How you talk about fundraising can change everything.  You’ll achieve a culture of philanthropy faster, your board will get psyched to fully engage and in the end, your ultimate stakeholders benefit the most as you expand your impact.

And yet you keep doing the same things, expecting different results.  You know the definition of insanity, right?  So consider making a shift.  Chances are your board members aren’t fully engaged in your fundraising efforts.  It’s because they:

  • are afraid of rejection
  • are inexperienced and insecure, or
  • don’t understand what you need

So as you step into this opportunity to educate your team, help lower the barriers that block them by changing up a couple words.

It’s time to change the conversation and stop asking for money.  This isn’t a financial transaction.  This is an opportunity to create some serious impact and change lives!

You must be bold enough to go outside the box of traditional fundraising language so you can fund your important mission work.

Don’t “ask”, invite.

Don’t expect people to “give”, invite them to invest in the people in your community.

Even if you only change those two words (no more asking please!), you’ll start to see a subtle change.  It feels more compassionate and more focused on the mission.

Philanthropy is about relationships.  It’s outreach focused on your mission impact.  Keep telling your stories and invite people to invest.  You’ll raise more money and your volunteers will be more comfortable.

There’s an art and a science to this.  Tune into the Nonprofit Learning Lab’s Online Institute on Monday where I’ll be hosting a webinar on this very topic.  Or contact me to facilitate your next board retreat and we can dig even deeper and do the educating there so you come away with an action plan.

Your community is counting on you to do your best.  You can do this!

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