Dear [First Name],

Happy New Year! I'm wishing you all the best with your fundraising – especially your face-to-face asking – in 2020.

Whether you're just starting to get out and ask or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I'm looking forward to bringing you the training and support you need to be a solid asker.

Fundraising Masters with Lynne Wester
To kick off the new year, we'll be joined by expert Lynne Wester for a free webinar on January 27th!

Put yourself in the donor’s shoes. They don’t want another lapel pin or bumper sticker. They want to know they make a difference to your institution and they are valued.

Donor appreciation is not expensive, but neglecting it can be. Research shows that it is seven times more expensive to acquire a new donor that to keep the one you have.

The solution is straightforward: put the donor first, consume yourself with the DX, their experience, not yours. Join fundraising master Lynne Wester for a deep dive into this crucial topic in this free webinar!

What you'll learn:

• Strategy on how to implement a dynamic change within the donor experience and help it move forward.
• Tools to help foster a culture that focuses on empowerment, excellence, and gratitude to help define your organization’s interactions with donors. Empowered professionals are more engaged, work harder, and produce better work.
• Knowledge about how to get intentional feedback that will help you prove your case for additional human and financial resources, new programs or initiatives, and gives you new content and activity to test.

This FREE webinar will take place on January 27th at 3pm ET.  All registrants will get a link to the recording, so register whether or not you can attend live!

I'm now providing a new tip on using the Asking Styles every month. Let me know when you use one!

Asking Exercise for Board Members
I love this simple board exercise based on our tendency to act toward others as we would like them to act toward us. Ask board members to imagine how they'd like to be asked. I say imagine because so few people actually are asked, and if they've never been asked they won't have any idea what it's like to be the donor. Then ask them how the way they would like to be asked would influence how they go about asking, and how this might be reflective of their Asking Style.

This accomplishes two goals. First, it helps dispel the notion that solicitation meetings are transactional, hardball and manipulative (which couldn't be further from the truth!). Second, it helps them envision themselves as askers.

I always get a special charge when I work with performing arts organizations – takes me back to my work roots in Chicago. This time it was a board training for the Drama League – the only organization devoted entirely to supporting theatre directors and creating a dialog with audiences. With my son off to college I'm seeing tons of theatre, so I loved getting recommendations from Executive Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks and various board members.

Then it was off to Seattle to present for the YMCA of Greater Seattle Philanthropy Day. 350 staff and board members. Amazing energy. Got to meet up with my peers, Rachel Muir and Lynne Wester (don't miss Lynne's Asking Matters webinar on January 27th – see above), and meet Carol Weisman, who gave the most inspirational – and hilarious – keynote. I was riveted.

And, because I'm theatre-obsessed, I caught "Shout, Sister, Shout" at Seattle Rep. It's the story about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a trailblazer who had a massive impact on music starting in the 1930's. The most incredible gospel/blues/rock singing and I was lucky to grab a third-row seat at the last minute so the music washed over me.

Here's to another great year of fundraising,
 

Brian

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