How To Get More Major Donor Meetings

Hello. Welcome. So I'm Julie and I'm happy you're here and thank you for being fully present. So I am a real straight shooter. Okay? this is going to be yes, practical, actionable things that you can implement today, like right now, like immediately after this. And I hope that you do. and it's also gonna be about, you know, talking about what really is holding you back from getting more meetings. For some of you, it's your skills. You just need a better set of, of skills. You need a better toolkit. For some of you, it's your mindset. It's the way that you view yourself. Some of you are still struggling with believing that you are worthy, and so you don't reach out because you are not ready. You don't have what it takes. You don't even know what you would say to a rich person if they had a million dollars, so you don't even reach out. You don't even do the things that you know is gonna raise more money because you lack self-confidence. So we're gonna address both of those things. The biggest mistakes I see people make related to those two things, right? Your mindset, what you believe about yourself, what you believe about your donors, and how those things need to change. If you don't wanna change, I'm not really sure I can help you. You can learn all the fancy tools and tricks and all that, but if you don't really wanna change, then you won't implement them. And then you're just here to make yourself feel better about spending time, thinking about doing something. Then we're gonna go over some case studies. Some of you sent me emails that you ask for, donor meetings, and I rewrote them. So a lot of you sent me emails and I was not able to rewrite all of them, but we're gonna go through some real life case studies. Great. And then we'll do a q and A at the end. So who the hell am I? I'm Julie. Hello, welcome. I am a fundraising coach. I specialize in major gifts. I've been doing major gifts successfully for over 10 years. I'm in Los Angeles, I am from Houston, Texas. I'm just a little bit spicier, I guess you could say, because of that. over 10 years ago I had my first fundraising job and I took a fundraising job cuz I needed one. I needed a job. Anybody ever been there? You need a job. That was me. And I had a friend say, Hey, I think you would be good at fundraising. And I was like, fundraising is a job. What? And I was pretty good, but my grant writing sucked, evidently, and that's why I got fired. So I was fired from my first fundraising job. then I went on and did more major gifts and loved it. And I had a lot of success doing that and I've been doing that. and now I'm helping clients. I've started my business in 2018. and I'm telling you these things so that you know where I get off talking about this. Okay? I don't just do this well myself, but I teach people how to do it. but ultimately I really care about the fact that there are so many people in our profession who are terrified to do their jobs and no one is talking about it. And at the time, there was no place for people to go to get the training and the skills that they needed and to actually overcome their fear and talk about the fact that they are afraid to do the thing that they are paid to do. And to me that was absolutely ridiculous. Like, why is no one talking about this? So that's why I created, I program Courage Lab because this work takes courage. Courage, it takes guts. There's no way around that. So if you're looking to out, strategize and outs skill, something that takes guts, you're gonna constantly be frustrated. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Please stop avoiding that fact and just acknowledge that maybe what you need is more courage. I know this because I've been doing this for a long time. There is level at which you no longer need greater courage. If you learn how to raise a million bucks, when you try to raise two or five, you still get butterflies. Yeah. Takes guts. So that's me and that's why I'm all about, I'm on a mission to create a more courageous and generous world. And I believe that fundraising is a very high calling, that it is actually a leadership conversation with people who have influence and resources. And leading them to become the most generous version of themselves. That's what I believe fundraising actually is. so which one of these sounds like you? If you believed any of these things? Okay, this is a list one through seven. Number one, you believe or have told yourself, oh, this donor isn't replying because they don't care. They don't really care that much. I mean, you know, Number two, they're super busy and this just isn't a priority right now. Our organization, what we're doing, eh, you know, it's not a priority. Why would donors wanna meet with me? Have you ever thought that? I don't really have much to bring to the table. These people are so important. Who am I? Number four. This is really common. I don't wanna intrude or overstep, man. Can you imagine if other people in other professions thought that them doing their jobs was intruding? Think about what, what you're saying, right? This is my job, but I believe that it's intrusive. It's wild, right? I don't know what I'm gonna say in a meeting. Why would I even ask for one? Right? Like I, I don't even know how to handle this, so I'm just not even gonna do donor outreach because I don't have a plan and I have no clue how to make a good plan. You don't think your donors actually have much more capacity. Like, can they honestly give more? Eh, probably not. And then seven, you need to accomplish more in your mission before you can meet with certain donors. What I know in, my experience in coaching with dozens and hundreds of people is that these are assumptions and beliefs that we assign to what's happening. We don't hear back from a donor, and so we think these things, they're assumptions, This is an assumption. It's not necessarily rooted in data, unless you're telling me that a donor said to you straight up to your face, this is not a for me right now. Did they tell you that I'm gonna go with No. Most likely they didn't say that or they didn't tell you, you know, unless they said, I can't give more money right now. Right. Then that would be true. Unless they said it, then it's an assumption. So if they say it, if they tell you straight up, Hey Denise, I don't have more money to give. Okay, great. Then guess what? You can keep. it pushing. Move on with your life, this donor touch base with them in three to six months. Now you know where to focus your time. It's helpful to actually know and not waste your energy when you actually get an answer, right? And then you can focus on people who actually can give more. So here's how you overcome that. Consider that you are wrong. I'm wrong about that. I'm wrong about the fact that they don't care. I'm wrong. I'm wrong about the fact that they don't have more to give. I'm wrong about that. Actually. I, project our communities struggling onto our donors struggling when actually you don't have any clue about their financial situation. Actually, you don't have any clue. If they didn't tell you, if it didn't come from their mouth, question it, why am I thinking that they don't have any more capacity? Wait a minute. My job is to raise more money, but I believe that none of my donors can give more. Is that true? Why am I choosing to believe this? Is it because maybe I'm afraid. Is it because I don't wanna hear? No. Is it because I don't actually believe in the mission? I don't think it's the best use of their money. I mean, let's get real. What is it? I don't think that we are worthy of a million dollars. I don't think I'm a leader that is worthy of asking for a million dollars and receiving it. You have to remind yourself they already proved that they care. Absolutely. And if they have given in the past, then they care. Yes. Interrogate every thought that makes you shrink. That's what I want you to hear. If it makes you shrink back. Interrogate that thought. Why am I thinking this? Why am I choosing to believe this? Is this really rooted in data? Meaning, did it come from the donor's mouth? did they tell me straight up? Or is this an assumption that is keeping me small? Keeping our results small, keeping our impacts small and perpetuating the suffering of our community? Because ultimately, when we say no for donors, that's what's happening. We're not the ones who are ultimately paying the price. Our communities are. you have a choice on what you believe about what's true. You have a choice. I want you to first of all, assume the best of your donors. Assume that they care. Assume that they have a lot of money. Assume that this is a priority. Assume that they are going to give again, that they are going to go above and beyond that they are great, passionate, generous people. Assume the very best about them. When you start believing that people don't give a shit, then you start treating them like that. You start treating them subconsciously, like they don't give a shit. Do you hear what I'm saying? When you treat them like they are generous people and you know that they care when you believe that about them, you start writing emails that communicate that message. When you reach out to someone and you believe that they don't actually give a shit, but you are still trying to ask for a meeting that will come through in your email. Like, oh yeah, I know you're a selfish bastard, but you know, will you give me an hour of your time? Would you wanna meet with somebody who, who? You get that sense? Probably not. Probably, probably. You're too busy for that. Probably gonna have to pass on that one. No, thank you. Mm-hmm. Let's just be honest. If you believe really terrible things about your donors or you think, or it doesn't even have to be really terrible, it doesn't have to be that egregious. It could be, you know what? They're just rude or they don't get back to me, this isn't a priority. it's not as much of a priority for them as it is for you because you, you're dedicating your career to this work. But it still can be a priority to them. I want you to assume the best about others. You will raise more money. Not only is it more positive, when people believe the best of others, they're actually more attractive human beings. We want to be around them, right? there's no bigger turnoff than cynicism, but it's pretty easy to do. This one's gonna be even more challenging for you. I want you to assume the best about yourself. Some of you maybe believe really great things about your donors, but you're not totally sold on your worth. And what I want you to hear is that you're gonna get more meetings when you believe that it's a good use of your donor's time to meet with you. If you believe that you are intruding on their time, you won't book meetings. And it has nothing to do with your donor. It has everything to do with you. Do you hear what I'm saying? Some of you are still in the fight for your life and believing if you are worthy and you are working yourself to the bone, trying to prove your worthiness and creating results isn't gonna prove your worthiness. You already got results, babe. You made it this far. When would be a good time for you to just believe I'm worthy of meeting with rich people and raising millions of dollars? The reason I'm not getting the results, the reason that I'm working so many hours and working myself to the bone, and I'm not getting the results based on all the work I'm putting in, it's freaking personal, dude. I know this. I want you to assume the best about yourself. I want you to walk away from this thinking. If I get 30 minutes, Of Oprah's time. It's a good use of Oprah's time. Isn't that audacious? Do I mean, do you really believe what you're doing is worth your life? Do you believe in your mission? Do you believe that when people spend time with you that their life gets better? Do you believe that you have a unique value add when you meet with people, when they get to know you and you get to know them? Do you believe that? I know I do. Do you sense that this is legit? This is for real. I'm telling you that you can believe this about yourself. That's what it's gonna take. I can tell you this. I can tell you that you're worthy. I can tell you that it's a unique value add. I can tell you that for some of you, your donors go to their buddies on the golf course or wherever they go and hang out, and they're bragging about the fact that they're involved with your organization. And some of you can't wrap your head around this. They're like, oh yeah, you know, look at all the charity work I do. They're bragging about meeting with you, dude. Do you hear what I'm saying? you are worthy to raise millions of dollars. Absolutely. Damn, straight. Tell 'em. If they meet with me, their life is gonna get better if they meet with me. I am adding meaning and purpose and significance and connection and community and love into their life. What is that worth? And I have been on so many donor meetings, well over a thousand at this point. I mean, I could tell you that there are so many people who have wealth, I'm in Los Angeles, who have fame, who have achieved all of their dreams, and they are divorced or they are devoid of relationships. They don't see their kids. They have success from the outside, and they're looking for meaning. And you are full of meaning. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? When would be a good time to actually agree that you are worthy and you have tremendous value? How about now? So let's get to the tactical pieces. Three biggest mistakes. You're not asking for enough meetings. You're asked stink, and you ain't asking the wrong people. Now, I can't fix all of these things for you today. That's why I have a program called Courage Lab. This is what we cover. I help you to get meetings to close 10, 20 and 40 K gifts. I can't do that in an hour with you, okay? So you need to get Inside Courage Lab. If you are struggling to raise major gifts, that program is for you. If you're new to Major Gifts, it's a course and a training, and you get me as your coach connected to peers. You can go on my website, julia ard.com. Okay. You can learn more about that. We're gonna talk about one and two today, really. So, and primarily we're gonna spend a lot of time on two, because even if you don't increase the frequency, I want you to increase the quality. So here's some, some practical things because I guarantee that you haven't tried everything. Okay? This is where you take notes Your emails should start out with thanking them specifically, and please don't say I'm reaching out today because I would like to thank you for bl. Just say, start out with the words. Thank you. Thank you, Jackie, for donating this year and changing lives with us. That is a great first sentence. personalize everything. If you start out a mother loving email with dear friend or there is no personalization, why in the hell do you expect someone to give you a major gift? And some of you personalize it. but the only thing personalized is the first name. That also sucks because it looks like it's just a copy and paste job. Babe, that doesn't feel good. Hey, could you give $10,000? And also the only thing personalized here is your first name. Get to the point. Some of you, your request for a meeting is like hidden in these super long paragraphs and it's like somewhere in, it's like homework to figure out what is going on in this email because it's just too long. It should be like so to the point, like get to the point. You know what I'm saying? You need to have a purpose for the meeting and you need to spell it out. Some of you need to say, I wanna meet with you to talk to you about your donation. Like they need to know straight up. You're gonna ask them for money. Some of them you need to say like, Hey, I wanna meet with you because you've been donating for 12 years and we need to report back to you. The difference that you have made, your loyalty is unmatched. And it's my job to meet with our most loyal donors follow up with that person. If they've been giving for a long time and nobody's met with them, or nobody's met with them in a while or whatever, like just don't give up. Just reach out to them every seven to 10 days. That's what I would do. That person who's loyal like that, they're totally worth your effort. I have only one purpose. Some of you are asking for a meeting, you're asking for a donation. You're asking for them to attend an event you're asking for. I'm like, oh my gosh. There is nothing that screams poverty mindset like that. Garbage. Please stop it. One purpose. There is one reason you are emailing them. What is the main reason you are? Do you want a meeting? Do you want want them to donate? Which one is it? Tell him why them. Now, this is part of the Julia or Don's secret sauce. Why them specifically personalize the shit out of this email? Why this person? Like why them? is it because you know that they've been on the boards of housing organizations for over 25 years and you can see that on LinkedIn and you, you admire how they value and prioritize philanthropy and you think that they're, just completely mission aligned with what You see what I'm saying? It's so personalized to that human being poverty mindset, meaning like, I've gotta get everything in this email because we're not gonna have much time with them. We're, we're not gonna be able to build a relationship. We're not gonna get a meeting. So we gotta get everything in this email. We gotta just dump all the information, just tell them everything and just get everything out there right now in this one email. And it's just like, eh, you know, it, it's okay. Like, you could chill, you know? There, there's, there's time, there's space. It's okay. Ask for 20 minutes of their time. you know, very rarely when I ask for 20 minutes, do I end up with only 20 minutes. It usually we hit it off and they somehow have an hour available. But if you're asking for an hour upfront, I mean, I don't know, maybe not. You know what I'm saying? they're like thinking, what am I gonna do with you for an hour? If I've never met you, I don't know you. Do I wanna give you an hour of my time? Here's the deal with fundraisers. And then major donors. Major donors know that they can make money anytime that they need to make money. Their money is making money while they're sleeping. Time is something they can't get back. But fundraisers typically have a different point of view. We are so willy-nilly with our time, but we think that there's such a scarce amount of money and you're coming from a different point of view than your donor. When really we should be giving a, premium on asking for their time, which is why I send people handwritten notes for them donating their time to me. That's time they didn't spend with their It's time they weren't with their partner. It's time that they can't get back 10 grand. They can make that. You see what I'm saying? and if you can't get to the point in 20 minutes, then you need to work on your plan. You need to have a better plan. Offer dates and times in your email. At least three of 'em within the next month. do the work for them. If you're asking them to come on a tour, tell them we do tours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 10 and three. I'm available anytime you can come, go to them, like physically go like, Hey, I, I even mentioned in the email. I'm like, yeah, I know that you live in Pasadena, so I'm happy to come to a coffee shop near you. up in one sentence, so you ask for the meeting, you don't hear Send them a follow up email seven to 10 days later and say, Hey, I'd still really love to meet with you. You know, something personal. Why? Why them? What is the unique value add that they bring? Why them? And if the reason why them is because they're rich, then get a new why them. You actually need to get to know this person, and you can, you can look 'em up on LinkedIn. You can find them online, right? There's so much that's available. Look in your C R m. Look. Look it up. Even if it's not obvious, like, if you look in the C R M, they've come to the last three events that you guys did, or they came to the last three volleyball games, or they came to a tour two years ago, but they haven't been back since. Hey, I know you came to a tour two years ago. I'd love for you to come back and see the changes that you've made possible. You're gonna be so proud of this. That's it. That is the follow up email, what I just said. You see, it's like freaking one sentence. Like, just get to the point and then write like they do. So if they really love data and they've expressed that to you, or if they write like, hello Sophia, hope you're having a great Tuesday, blah, blah. Write, if they write like that, then write like that. If they don't write like that, stop writing. Like that. Follow up as in like the follow up email when you don't get a reply the first time you ask for a meeting. How do you keep track of all the folks you're waiting to hear back from so they don't fall through the cracks? go through your scent box and see, there's lots of ways you use your c r m to track who's within your portfolio and who you're responsible for getting a gift from, who you're meeting with. however you wanna keep track of it, so here's a sample, hey, thank you so much. Here's a clear, thank you. Right? you can introduce yourself. You could just say, you know, I'm Julie with News Story. You don't have to be like, go into a whole thing, right? They're gonna meet with you, so they're gonna get to know you. Here's what I do. Love to chat and learn why you give. I mean, this is super generic template, right? But I, I want you to make it your own. Here's some times that work for me. So there's a clear ask and it's a short amount of time. You could say, when's a good time for you do you have 20 minutes in the month of May? You know, you could make it time bound like that. Now we're gonna go to look at some case studies So from what, we've gone through already, what is your biggest takeaway so far? What is a change that you need to implement that you already know? Like this is one tweak that I can make. Shorter emails. Keeping it simple. And ask for the meeting. 20 minute meeting asks. assume big and best. Be courageous. Include dates and follow up within seven days. Why them? More personalized persistence and shorter emails. Here is case study one. So the subject line is finding a time to visit with you in December. This is to a donor who gave, right this year has been a year of abundance for our organization. We're grateful for you. And then here's some stats you provided one-on-one support for 53 high school seniors who are at risk of dropping out. Great. This is really awesome. Congratulations on all of this amazing work. Love it. Raquel and I would love to find a time to connect with you, share more about our impact, learn from you about your priorities and how you might be able to continue to support our success for next year. Do you have 45 to 60 minutes during December 6th through ninth, or the 14th through 16 that we could visit you? And then PS And there was a flyer attached about adopting a family for Christmas this email did not get a reply. and so that was why it was submitted. So here is my rewrite, of how I think it could be even stronger. Like, I don't think this is a bad email. Okay. This is a good email. but you know, didn't get a reply. So let's kind of the purpose of sending it. So here's my rewrite. I changed the subject. I gave you a few options. So they're really personalized. Wic. Thank you. That's an option. WIC would love to meet you. Wic, you've changed Taylor's life. You'll see what that means in a second. WIC available to me. Wic, let's meet. These are all better. why? Because they're personalized, because it's clear and it's personalized and it's engaging. I know now that this is not a copy and paste job. So wic, thank you. Right. Strong start. If it says your name, if it says Chris, Cynthia, Megan Hawley. Elizabeth. Wendy, if it said your name and then thank you. You're gonna be more inclined to keep reading. Yes, You have helped change lives so kids like Taylor can graduate on time. You can take any stat and turn it into a story in one sentence or two. So I made this up. I don't even know if this is true. This is totally made up. Taylor went from living in his car with his mom to graduating with a 3.8 G p a, and on track to college. You helped to change the trajectory of Taylor's life. Thank you. Do you think this person's gonna keep reading? This is how you can quickly tell a story and stories hands down are better than stats. Stats are great, but it starts to feel a little bit like a report. And unless WIC tells you, you know what, Sophia, send me stats all day, baby. Send me all the stats. I love the stats, but I'm guessing maybe WIC didn't say that. Stories of one. Person's life being changed. We connect to a lot easier and we find our story in their story. We're inspired by one story. So if you wanted to include a stat, you could say Taylor is just one student of the 239 in our program. You see how I did that? Quick, easy. Here it is in bold. I would love to meet with you in the coming weeks to share more about our impact and learn how you'd like to be involved moving forward. Clear. When works for you for a 20 minute coffee in the coming weeks below a few options. I'm happy to come. Wherever's most convenient for you. I believe you live in Culver City. I made this up. That's obvious that I made it up, isn't it? thanks again. And then the PS. I said you can sponsor Christmas for families like Taylor and his mom by clicking here, Bosky. what do you notice about this email that's just a little bit different? Short and to the point. It's tighter bolded the action, more personal, your impact rather than our impact. And you know what, some of you know this like, when you build relationships with people, they start using our impact, right? They start saying, we, but until you get to that place of ownership with the donor, you do need to say you like, Hey, you did this. You helped us to do this. There's nothing wrong with that. Just like you as the fundraiser, you as the leader have an impact on the organization as well. You ready for case study two? so this is a lapsed donor and we got no reply here. So here we go. Subject line is your impact with soda. Hi Ruth. I wanted to reach out to let you know how I appreciate your donation of a thousand dollars at the end of 21. I tried to get in touch with you at the end of this past year, but I'm not sure if my emails went through as I didn't hear back. I hope everything is okay. Sarah went through Courage Lab, so she knows my hack that I hope everything is okay. Usually gets a reply. If you have somebody who you've reached out to like so many times, more than four or five and they haven't replied, I think it's great to just actually care if they are okay. If it's someone who you've met with before, like Ruth has met with Sarah previously, they have a relationship, so it would make sense to actually be like a caring person. Like, Hey, hope you're all right. I was just talking to a student named Lola, who became passionate about organ donation after her brother passed away and was an organ donor. Her story reminded me of my own, and it made me think of the conversation we had just over a year ago in your connection to organ donation. Because of Soda, Lola is now able to share Daniel's story, that's her brother who passed with her community and to get her peers involved. Not only does Lola get to learn valuable leadership skills, she honors her brother's legacy. with more than 106,000 people waiting, this work is urgently needed. I wanna invite you to contribute 2,500 to soda to make sure students like Lola can continue to make a life-saving impact through 2023. Thank you for your consideration, support. Clear ass personal story. Very personal. Yeah, man, I love the story. Isn't that gorgeous? Ugh, it's so great. Recalled a past conversation with the donor. Yes. That is a pro move. So here's my rewrite. Here's some subject lines. Ruth. Hope you are okay. Everything. Okay. Ruth would love to reconnect. Ruth thinking of you, right? You can decide like these are all different levels of intensity. Like Ruth thinking of you. That's kind of nice and it's true. She was thinking of her. Why not say that? Hi, Ruth. I get right to the point, but this is again, this is more my style and this is effective. Hi, Ruth. I've emailed a few times and haven't heard back. Hope you're okay. I just spoke with a student, Lola, and her story reminded me of you and our conversation. Lola became passionate about organ donation after her brother passed away and was an organ donor. She now tells her brother's story and has gotten her friends to become organ donors. She is a leader at her school while honoring her brother's legacy. This is the work we do together at Soda, and I couldn't be prouder. I hope you feel proud too. You helped make this possible. I know you care deeply about this work, positive intent that I'm assuming I'm assuming the best here, and I'm saying it and want to make stories like Lola's the norm For that reason, will you consider donating 2,500 this year to help us save even more lives? You can easily make your donation by clicking here. As I know in the past you have given online. This is so customized and it's like, I know you Ruth baby, and you cannot escape from me knowing you. You hear what I'm saying? I'm like, I know how you like to donate. I know when you like to donate. I know that you care. This story is connected to your story. We had a conversation about it. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Also, The first email, these paragraphs are chunky. It's harder to read, and if they're in a rush, they're not gonna read the whole thing. I've broken it up, and so that each line is basically a new paragraph. It's just easier to read. And you could bold part of this, right? You could bold this part. You helped make this possible. You could bold this part. I know you care deeply. You could bold the ask. Will you consider? Okay. Study three. Subject, hello from the City Academy. Good afternoon. My name is Jesse Goodhart and I am the new director of development at City Academy. I wanna introduce myself and thank you for your past support. Your support means so much to City Academy and our scholars. Thank you. It looks like you haven't been in for a tour recently. If you have some time, I would love to invite you in for a school tour to show you how we've grown. Let me know if I can set something up for you. Best, Jesse. Okay, so it's short, man, I gotta tell you. I do like that. Ooh, I love it. Just does it for me. Somebody sends me a short email and they get right to the point, man. I'm like, I like you. I do. I like you. When we send long emails, it's kind of like, where do you get off being so presumptuous that I'm gonna read this whole thing? People send you long emails and you're like, oh, good lord, I'm gonna have to read that later. I don't have time. I don't have the brain power. You say a prayer, you say, God, help me. This is a long ass email. The ask is vague. gets to the point. Click friendly. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a lot of exclamation points for my taste, but hey, you do you Jesse. I like it. Okay. This seems like your style and you own that. I like that. I like it. So here's my rewrite subject. I gave you several options here. Bill would love to have you for a private tour. Are you noticing that every subject line has their first name? Stop talking about mail merges. If these people can give you $10,000. Freaking spend 30 minutes and write one really great email. Isn't that worth 10 K? The things that raise the most money do not scale. It's highly individualized, highly customized, high touch. So, okay, bill, you're invited. Bill, you gotta see this bill. Schedule your private tour. You are invited to City Academy A. Any of these I like, I think that it's solid. Bill, I'm Jesse Goodhart and I'm the new director of development at City Academy. Thank you so much for your seven years of loyal support of our scholars. As you know, we're the only all scholarship private school in St. Louis, and you help make our unique model possible. I'd love to host you for a private tour of our campus and share our exciting plans for growth. Feel free to bring one of your kids or a guest with you. I, I made that up. I don't even know if they have kids. I just, you know, I'm making it personal. I think you'll be proud to see students thrive and the updates we've made to the campus. This could be cool to like, include a cool photo of something like, I don't know, you know, kind of go do a little teaser. When would work best for you in the next couple of months? I'm available most Tuesday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to noon. I look forward to meeting you and thanking you in person Best, Jesse. So what do you notice about this? Very personal and shares impact. Less passive, high touch, private, personal. The call to action is concrete, acknowledged a number of years as a donor. Indeed. That is something that if you have the data on that included in every meeting, ask that you make, especially if you're asking for a meeting for the first time, honor them, create a culture of honor, celebrate loyalty, and you will get more of it. That is a hack to building culture. If some of you celebrate the shit out of volunteerism and you have volunteers coming out of your ears, but you actually don't need more volunteers, what you actually need are donors. So start celebrating when people give and you will have more people giving. What we wanna do is make it so easy for Bill to reply and be like, this sounds great. Absolutely. Doesn't it make it a lot easier to reply and just quickly pick a date and a time? Right. Okay. So those are the three case studies and let's move into q and a. Yes, Rachel. Hello. I am wondering what kinds of things you recommend bringing to a meeting. I have a lot of board members who are like, we're not ready to ask for meetings because we don't have our case statement or whatever, whatever prepared. And I'm wondering how prepared, other than confidence and knowing what you're gonna ask for, you would recommend being. Yeah. So, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my best to answer it, but that's a, that's a whole other. Conversation. Right. That's why I have a program called Courage Lab. You should check that out, Rachel. If you don't know what to do in your donor meetings, you need to have a plan and have an objective. What is the point of this meeting? What are we trying to, uh, get accomplished in it? Are we trying to get a gift? Are we trying to build a relationship? Are we trying to ask them to consider being a board member? Are we trying to get them to host an event in their home? What is the purpose of this meeting? And define that and get everybody on the same page in terms of like, what do you prepare? Definitely you need to do some research on who this donor is I like to center meetings around two or three main questions. What is it that I'm going to learn about this donor if I'm meeting them for the first time, why do they give, find that out. how do they wanna be involved moving forward? What do they like about your mission? I mean, these are all things that you should know. I hope that's helpful. I can't possibly answer it even in five minutes, Rachel. It's a whole training and, and you need to get training on that if you don't know what to do. And if your board members are telling you what you need in donor meetings, then you really need to invest in your training because they don't really need to be doing that. Like, that's your job and you delegate to them what their role is in a donor meeting. Yeah. Jackie, more success in requesting, and securing meetings over the phone or email. Listen, I like the phone and my program, courage Lab, that's the very first thing that you do is I teach you to pick up the phone and actually have a conversation on the phone and you close a 10 K gift in the first week because the phone is way better than email. You could turn any of these emails into phone scripts if you want to. Like that is always an option. If someone's not replying to you, you could just call them up and leave a voicemail like, Hey Allison, I emailed you. Thought I would just follow up here as well if in case that's easier, right? You've been giving for seven years and I'd really love to meet with you and I'm hoping that you have 20 minutes in the next month. I'd love to share how you've helped us to change lives. Here's my number. So you could easily just shift all of these templates that we went through into a phone call or a voicemail. You could easily do that. I mean, I find that if people are ignoring emails, I try to connect with them on LinkedIn and send them a note like, Hey, reach out for a meeting. Really looking forward to meeting you and getting to know you. I call them if we have their number, I might text them. Just depends on who it is and what I think the donor's gonna respond to. But yeah, I mean, the phone is great and it's more effective than email, in my opinion. But again, it depends on who your donor is. And you can know the best way forward based on who you're talking to. Right? Like who is your audience? Couple more questions. Hi. So this is Nancy. I think that Mackenzie and I judging by the chat, have the same question, which is do you have specific ideas around how to tailor this if we don't actually already have a relationship with this person? Like they haven't donated yet. This is a new prospect. so yeah, that comes down to like identifying who, is a good match. are you thinking that they're a prospect because, they already give to organizations like yours, like they care about your cause and your work? Like, are they a big environmentalist? And you know that, and that's an obvious fit, right? but if they're, somebody that is just a rich person out there, they probably get hit up a lot and they're gonna smell that a mile away. So I think it comes down to identifying why them, and then telling them that explicitly in your communication why you want to meet with them. It's not just that you're an executive at K P M G and I know you have a lot of money. Do you hear what I'm saying? Like, we need to actually like see people. Hello Allison. Hi. I am curious if you could expand a bit on follow up cadence. thanks for kind of giving that like seven to 10 day, for a follow up. But what would you do if they don't follow up to that? And maybe like a phone call, do you add them to just touchpoints or, I'm, I'm curious how you approach that. What do you currently do Alison? I usually will do the initial, email, follow up email, and I will mix in a phone call in there. I don't currently utilize LinkedIn, so I'll definitely be adding that. after a couple, I might just kind of move them into a touchpoint and share a, an email update when, or do a mailing kind of touchpoint. Kinda sounds like your emails are long. Would you say that Alison, I've gotten better at shortening them, but they could find So the answer's yes. Yes. So, so the answer's yes. Okay. So Allison, cut your email in half and then cut it in half again. And then you're gonna be more likely to get a response. So, you know, cadence, you can decide you could follow up with somebody once a week. If I think that they really are a mission aligned, strong fit, I will totally follow up with them once a week. And I will tell them that the reason I continue to reach out to you is because I think you really care about this. I've even said that to people in one sentence, right? The follow up is one or two sentences max. Hey, I'm following up with you cuz I think you, you really care about this and I'd love to meet and learn more about you. I'd follow up again the next week. Hey Allison, I think you really care. I know you're committed to this work. I'm not gonna go away as I laugh, ominously, you know, you could say something about, you could say like, I've said this to a donor too. I'm like, am I wrong? And I just leave it at that and see if they reply to that. I don't know. Get creative, have fun. Try to actually build relationships with people over email, and then you'll be more likely to build relationship with them in person too. my sense for you, Allison, is that you're very professional in your emails and just like put that in the garbage and actually talk like how you talk when you meet with someone and write like that. So don't try to be perfect. Don't try to get it right. Don't try to be professional or put on your work voice, speak like Allison and try to connect with another human being. I'll take one more question. Bill, um, texting. Are there issues with texting that I should be aware of? I mean, in my experience, it's up to you if you wanna share your number. I don't know if your organization reimburses you for the use of your cell phone. You know, and if you use your phone a lot in your work, then yeah, great. Share your cell phone number, with the donor and let them know, like, you can call me or text me directly here's my number. You know, I do that. But it's, it's your discretion. If you've never met the person and you don't know them, then probably not texting them. Probably calling is better, but. if you already have a meeting, then it's not strange to text in terms of, oh, I'm running five minutes late. I'm here early. Where are you? I'm wearing the blue striped shirt, blah, blah. You get it right? So if you're actually meeting in person, then it makes sense that you would, you would text Thanks everyone. If you are interested in Courage Lab, you wanna learn more about that. there are cohorts that are gonna be in September. You can get on the wait list for that on my website. And then if you want more support, if you're like looking to build a customized strategy, you're interested in having me as your fundraising coach and you wanna raise your largest six or seven figure gifts, then I have a program for that where I work with you one-on-one. It's super fun. And then I also offer 90 minute intensives. So if you just want to have a one-off session with me where we go through your pitch, you can do pitch practice, I can do some of these email audits with you, co-write things with you, get ready for a really important meeting, and prepare a plan for that meeting. that's also an option. So if that's something you're interested in, those are the ways you can work with me. I hope this is super helpful to you all. Have a great day. Thank you so much for everybody who shared your emails. You guys are the best. You're very brave and I appreciate you and I hope you get all the meetings, get all the meetings. Thanks everyone.