Book Review: Asking About Asking by Kent Stroman
by Brian Saber
I love it when a solid new book on asking hits the market, and Asking About Asking by Kent Stroman fits the bill. Asking is such a deep, nuanced topic, and Kent has taken the time to delve into every facet of asking in great detail.
This is an excellent book for those who have a solid background in asking and want to become top-notch fundraisers. Even after my 25 years of front-line fundraising, I picked up more than a handful of “practical tips,” as Kent calls them, and made numerous notes in the margins.
Kent makes clear to the reader that fundraising is about the conversation and the relationship. He talks about “confrontational fundraising” versus “conversational fundraising” in a way that will be indelibly etched in your mind. That’s something we at Asking Matters stress as well, but Kent goes into far greater detail about how those conversations build the relationship.
Much of the book is focused on cultivating prospects to become very large donors. He rightly points out that it is easier to get a few large donors than 1,000 small donors – though it might not seem that way at first. Bringing up Pareto’s Law, the 80/20 concept, he reminds us of how much wealth is concentrated at the top and that this translates to 20% of our donors providing 80% – or more – of our resources. It certainly underscores the need to focus on individual face-to-face solicitations and dovetails with Simone Joyaux‘s great recent piece in the Non-Profit Quarterly, “Hey Mr. Fundraiser….Stop Asking Your Board Members to Trespass.” She berates the field for forcing board members to provide lists of names and constantly pursue all their friends and relatives, trespassing on those relationships rather than identifying a few key people to cultivate.
Thanks, Kent, for adding a rich resource to the field.
