I’m delighted to announce Sue Kindred is now Asking Matters’ resident story expert.

Sue, who led a fantastic webinar for us this spring, has joined the Asking Matters team to help our community strengthen their cases for support – those magical words that inspire our donors to make their biggest gifts.

Sue Kindred is a business strategist with more than 30 years’ real-world "been there done that" experience helping nonprofits and member-based professional associations reach their highest potential.

To learn more about Sue and download her free Top 10 – Creating Your Social Change Story – visit The Story Corner with Sue at Asking Matters.

Last chance to register!

Join the amazing, outspoken, tell-it-as-it-is Joan Garry, our next Fundraising Masters Guest, as she and I discuss how to get your executive directors and board members working together optimally for the good of the cause.

Join us for this free webinar next Wednesday, July 13th at 1pm!
 

Did you realize that #GivingTuesday is just 4 months away?

Join Dana Ostomel, founder of DepositaGift.com, as we discuss the 10 most important ways to prepare for #GivingTuesday.  We'll have Q&A time too!

Join us for this free webinar on Wednesday, July 27th at 1pm!
 

Are your board members not getting out to cultivate relationships and ask for gifts?

Do you find it difficult to get your board to understand its role in "giving and getting"?

We can help change that…

Just in time for the fall is our highly praised Fundraising 101 webinar, created to teach your board how they can play a bigger role and make an impact.

If your board members struggle to… 

	“give and get” to the best of their ability
	feel comfortable being involved in fundraising
	understand the impact of having everyone actively involved in fundraising

…then Fundraising 101 for Board Members is for you!

Take our poll to find out how you compare to other fundraisers!

Determining the ask amount

In fundraising, as in life, we’ve got our ideal and we’ve got our reality. The ideal is we get to know a donor over time and, when the relationship feels strong, ask for a gift. 

The reality is most of our donors want less of our time than we want of theirs, and many will contribute significant gifts without getting to know us well.

Does this mean we might not get the largest gift?  Perhaps, but the ultimate level of today’s gift is far less important than the overall relationship.

Each of those gifts builds the relationship.

So let’s take maximizing a gift out of the equation and focus on maximizing the relationship.  In that context, asking on the first date is less daunting. 

With this in mind, I've outlined four common scenarios and how I approach asking donors in each case.

Hope you have a great week of fundraising,

Brian SaberPresident of Asking Matters