How Much to Ask For?

Do you worry about the answer to “How much to ask for?”

If the answer to this question keeps you from asking for more contributions consider this:

What does that mean?

Imagine you are meeting with one or more of your current donors. They each have different giving capacity but similar deep passion for your organization.

Rather than customizing an ask for each of them, it can be more authentic and efficient to share your big vision and the money story to support it.

Share with both donors, in fact anyone you talk with, the specific amount of money it will take to completely fund your mission.

Remember, financial support is a tool to do your work. Like one of the four legs of a sturdy table. When you share the entire picture, you allow donors to see where they fit in.

You’ll also need create the sense of urgency to raise more money. But, we’ll save that for another day.

Side Note: Research tells us people want to help others. What I find is these same people don’t their help become something that’s expected or demanded.

Back to your donors.

After you’ve put a face on your impact – by sharing a story about one person whose life is different because of your work – you WILL still need to “ask” for a gift.

Consider saying something like this: “Where do you see yourself, today, in helping us close the gap between where we are and where we must be to fully fund this important mission?”

Calculate your visionary money story by answering these questions.

• How many people do we say no to?

• Where are cutting to the bone to keep our spending down?

• What should we be doing more of and why?

• What will it take, financially, to cover annual operating AND these additional things?

This quote perfectly captures the essence of I’d like you to understand:

“The ask is as big as your vision.”
~ Binyamin (Ben) Septon, Executive Director, Yeshiva Yesodei Hatorah

L to R: Sara Hess, Executive Assistant, Lori, Binyomin (Ben) Septon, Executive Director.

A special shout out and thank you to Ben and Sara, pictured here, from Yeshiva Yesodei Hatorah.

They recently spent two days doing incredible work. Over two-days they discussed and thought deeply and carefully to refine their visionary money story.

Their upcoming donor conversation went from an emergency $1.1 million discussion – to an inspiring vision of $8 million annually. Stay tuned for an update on their progress.

To help you learn how to craft and share your visionary money story, join Lori on Wednesday, August 21st for Advanced Storytelling.