Face-To-Face Fundraising Tips For Nonprofits

The window of opportunity before the end of the tax year places a tremendous amount of stress on fundraisers, resulting in an overwhelming amount of email appeals, direct mail, donor events, social media blasts, phone calls, and even face-to-face encounters.

My work with nonprofits actually requires me to understand the fundraising cycle and the experience of being a donor, so for me, absorbing and applying the experience is part of my job description.

Mistaken for strangers

I recently encountered a young man named Ryan in front of a Whole Foods in Los Angeles and decided to engage him in conversation. I had a lot of questions about the nature of his work since he seemed so comfortable in talking to complete strangers—a trait that I find fascinating.

I asked Ryan if he could share some advice for nonprofits. Here's what he had to say.

- [Me] “What's your advice to other nonprofits trying to raise money this year?”

- “Right. My advice is... People are busy. Especially, in this line of work. The way to really get them to stop and pay attention, and to be open to making a change in their life, and change in their budget, which would be donating, is having a real relationship between you and them. You the person. You the person asking them. And this job, because of the format, you usually only get about 60 seconds with a person. So the task is how can you make a real friendship, in 60 seconds or less? And the answer is always different, depending on the person. And depending on yourself. So that's what you're out here finding. That's why you're out here improvising. That's the task that we have. “

Ryans response made me curious about fundraising strategies and their respective success metrics. If you want to learn a little more about integrated fundraising techniques, visit this website link.

Thank you, to my friend T. Clay Buck, for sharing that web link and unpacking some of the data. I do recommend you check out Clays blog which has a refreshing no-nonsense approach to helping nonprofits stay in the business of doing good. (One of my favorites from his website is titled, Every F***ing* Thing Works. )

Good luck.

—Reuben

P.S.— Interested in making better fundraising videos? Check out this downloadable PDF I put together.