you need and what you need. You know, what's about to come our financial contributions. You need support, stop accepting the scraps friends. You're surrounded by people. Who want to sacrifice alongside you? And they will, if you're honest about what you need and if you let them, you gotta get good at receiving help. I know it's a courageous thing to do, but guess what, babe, we are part of the nonprofit courage lab. Try it out.
It's okay. If it feels awkward, it's okay. If it feels weird, it's uncomfortable. It's okay. You will survive the feeling you've done it before you will survive the feeling of awkwardness of discomfort. It's all good. Reach out. Let people know what you need and I'll see you next time.