The All Important "Ask"
Early in my career I was introduced to Moves Management (MM) which is essentially the gold standard “sales cycle” for major donor fundraising. MM is a simple, smart way to organize cultivation of major donor prospects; ultimately leading to a major donor contribution. Here’s the process:
- Begin by identifying and qualifying individuals who are good prospects. These are people who have potential interest in your cause and the capacity to consider a larger gift.
- Move to education and inspiration to help your prospect better understand and get excited about participating. This is the time to cultivate a relationship and learn about their family and other interests they care about.
- Invite them to give. Once you have extended the invitation, await their response.
- Move into the reporting phase. Even if they decide not to participate, report back to these individuals. Let them know about the impact of the project you presented to them.
- Cycle back into the education and inspiration stage, guiding them to another invitation to give.
What I learned as time went on, however, is that moves management does not always follow a linear process. This led me to rethink how I might organize the cultivation process for a non-linear approach without drifting into full chaos while tracking these important relationships.
I now call it “orbiting the ask”. Basically you move the invitation to give into it’s own space and you orbit around it with the other moves management activities. Eventually the cultivation activities will intersect with the ask and that is the moment you extend the invitation.
I realized there are several factors influencing the timing of an ask - the sale of a business, the schedule of a promotion or bonus, a pending inheritance, etc. While you are waiting for the ideal moment to deliver the ask, you continue the moves management activities, which may tend to skip around and leap frog each other.
Therefore, I remove the invitation to give from the fundamentals of major donor fundraising and put it squarely in the sacred part of our work. It’s helpful to separate the activities in which you have control from those you don’t.
This takes patience, discernment, and prayer. I continue to consistently develop a plan for every invitation to give, however approximately 50% of them may change drastically as I discern the timing that works best in each individual situation.
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9)
Questions or clarifications? I’m glad to talk further. Click here to schedule a pro bono consultation.
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Depending on your day to day needs in major donor fundraising, I have three options you can choose from to energize your efforts:
- The Catalyst Course - a major donor fundraising course for those who are new to the task.
- The High-Performance Course (inquire directly if interested) - a major donor fundraising course for experienced professionals.
- The Flywheel Package - a customized six month consultation for people who are leading teams of major donor fundraisers.
The Catalyst Course is affordable at a cost of $500 and can be done in a schedule that fits best for you, taking anywhere from four weeks to three months to complete. Everything I have learned, successes and failures, is packed into these courses for your benefit and enjoyment. I have taken hundreds of folks through this content, helping them with fundraising strategies to empower causes all over the world.
Now is the time to take advantage of these resources!
I look forward to hearing about your good work.
Blessings,
