Raise a $10k Gift With One Email

What is it? Who is it for? And I wanna be able to help you out if it's for you. Um, I wanna help you to make a decision. A decision couldn't be yes. A decision could be no. I just wanna be really clear about this. The reason that I created this program is because of my mission in life because of who I am and my values and what I'm committed to. I am on a mission to help nonprofit leaders change the world faster. We have, there is so much tremendous wealth.

We have access to so many wealthy, generous people. The bottleneck for changing our communities is us. It is leaders who are afraid to ask for more and they need courage and they need the right strategy to raise major gifts. So that's my mission. And I fulfill that mission in part. Through my program, courage lab. It is a place where you can strengthen your courage muscle and take bold action to raise major gifts.

When I say major gifts, I mean $10,000 or more from individuals, it's a six week program. You get major gifts training on. how do identify, who are the right donors, how to have, and get meetings with those donors, how to ask them for more strategy, your overall strategy for your fundraising in major gifts messaging. Best practices, coaching on your mindset. A lot of you need that help and daily accountability from me as your expert coach and your mentor and peers.

Some of you desperately need peers in this space. You're trying to go it alone. And so that's why this is a group cohort. Cohorts are usually eight leaders. So who is this for? If you have individual donors who are giving a thousand dollars, $2,000, $5,000 a year, and, you know, they could give way more. If you can admit that fear holds you back and you know that you need, and you want a new mindset and a new relationship towards fund. And you have a big vision. You want to expand your impact.

You wanna serve more people. You wanna serve your community in a deeper way, and you don't really know how to get there. You don't know how to raise the money, the unrestricted revenue that you need, the flexible cash in the door to create that vision, to create that higher level impact. And, you know, you need to focus on major gifts than. Episode particularly is for you. If that sounds like you.

So I, I want you to imagine being able to actually enjoy fundraising and getting real results fast, like making one phone call and getting a 10 K gift. Imagine being able to. Imagine being effective. imagine sending emails to donors and getting responses and actually booking meetings with people who are mission aligned and they're ready to give major gifts to your mission. Imagine simplifying your fundraising efforts. Maybe it feels really complex and overwhelming. Right now.

Imagine a simple system. That is simple for you for your boss, for your board members, for your leaders to follow. Imagine one hour of work resulting in a $10,000 gift of unrestricted money cash in the door. Imagine not having to work hours and weeks on grant writing and ending up getting $0. No more of. Imagine feeling good about fundraising and having confidence in your ability to communicate your vision and make an ask confidently to the right people and scaling your impact.

As a result, you can serve more students, you can serve more families, you can serve more veterans, more animals and saving hours of time. Every. And knowing how to identify the highest ROI opportunities, the highest opportunities that are gonna get you a return on investment and eliminating and delegating. The rest that world I just described is what I help my clients get in courage lab. Those are the results and the new reality that they get to live.

As a result of going through my program, the thing that I hear the most, there were two things that I hear the most as to what stops people from joining courage lab. And the first is it's not in the budget. So I wanna think through that with you, because that's what I do. I'm a coach, I'm a strategist. I'm a thought partner. I'm a mentor. So let's think through. That paying for courage lab is not in your budget. Well, how do things get built into the budget?

Maybe there's board approval, maybe you get your boss's approval. Maybe you look at your professional development budget and it's skinny. Maybe it's like a thousand dollars or less than that. Maybe it's $200 a year per staff person. And part of how things get built into the budget. Is by increasing the budget. Right? Well, let's plan for it next year and we just need to raise more money. But the thing is, you don't know how to raise the money for the goals you have now.

And my program is all about teaching you how to raise more money. Some people say, well, we need more time to build it into the. let's think through that. Do you really need more time to do what hasn't been working? I don't think so. If you haven't invested in training and major gifts strategy, then how are you gonna raise more money for your budget and build it into your budget? What is your plan? Like? What is your plan to raise more money? How are you going to build it into the.

You don't need more time to do that, which isn't working. You need to invest in training and strategy. If you don't have training or strategy, because you are busy doing a lot of things that are not working and you need a different playbook and you have to invest. Now for those of you who say it's not in the budget. I know what to do already. I know I'm gonna start calling donors. I'm gonna start getting meetings. I'm gonna start asking for more, Julie, I'm so inspired by your podcast.

I'm on your mailing list. I follow you on LinkedIn. I'm gonna take action then. Why don't you do it? If you know what to do to raise more and you don't do it, let's think through that. It's usually because you're trying to go it alone. You have told yourself that you should be able to figure this out all on your own. You don't have any mentorship and you don't have any community. And guess what?

In order to become great in order to get bigger results in your fundraising, you don't just need to learn new skills and habits. Although that is exactly what we. You need to become someone new. And if you need to become someone new, I'll tell you, you need to be a courageous leader. Courage needs to be a habit for you. If you wanna raise more money, it takes guts to ask for six figures. It takes guts to ask for seven. I know that's the level that I'm at personally, and it took guts to get.

I'm afraid all the time, but I have a habit of jumping off the cliff and taking decisive action. And that's why I'm so confident because even if I get a no, I know that a yes is coming, being afraid. Doesn't stop me from taking action. It usually signals. Okay. Now's the time to decide, to commit, to go, to jump, to leap, to take the risk. Pick up the phone and call the donor and ask for more fear is a signal to me to take action.

Not what some of you are doing, which is talking yourself out of taking action. When you are afraid, this is how we're hardwired. So it's not your fault. And I don't want you to judge yourself here. Okay. The way that we become more courageous is we get around courageous people and we learn the habits of the courageous. We learn how to think, like courageous people, you here's what's happening when. You see courage lab, you know, that this program can help you.

And what happens is your primitive brain kicks in and is trying to protect you, protect you from risk and from failure. And so what you need to do is learn the skill of your evolved brain, having last word, when it comes to taking risk and investment, investing in yourself, what that looks like is. Your primitive brain is saying, it's not in the budget. This is too much of a risk. We don't have time to do this. And so this is not a sure thing. I can't justify spending money on this.

The budget is really tight. We have so much to do. We're overwhelmed. It's not gonna work for us. Maybe someday later. That's your primitive brain protecting you. It's fine. We're wired this way to protect ourselves from risk, from failure, from embarrassment, from screwing up and getting it wrong. And you can build the skill of your evolved brain saying, I know that you're afraid and that's totally normal.

I know that this is a new thing that you're doing and I have a plan we're we're going to trust. That we can do this with the right support and the right accountability and the right strategy. It can work for us. So even though we're afraid we're gonna just move forward anyway, because we're committed to growth. Your budget is a tool for growth. Your budget is not meant to handcuff you to keep your impact small. And for some of you, that's exactly how you relate to your budget.

Well, the budget is small and money is tight. And so we stay small. There's a distinction also that you need to understand between expenses and investment savvy investors know that in order to make money, you need to. That investments have an ROI. This is an investment in you. There is no more of a sure thing than investing in you. You are the leader who got to where you are, and in order to grow, you need to become someone new, someone courageous, you are capable of doing so much.

You're capable of greatness. And the greatest invest in their training and their mindset and their growth. Me personally, I invest in an awesome business coach. My husband and I both have invested over a hundred thousand dollars in my business, in myself, in becoming the best coach and the best fundraiser and strategist that I could possibly be. I went into business in 2018 that's four years ago. I could tell you, you reap what you sow.

I believe that to be true in this world, if you sew very little into your major gift, skillset and training and how, and learning these habits, you will reap little results. And it's an ROI investment because my program promise is that you will raise a $10,000. In six weeks or less, or your money back, I can make a bold claim like that because I have helped dozens of leaders to do exactly that and go far above and beyond. Let me give you some examples.

My client Monica went through courage lab, never been trained in major gifts before really good at corporate giving, which is a completely different type of giving. She raised $225,000. In three months, she came to me as a VP of development and said, I have imposter syndrome. And I think you can help me overcome my imposter syndrome. She was so afraid to pick up the phone and call donors. She hardly ever did it. Week one of my program, she picks up the phone.

She calls someone that she is certain is not going to. And that person on the phone that donor agrees to give her a 10 grand gift. So you can be certain that people are not going to give and you can be completely wrong. I'll show you. I do this every day in my courage lab program. Stephan, nonprofit, founder. Week one of the program, he raises $10,000 gift from sending one email.

Of course you learn how to write emails that actually get responses in my program, Bernie, she raises $63,000 in one month in her first ever campaign attracting multiple 10 K gifts first. April. She was a major gifts manager. That was her title. She got 15 donors who were giving a total of $4,000 to increase their giving to 50 K. This is annually from 4k to 50 K in my program. McKenzie, young fundraiser early twentie. She got 80% of her major donors to increase their giving. 80% of her donors.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? Claire also brand new fundraiser started her nonprofit just mere months before joining courage lab. She hemmed and hawed at the price. She said, oh, this is a really big risk for me. Oh my gosh. I cannot, I can't do. She raised over $60,000. She raised 35 K in less than six weeks from four donors. And she had been raising money for, I think, five months ever. She was new to the nonprofit world and totally afraid.

And after the program, she was begging me to raise my price. So the same person who was hemming and hawing about how expensive it was, was telling me, Julie, this is a steal. You need to raise the price. So I did. If you wanted to get that price, you should have signed up last year. The value is immense here. My client, Chris raised his first $10,000 gift within six weeks from one. That's just a few people that have gone through this program.

There are people in big markets, small markets doesn't matter where you are located. Doesn't matter. I know that you have donors who can and will give more and I will teach you how to simply raise more money. So the second thing that I hear outside of, it's not in the budget is I don't have time. So if price is not an objection for you, it's usually time. And this is a big one for everybody. If you don't have time and you're overwhelmed and you can't take on anything else.

And so you say, Julie, I really wanna do courage lab. I know it's gonna help me, but I just can't do it right now. It's too busy. Let's do it in the spring. Please put me on the list for the spring I'm in for the spring. Here's the deal. Here's the problem with that. If you are not raising enough money and you don't have time, then I know one thing for sure, you are doing a lot of things that don't raise money. So if you wait till the spring, there's a few things that happen.

You will be a, you will be a year behind. Because the giving season for major gifts is Q4 it's October, November, and December. And that's why I run a fall cohort because 30% of all charitable giving in the us happens in the month of December. Do not wait until the spring and continue this path that you are on of not raising enough money through the end of the year and miss the biggest giving season of the year and be another year behind. If you are overwhelmed, you're doing too much.

You can't imagine adding more to your plate, but you don't know how to raise 10 K gifts regularly, then you cannot afford to wait. First of all, I don't even know if I'm gonna do a spring cohort. So there's no guarantee the opportunity may pass for you, and you need to learn how to prioritize your time, because you're doing a lot of things that aren't raising money. If you're overwhelmed and you don't have enough money, you have to learn the skill of not being overwhelmed.

You have to learn the skill of how to stop talking yourself out of doing things that are actually gonna raise you more money. You can't will yourself to do what you're afraid to do all alone in a vacuum. That's not how it works. That's not how we become somebody new. You are someone. If you made it this far, you talk yourself out of calling donors of reaching. All the time. That's your habit. You need a coach. You need a mentor. That's me.

You need to see other people prioritizing courage and major gifts as well. You need coaching. You need community, you need accountability. And to connect with your peers, maybe you believe that you should have to do this alone and you just need to figure it. Well, how is that working for you? I don't think you really wanna do this alone. I think you crave community. I think you want to connect with your peers. You long to be more courageous. I can show you how to do that.

If you're too busy, you're prioritizing the wrong things and you need to learn the skill of how to prioritize the right things and simplify what you're doing. You need to learn the skill of not being overwhelmed. Have you considered that? That is a skill. Have you considered that there are people with more responsibility, bigger teams, higher goals, and they are not overwhelmed. Are you open to another way? You're overwhelmed because you don't know how to not be overwhelmed.

That's why it's an inside job. My friend, you think that overwhelm is a product of all that you have on your. The reason you have so much on your plate is because you're over committed and you don't keep your promises to yourself. Let me explain to you what I mean. I typically work with leaders who prioritize expectations of others and keeping their word to others over keeping their word to themselves. This erodes their self-confidence. This perpetuates imposter syndrome.

And so you need to learn how to not be overwhelmed and take it one step at a time and keep your word to yourself. And that will build your confidence. When you keep your word to yourself, for instance, like saying I'm gonna call 27 donors today. When yesterday you called zero donors the day before you called zero donors. You don't keep your word. You don't end up calling 27 donors. You don't end up calling any donors and that just chips away at your confidence.

And then you don't have the energy within, because it's been sucked out of you by not keeping your word to take risks, moving forward. It's a, it's a cycle that you can get out of. If you think that raising more money. Hiring more staff is the solution to not being overwhelmed. I got news for you, my friend. That's not true. If you hire more people to help you, you will just end up scaling the culture of overwhelmed in your organization. Think about it.

If you are overwhelmed with less, you have less funding. You have less team members to help fewer staff. Smaller goals, less responsibility. When you get more, how will you overcome being overwhelmed? You'll just be overwhelmed when you have more. I teach the skills of not being overwhelmed and simplifying your fundraising efforts so that you actually do them. You've gotta learn how to say no. Draw up some boundaries and bring focus. To your highest ROI opportunities and forget all the rest.

Forget it. If it's not raising money, forget it. Do only the things that raise money. So if you are ready to invest in yourself, get a new mindset. Get the right major gift strategy. I want you to join me inside courage lab. The doors are. I am recording this on September 17th. And by the time you are hearing this, you will have five days to sign up for the fall cohort. Your primitive brain is gonna try to talk you out of this and protect you.

And that same voice is the voice that talks you out of raising more money. And I can help you build the habit of your evolved brain, having the last word and having a plan for when you're. When you wanna stay small because it's too big of a risk to invest in yourself. Being scared is okay, but it is not reason enough to not ask for more and to not invest in yourself. Action leads to confidence. Not the other way around fear is exhaust.

It is draining you and it is keeping your impact small and your team small and your vision, small courage and committing to taking decisive. Bold action is actually invigorating. It is energizing. Once you decide I'm in this and I'm gonna do my very best, and I'm going to trust that I can create new results and I can become someone. That is energizing. That energy creates momentum.

Some of you are not confident because you keep telling yourself someday knowing that that day will never come and you talk yourself out of risk all the time. It's time for that to end. That's how I know that my program can help. I designed it for you. If you constantly break your word to yourself, this is for you because you will thrive with daily accountability in building the right habits. If you know, that's you, I want you to go and sign up right now.

There is an affordable monthly payment plan. There are options. You can do this. I know I can help. Go sign up right now. Go to nonprofit courage, lab.com, nonprofit courage, lab.com and click on, learn more about courage lab, and I will see you inside the program.