Jason Fry

I met with an experienced Major Gift Officer recently who shared a story about a donor he’d been close to for many years. That donor had made a transformational gift to the organization he represented within his first 3 months on the job. The CEO, management team and the board were awestruck that this new guy magically pulled in one of the biggest gifts they’d ever received. The prevailing thought was, “Wow – this is what fundraising should be! Just find the rich people and ask them for money.”

When you get a chance to speak with a donor, one of the most important things you can do is to listen. Because when you do, you’ll realize that the answer to one question can take your conversation in a whole new direction.

Author’s Note: The Doobie Brothers were one of my first concerts. They played with Joe Walsh in Saratoga, New York. If you don’t know them…sorry. Google “yacht rock” then come talk to me.

When people think of fundraising, they usually are thinking about The Ask – and that can be very intimidating. This month, the Donor By Design Team is taking on How to Ask. Today, Jason talks about the strategy of seeking out rejection.

Each August, the Donor By Design team meets in Chicago to participate in the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit (GLS). Being the new guy at DBD, this was my first experience and I was blown away.

I was recently with a donor who’s been giving to a local charity consistently for over twenty years. Her giving abruptly stopped a couple years ago. In a deeper investigation with her over breakfast she said she just “hasn’t heard anything new” from the charity in a few years. I swallowed hard and said, “I am so sorry. Your commitment and generosity deserves more.”

The origin of the phrase “getting down to brass tacks” is most often attributed to the haberdashery trade where “…in order to be more accurate than the rough-and-ready measuring of a yard of material by holding it out along an arm’s length, cloth was measured between brass tacks which were set into a shop’s counter.”* This technique allowed for more accurate measurement and a much more efficient process in custom hat-making.